A Holiday Review.....

The holidays have passed and another Christmas season is in the books. This year our family traveled to the west coast of our province to spend Christmas with my in-laws. Then it was off to my parents house in central for New years.

Below is a quick shot of the snow storm we ran into on the way. Luckily the winds were down, and with 4-wheel drive we all arrived safely.

Its always nice when we are able to head home and visit family and friends we haven't seen in a while. One thing I really enjoy about heading home is taking a day to head out with nature to do some angling and hunting. With angling season not opening until February some moose hunting was in order. We didn't get our moose but was a great day in the woods all the same.

At my parents house we can leave right from their driveway on Snowmobile or Quad to head out in the country. 

Of course while I was home I took advantage taking a few trips up the "track" with Dad and Emma.

One of the trips we took was after a fresh snow fall. We were able to find some fresh moose tracks and a rabbit in the trail, which Emma was ecstatic to see. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of the bunny but I did get the tracks.You can see them if you look hard enough.

I had the pleasure of meeting Paul, my cousin Marcia's fiance while we were home. They were visiting from London, England. Paul was never on Snowmobile before so we had to change that. Suffice to say he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Another tradition we try to part take in is the "Ireland Cup" (Ireland is my Mother's maiden name). This is compromised of family members, young and old getting together for some street hockey.

Of course you can't have a holiday season in Newfoundland without a visit from Frosty.

But what would a geek post be without news of geekery! I was luckily enough to be on the nice list this year and did obtain some nice Armorcast terrain pieces. In fact it was enough to create an entire graveyard, mausoleums, outbuildings and all.

I have also made some progress since returning home. I have a unit of Order Knights for my Teutonic Order Impetus army almost complete and hoping to have a post on them later this week.

Cheers and thanks for reading,

Tenz

Happy Holidays from The Basement

Before I get things started, I wanted to offer up my thoughts and prayers to those affected by the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. With two small children of my own I can't imagine the sorrow and grief those families must be experiencing.

With Christmas being right around the corner, the busyness of the season in in full swing. Parties, plays, parades, you name it, all kinds of wonderful events. Hence the reason for the tardiness between postings.

In our household Christmas is a season of spending time family and with your loved ones. Being believers in the "Big Guy upstairs" .....God :-) we also take time to celebrate Christ's birth. Leading up to the big day our girls are getting anxious for the arrival of Santa.

For those with small kids and may not have seen this yet but there is a website called Portable North Pole. At this site you can upload a few pictures of your child and enter a few details and it creates a personalized video of Santa talking to your child. When I showed this to the girls they were besides themselves! "Santa is talking to me!" Emma said at one point in disbelief.

It is with that in mind and the inspiration from a follow blogger Rab that I take you to an afternoon of gaming with my eldest daughter Emma.

Emma has always asked about my "little men" or "little toys" and has shown interest. One afternoon while her sister was napping and her Mother was running errands I introduced her to Daddy's gaming world. Here is how the afternoon went.

I sent up the board with a few houses and trees and then let Emma choose a few models to use. Much to my surprise she chose the half painted Legion of Everblight Abbott model and a doggie to act as our own dog Abby.

Now it was time to get started. I noticed quickly that she enjoyed rolling different types of dice so I decided to my own spin on the D20 system. It should be noted that no model was harmed in this game and their were no deaths to wolves, spiders or people. The object was to try and "tickle" the wolves and spiders to make them happy. She is only four after all :-) 

The first thing Emma wanted to do was head to the house to see what "Mommy" was making for supper. While on her way two sad wolves came into town. Emma felt bad for them and wanted to cheer them up.

But she was shy and called her "Dad" (Me) to help. Its quite amazing what you will find out about your child by spending sometime having fun with them :-)

Once she seen that the wolves were nice she decided help in the tickle fight.

After this supper was ready (in game), Emma finished her meal and then went back outside. When she was playing in the backyard two sad spiders showed up that needed to be cheered up and this time she wasn't shy at all.

She decided she wanted to help the spiders all by herself, with Abby. At the end of the day she had fun and I did as well. She enjoyed rolling the d20 to hit the target to be able to tickle it. Then she rolled D6 or D8 to see how happy they became. Suffice to say it was fun to see the game through the eyes of my four year old daughter.

This will probably be my last post until the new year. With family and friends gathering it will be far to busy, but who knows I maybe able to sneak a short post.

But until then Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, Season Greetings and have a wonderful New Year.


Tenz