WRED WRAP!

Every year at Christmas time it is a tradition for the Downing and Franco families to get together to play Wred Wrap. Now it's normally referred to and spelled Red Wrap, but I added the W to Red, just incase I decide to brand it.

The game requires all participants to supply a few inexpensive gifts for which the total should not exceed $20.00. This rule is only applied in practice, because it's just so much fun to shop for Wred Wrap gifts.

Each gift is then wrapped in red tissue paper with green ribbon. All of the presents are placed in the middle of the family circle and there is a period prior to the beginning of the game where each person gets an opportunity to inspect the gifts. Play starts with each person rolling three die. The person with the highest score begins the first round. A player that rolls a double is allowed to pick one gift from the pile. If you roll a triple you get a gift and another chance at a roll. Play continues until all the presents are gone. Then we do two rounds were you can take other peoples presents. Then we open them all and have another cut throat round where you can take the presents once you know what they are. The game has been modified over the years, but this is the play that we usually stick to.

Amber and I hosted Wred Wrap this year at the new house. It was our first opportunity to have the families over where there wasn't stuff all over the place. This was also the first day that we found out that we won the Christmas decorating contest in our neighborhood. It was a fun night except for the rain. NO SHOES ON THE NEW CARPET!

Wred Wrap is a great time and one of my favorite Holiday traditions. There is always good food and drinks and getting the family together for family time is always nice. My brother in law, in law Joel and his wife Daniel are expecting so Joel made sure that since Daniel couldn't drink, he would drink for two. This only made the game more interesting. Wred Wrap always has this way of becoming a side game of "dirty" innuendo . . . I'm not sure how that got started, but it certainly wasn't my doing! (he he he he he)

Damek Turns 5!

So there is this place in North Austin called Radijazz. Now I have often joked that it would be nice if you could have an entire room that was all Nerf so that you didn't have to worry about your kids knocking thier heads on something or if they got the inclination to jump of the couch, thier fall would be cushined. Well this is exactly what Radijazz is. The only differenc is that someone did it and then charged kids and parents to come inside . . . genius.

Damek is Tristan cousin and Nicole's (Ambers little Sister) son. about a Month ago when I picked him up from School he anounced to me that since it was cold that his birth day was right around the corner. How true! Nicole did a really nice job of organizing the event and Damak and his friends got to run a muck all over the place. There were giant tub jungle gyms to climb a psydo waterfall with boats and a giant foam pit. I don't think that there was a single kid in the place that was walking. It's a conrnacopia of hyperactive kids who's parents are more than happy to let them run wild. They are sure to fall asleep by the time they get home. There wasn't too much for Tristan to do, but they did have a small section blocked off for little kids. I'm not sure how long Radijazz will be in business, but hopefully it will be long enough for us to take a walking and running Tristan to. It would be fun to see him run around with his friends or cousins or just some random new friend that he meets in the foam pit.

A Time for Giving Thanks! -

So right before Thanksgiving 06, Amber and I made the move, literally to a new floor plan. We had been thinking about buying a new house and had been looking around for something that we really liked. We wanted to be particular about our new floor plan and we had criteria that we wanted met before we made a purchase. Well, not all the boxes got checked on the house the we bought, but we definitely got more room and more rooms . . . and bathrooms. For the first few days it was tough with all of our things in random boxes. I still haven't found some of my office supplies, but we are hoping to work on the office in the next few days so hopefully I'll find them.

Our friends, Marney, Kristen and Charlotte Mason's came over from Houston to help get our things in order, but we found that we just kept moving boxes around until things got more organized. Kristen's sister lives here in Austin so they stayed with us for a few days until Thanksgiving. Marney, who works for the IKEA in Houston, was here helping to open the new IKEA Austin. Before Thanksgiving we took the kids to Zilker Park. It was a really nice day to be out doors. We took the kids on the train, which Charlotte really enjoyed and there was even a balloon clown there ready to make everything from swords to aliens. Tristan fell asleep right after doing a little eating, but Charlotte would have been more than content to stay all day and play on the swing.

We had a nice little Thanksgiving of our own in the new house. I fried a Turkey while Kristen and Amber made the side dishes. It was a labor of love because as soon as we need something for a dish, we had to remember what box it was in, wash it and then figure out where we were going to store it. It was fun to say the least.

The official Thanksgiving was spent with at my parents house along with my sister's family. For them it was a long day of giving thanks that started with the Franco Family shindig. Enjoy the photos.