Category: Lord of the Rings / Hobbit

New Years Eve was both busy and quiet. The Two Towers plans fell by the wayside, in favor of taking Kitten (and us) down to Legoland.

Let me say this about Legoland.

1. It’s the best amusement park I’ve ever encountered for little — I mean Katherine’s age — to visit. Such kids are usually relegated to the fringes of amusement parks. At Legoland, they are the focus (though there’s plenty for older kids, too).

2. It’s amazing how utterly clunky design can be made cool-looking by adding clunky Lego-knobs on the top of it.

3. The place grew on me while we were there. At first, I was — well, not impressed (perhaps affected by #1). But over time — especially once we passed through “Miniland” (miniature recreations of cities and towns and harbors, all in Lego) — I became hooked.

3. It’s wildly expensive, and not as exciting or well-run as, say, Disneyland, but I think it was still worth it. Heck, I wish we could have stayed longer, but Kitten started nodding off.

We all nodded off on the ride back, in fact, except Jim — which is good, since he was driving. We plopped Kitten into bed when we got home, then sort of sat around, idle, for the rest of the afternoon. Reheated pizza for dinner, then the New Years Party.

Unlike the faboo social event which is the Ks’ Christmas Party, the New Years Party is much more laid back, and has gotten moreso over the years. Everyone is encouraged to bring a game and an appetizer — and this year not even the latter was needed, since it was only a few days after the Christmas party. Jim & Di came over, as did Michelle, and the Kerfoots, and even the traditional jigsaw puzzle never really happened. Instead, we played Fluxx and Namesake.

Kitten arose from her slumber about a half an hour before the end of the year, so she got to join in the festivities once again. She was happy, and loved blowing on the party favors.

Things wore on after the turn of the year, including the traditional Exchanging of Christmas Gifts With Folks Who Only Come On New Years Eve event. More good swag was had by all.

Finally crashed about 2ish, which made waking up for the Rose Parade at 8 a bit of a grind, but it happened semi-spontaneously anyway. (I’ve not been sleeping in well, even when I’ve had the opportunity, between listening for Kitten, being awakened by Kitten, and worrying about whether the alarm clock is going to get unplugged again.) We sat through the parade (which went off like clockwork, though I don’t think the floats were as interesting as in past years; half the fun is getting snarky about sloppy bands and atrocious uniforms). Then showers, day clothing and …

… off to work converting files from the Ks’ iMac to their new PC. Which is how I spent most of the rest of the day, in-between having lunch and dinner with the visiting bro-in-law Eric with cousins Alex and Nicholas for Kitten to run around with.

And today? Up at 1 a.m., when Kitten decided it was (a) time to go downstairs, and (b) she really wanted some juice. This was followed by two repeat performances, two false alarms, and a Spooky Tree Trying To Get In (to our room), so Margie and I were largely sleepless for two hours there.

That still didn’t keep me from waking up before my 6:15 alarm, fed by various squirrels running through my head about all the things I need to do over the next month or so. Happy New Year indeed.

To work today, then, followed by a dinner out for my birthday tonight (Carmen is watching the Kitten again).

Our time in Faerie is drawing to a close — we fly back home Saturday (facing the Challenge of Luggage Inspection). It will be good to be back. Even with a business trip in two weeks, and our England vacation in a month-plus, it will be good to get back to some modicum of normalcy in our schedule.

Faerie’s a faboo place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live here.