Nick's Life: December 2015

We spent Christmas Day at home this year. Nick didn't sleep on the Eve, so we had to work around him all night.  At 3:30 AM I directed him back to bed until morning. "Go back to bed, don't touch anything until your mother wakes up at 8." "OK, I can wait until 6."  "No, I said 8."  He received Grandpa's old Lionel train from the 1940s (which I couldn't get to work, but he did.)  That somewhat made up for the Train Show we went to earlier in the month, where he spent $140 of his own money on a used train that was broken in 10 minutes. But he did shop carefully, and it was an unfortunate situation. (He knows questions to ask guys at these shows, I have no idea.)

This month's edition of things Nick says.
I tell him, "Nick, you need to sit down and eat your meat."  His reply: "Because I won't get any pudding?"
"You know what they should make?  Slushies that are beer flavored.  A Beer Slushie."  (It was a creative month, his mother thinks they should make skin-toned band-aids. I see Oprah just thought of those at the same time.)
We took the boys to a SkyZone, bowling, and still they had more fun in the Costco where they could crawl around in the tire section. Nick found a pair of sunglasses he liked, and says, "All I need now is two gold teeth and a jacket and I'd be a Dopplegangster".  (I assume that's like a gangster's twin?)

I saw "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" twice, taking Nick the first time.  He didn't like it, thought it was dumb, too much violence (he prefered Spaceballs, which he watched half dozen times this month).  Of course it's not nearly as violent as Jurassic World or Sharknado, but his reasoning is, "those aren't real."  Brandi's observation: "How is it that Kylo Ren has perfect hair when he removes his helmet?" Along the lines of head usage, I was trying to explain to Nick where a country would be on a globe, in the absence of a globe present, he reaches for my head, pretending it's a globe.  Yes, the arctic is where there's no hair.

New Year's was a bummer with the Michigan State loss to Alabama.  But I enjoyed the trip to Indy for the Big10 Championship earlier in the month. Nick missed staying in the Indianapolis Train Depot, now a Crowne Plaza hotel. I stayed in a train car converted to a hotel room.  I've been more involved in the MSMR program at MSU, attending their graduation, mentoring students, and lecturing more frequently.

Pictures this month from Christmas in Temperance, and our week in Atlanta, (I also got up to Asheville and Athens during this trip) and finally in Cincinnati.

- Jason