Practical Gift

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Dan and Tara, gave Michael and I a very practical and needed Christmas gift- the safe that you see above. It is great!!! We have desperately needed something to lock things up for quite some time, but have nothing in the house. We live in an old house, and there are not locks on doors, closets or anything.

Akila is into everything, and I am not even comfortable with the car keys not being locked up. A month ago or so, she had the flicker thingie, the candle lighter, in her bedroom. That really freaked me out. I keep this thingie hidden, and like many of the things that I keep out of her reach and hidden, I have to move them around from time to time to keep her guessing. I more than once have not been able to find something as I can't remember the new hiding place.

Now, we keep wallets, keys, flicker thingies, the kids chore money and several other items in this safe. What is really great, is that you don't need a key, it uses a combo. I really like that. They got it at Gander Mountain and I think we will eventually get one for each kid, so they can keep their precious things locked up. It is their most precious things, that Akila goes for.

I would actually like to get a locksmith out to our house, and have him/her install locks on all the bedroom doors, closets and a few cabinets. I am assuming this would get quite expensive. I will look into it someday- probably after Akila crosses the line and steals and/or ruins something that really puts us over the edge.

We had a great Christmas, and today was the last week day of Christmas break and I am not going to lie, I am really looking forward to Monday. I think the kids really are as well. We went to the health club and went swimming and have had a good day, thank you Lord. We have had some rough ones. There has been more than one day that Akila has gotten up very early, or in the middle of the night, and not gone back to sleep. On these days, she is super hyper, and hard to be around.

My brother Tony and his wife Joan, sent gift cards to the kids for Christmas which they absolutely love. Akila of course had to spend hers immediately. Zeke spent a little of his but less than half. The kids then played a little with the Rock Band game for the Wii that their cousins got for Christmas, and have been begging for it all week. I mentioned on Tuesday that they could pool their money together and get it (not Rock Band 2, but the first version). I had a hard time finding one, but found the last one in town (I think) that was an open box one and at a really good discount, and picked it up.

So on New Years Eve, they played it all afternoon and night. It is like Guitar Hero, except there is a drum set and microphone as well, so three can play it. If we buy an extra guitar, a fourth can play bass. Some day. Hezekiah broke 3 drumsticks in less than 18 hours. They have been having a lot of fun with it.

My friend Juli, came over and spent New Years Eve with us which sounded kind of boring in theory. We are not very fun, and don't mess around with letting the kids stay up til midnight. Just isn't worth the hassles the next day and the kids don't really know better yet. So Juli's kids were with her ex-husband, so it was just her, Michael and I. I think Michael was thinking he would just go to bed or watch TV, as he wasn't very excited to hang out with two chicks. But we got him to come and play Rock Band with us and did it for hours and laughed hysterically. It was really fun.