Palmer's World

I had a good laugh when I received this over text message the other night!  I guess Sierra is getting pretty good at making her own memes and sending them to me?

We were playing a card game called Pair Them Up with involves pairing up cards with socks on them.

I believe I ended up winning four games in a row and then it was bedtime.  She couldn’t believe I kept winning and then I received this picture on my phone and laughed.

I did go to her and explain that I have witnessed her legitimately beat me in a few games in my life, the first being 7 Wonders Duel which really surprised me since it’s a fairly strategic game that I still hadn’t wrapped my head around.

After that day I decided to not let her win anymore and I explained that to her.  At 8 years old, she has proven to me that she doesn’t need me to let her win anymore but I did say that if she wanted me to let her win games again, I could certainly do that.  But she declined the offer and went to bed still upset that she wasn’t winning any games.

Life is rough!

I should start letting her win regardless because she’s the only one in the house that proactively comes to me and says “Do you want to play a game?”  It’s my favourite thing to hear in the house!

I read quite a bit in my 20s because I was taking the bus to work every day.  Nowadays I don’t read a lot.  That doesn’t stop me from building up my library and Vero comments on it once in awhile.  “Do you even READ any of these books?”

I decided to start chipping away at the backlog of books.

Patrick Stewart’s autobiography kept my interest.  He had a way of writing that kept me engaged and coming back for more.  50% of the book is about his life in theatre work, 20% is about Star Trek/X-Men stuff.

Some stories that really caught my interest:

– He grew up quite poor.  For bath nights once a week, him and his brother would haul the bathtub up from the basement, set it by the fireplace and when the bath night was done his brother would have to bring up a rubber hose from the basement and siphon the water out of the bathtub which was disgusting.

– One time Patrick Stewart was at a restaurant and in walks Paul McCartney with Ringo Starr.  He had met Paul before but not Ringo.  They end up chatting together and at one point Paul says “Hey!  We have Sir Patrick, Sir Paul and Sir Ringo!  We are the knights of the round table!”

All in all, an entertaining read, especially if you have a bit of interest in how life was over in England and life as an actor.

A few years ago Sierra tried snowboarding with Maman at the Rigaud ski hill but fell out of love with it.

This year Vero managed to convince her to try a ski lesson that they both attended together.

She seemed to enjoy the event.  She said the best part was riding the chairlift and the food afterwards!

That same day Ezra and I decided to visit Uncle Rob and we had fun playing with throwing the ball and trying tricks with Kaya and Uncle Rob also treated us to McDonald’s to Ezra’s (and my) enjoyment.

Friday night had Sierra and Vero show up at the Vars rink.  They were out for a few hours so they must have had some fun with friends!  Ezra didn’t want to go.  Vero had a hard time with him on the rink the week before (he just lied there and complained) so we will ease him into skating.

The kids made a fortress on the living room couch.  The issue I had with it after a few days is that I had nowhere to sit!

I ended up having to teach them a new word to add to their vocabulary.

Later that night Sierra was playing Super Mario Maker 2 and we realized there were world records to beat at how fast you can beat a level.  Maman beat it and they wanted a photo to document the moment.

We had a few extra minutes to spare on the walk to school so we checked out the rink one morning.

We had a friend over for Ezra and Sierra to play with on Sunday.  This involved fort building in the basement, complaining with each other about fort building and then a hilarious game of Uno Show Them No Mercy.

We had a nice surprise visit from Anne-Marie and family who decided to come into town for a hockey tournament.

They were only in town for a short time so we met them for some lunch at the Heart and Crown and went to watch a game at the Sensplex.

Sierra even made some flags for the event!

I believe we only received two Christmas cards this year.  Of course, I don’t blame the lack of Christmas spirit across my friends and family, I blame Canada Post being on strike most of December!  I think they ended the strike in mid December and had a backlog of things to do.

I ended up sending my own but I heard folks received them a few weeks after Christmas.

I follow my own mother’s advice when sending Christmas cards…if someone consistently doesn’t send me a Christmas card, don’t bother sending any more.  I track who sends some each year but I suppose I won’t consider 2024 in my calculations next year.

After a holiday season filled with gastro, it was nice to finally get out of the house and have some fun with friends.

We played a few games including some advanced mechanics version of Battleship which made the game a lot more fun compared to the slog which is the regular old Battleship game.

Of course the snack plate is always everyone’s favourite thing at a party

Us playing Pass the Ace which someone mistakenly typed out as Pass the Ass

I also brought my guitar out for a bit which is always fun when folks sing along and Jon is in the room playing the cajon.

It was a great night.  Thanks to Jon and Chantal for the invitation.  I’m not sure why we left before midnight but we did end up home for our own countdown which was fun.

An observation: It’s interesting to see how kids interact as they get older.  A few years ago they would have all been together playing.  At one point this year I roamed around the house and found Ezra and Sierra playing Battleship, another kid playing Fortnite alone, another kid doing artwork and another couple of kids downstairs horsing around.