Prosocial Differences in Gender

Things that have happened:

Thanksgiving in Reno at Katie's! She is my sister.

Who: Katie, Casey, and their two boys Hayden and Corbin, mom, dad, grandma, Aunt Gayela, Nick and his lady-friend, K-Leigh.
What: Thanksgiving fun.
When: Wednesday to Sunday last week.
Where: Reno, Nevada. At Katie's. Didn't I already say that?
Why: Because I hadn't met Corbin because he was born while I was in DC. And we love spending time with family!

Now I will post pictures and let you enjoy because a picture is worth a thousand words. So now this entry may be compared to a very wordy.... word fest. My brain isn't functioning very well right now. Sorry.

One of the highlights of the trip was snuggling with eight-month-old Corbin. He is one the happiest, friendliest, well-behaved babies I know. And he really will just snuggle with you.
He's a cutie!

Another great thing we did was play games! We played Settlers of Catan (pictured above),
Apples to Apples, and Quiddler (at which I dominated).
We also watched a lot of movies. A lot. I watched 6 movies.
Seems to be the thing to do whenever we go visit Katie and Casey.

Another entertaining thing was just playing with the kids. Hayden loves Thomas trains. Above is Nick playing Thomas with Hayden. It was also really entertaining to just watch Hayden play by himself. He has quite the active imagination. And he's really good at building things- train tracks, Legos, whatevs.

Another wonderful thing about this holiday: spending the day in pajamas. Although, I'm pretty sure I was the only one that didn't put on normal clothes. Who cares? Flannel is really soft and comfortable.

Me and dad both like plaid (above).
Hmm, when you look at the preceding sentence, it shouldn't rhyme. But it does. Go English!

In the past, many children have been entertained by pulling out the Tupperware from the cupboard and spilling it all over the floor. See the image below.

Starting from top left going clockwise: Nick September 1986, Hayden November 2008, Jonathan in undated photo, me April 1991. 
But guess what? Mom does it, too!


I guess she decided to organize Katie's Tupperware cupboard. How nice of her.

And of course we can't forget the feast of Thanks! We got all your classic trimmings: green salad (there was also fruit salad [with the pomegranate on the side] , but I didn't have room on my plate the first go-around.), turkey, cranberry sauce (the good, homemade kind provided by aunt Gayela. MMmmm), sweet potatoes with just butter (they're already sweet, people! You don't have to load them down with marshmallows and brown sugar! They are my number 2 favorite.) green bean casserole (my number 1 favorite). There was also stuffing, banana cream pie, pumpkin pie, and I'm sure some other stuff but I just can't remember.

On Friday, I went to Lake Tahoe with Nick and K-Leigh. I bet you're thinking, "What an annoying little brother! Disturbing his brother and his lady friend!" But everyone else was going to Virginia City, an old, historic mining town that I had visited before. Twice. So we spent an exorbitant amount of money to go to High Camp at Squaw Valley and ice skate. The ice was thin and breaking due to the warm weather (or I was really fat from the feast the day before) and so we left after not too long. There was a little Asian girl who was skating and she was so good. The future Kristi Yamaguchi right there. (Kristi Yamaguchi? She's that really good ice skater, right?). We ate at a reasonably priced restaurant called Rosie's Cafe. I had a Baja Cheese Steak sandwich that left my hands smelling like cheese steak for the rest of the day. It was really yummy.

That evening mom, dad, grandma, Katie, Gayela, and I went to the Reno Nevada Temple. It is the first small temple that I had gone to. It was a wonderful session and there were two individuals receiving their endowment. Yay!

On Sunday after a 9 am sacrament meeting we started our long trek home. To help us stay entertained, we listen to audio books (formerly known as books-on-tape). On the way up, we listened to Carry on, Jeeves: A Wooster and Jeeves Comedy by P.G. Wodehouse narrated by Jonathan Cecil. It was very funny. On the way home we listened to Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. When we got home, we still had two discs left so we listened to it in the kitchen. I realized that I own this book (an autographed copy, no less) and went to my room to finish it up (one reads much faster than listening to a narrator). By the time I finished, they still had one disc left.

One major landmark that we drive by on highway 50 is the shoe tree. Apparently some punk chopped it down.

The chopped down Shoe Tree.

Another tree that has been designated Shoe Tree.

A memorial post. Many words were written on it.
My favorite: Shoe Tree lives on in our soles.


Mourning Shoe Tree.

Sooooo that's what's up. To read another view of the holiday, see Momma Linda's blog.

Random fact: I have now been to 8 dedicated temples! I hope that list will continue to grow.

Random question: Have you ever made a mix tape?

Random photo from my mission:

Weekly planning in Gaithersburg area. It's around Christmastime and I'm gorging on sweets from the ward.

☮ ♡ ☺