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I had planned to do a post on Jiro volunteering at Evergreen Presbyterian Church during their recent basketball tournament. We've been doing sports (soccer and basketball) at Evergreen for over a year so when Coach Jamaal sent an email asking for volunteers to work the concession stand, I immediately said yes.
I had planned to take both Satchel and Jiro, but ended up just taking Jiro since he's the one actually playing basketball this winter. Satchel was busy playing outside, so that was a good enough reason to let him off of the hook.
Working at the concession stand was actually quite fun. Jiro was very serious about wearing plastic gloves, counting the money, and wiping off the drinks. He also became an expert popcorn server.
Okay, he wasn't THAT serious.
The main perk of volunteering was that we could eat whatever we wanted. I stuck to a Diet Coke and half of a Twix. I've blocked out all of the things that Jiro ate, but I do remember him putting nacho cheese on some popcorn after having one of our patrons order the same. The most popular item of the day was actually spicy Cheetoes or spicy Funyuns with nacho cheese added!
Jiro enjoyed volunteering so much that he insisted that I sign him up again. So the next weekend we went back, this time with Satchel. (He couldn't resist the lure of free food!)
Satchel quickly caught on and was a good worker like his brother. The three of us really had a good time.
Somewhere in there we hosted a sleepover with Santi & Enrique. I took them to Laserquest for a couple rounds of lasertag & shuffleboard, and then to Sonic for a late night snack.
Despite there being 20+ kids (and some adults) in the first round, Satchel managed to win. He was so excited! When I told Warren, he said, "I guess that's what playing a bunch of first person shooter video games are good for." Heh.
On Christmas Eve, we tried to take the boys out to a nice breakfast at Cafe Eclectic. They went into full-on spoiled monkey mode, so we left them at home to clean their rooms, find five toys to donate to charity, and write essays detailing how they would improve their behavior in 2013.
Warren and I had a lovely breakfast alone, and then went home to read some pretty hilarious essays.
Christmas Eve was at my mom's house. The extended family gathered to open presents and then eat Chinese food at New Asia.
I got no pictures of present opening, but Jiro was thrilled with his new hoodie.
And his new watch!
Satchel has had a watch for about a year and he typically uses it to remind me how late I am for things. Jiro immediately started using his watch to time things. He gave the busy restaurant 20 minutes to bring us food, and they made it just under the wire! (For our appetizers at least.)
On Christmas morning we continued our tradition of delivering meals for MIFA. This was year #4.
To cap off a morning of goodwill, we usually end up at a crappy restaurant for greasy breakfast. In the past it has been CKs. This year I was all geared up for us to go to the Beauty Shop since I discovered (too late) that they were open last year. Unfortunately, they weren't open this year! We landed at Denny's downtown. It was ok. They had a Hobbit menu which amused me.
After enjoying all of the pleasures of middle earth, we headed home to relax and enjoy each other's company.
The day after Christmas we got some snow! I had to go to work, but the boys got out and enjoyed it with the neighborhood kids.
This is the one sad little picture I got.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Warren's mom, who we called Oba. As is our tradition, we stayed home and ate sukiyaki, made paper cranes, and then went down to the river.
It was lovely evening, but I think every year it just gets harder to accept that Oba is gone.
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