Saturday was Matthew's birthday party. We celebrated at home with Nana and Papa; Nicole and Jason, Janina and her friend Janine, Jen, Matthew and Catherine (Ken had a test review session for his CPA exam); and Brett, Michele, Zander, and Sierra. The theme was the movie Cars, and Matthew loved his Lightning McQueen cake. Happy Birthday, Matthew!
Several weeks ago I read a blog entry on Slog, the very liberal Seattle-area blog that I follow, about the idea of protesting a Mormon family's house on Family Night in response to the Church of Latter Day Saint's financial support for the ballot measure that outlawed gay marriage in California. The blog entry was critical of the protest, explaining that Mormon folks set aside one night a week to spend as a family with no TV, etc., and the idea of protesting a family during family night was not such a good one. So that night I said to Beth, "Do you know what my takeaway was?" And she replied, "You want to protest outside a Mormon family's house?" !!
We had our first successful "Mormon" Family Night on January 19. The Monday before we had planned on having a family night, but dinner that night took a while to cook and clean up. So this week we had pizza from Noli's New York Style pizza for dinner, which left us with plenty of time. We combined Family Night with Fold a Huge Pile of Clothes night. For the most part, Beth and I folded clothes and took photos and video while Annika and Matthew played trains, danced, and jumped around to music that sounds more appropriate to a speakeasy rather than an event inspired by a religious practice. However, a definite success and the start, one hopes, of a long series of Family Nights that will begin always with pizza for dinner.
We decided to get out the sled and get some lunch out today. First Beth took some photos of me with Matthew in a cover for her Web site. Then, after much ado, we took the kids out to Jimmy John subs on Foster.
This Sunday morning after New Year's, we lounged in bed before getting up and making whole wheat airplane and train pancakes. Matthew and Annika were ghosts for a while.
