Scattered Thoughts . . .

L ukey and Kenzie have been dying for a long distance trip on Amtrak for many years.  Last Christmas, we were booked to take Amtrak to Manhattan with Lukey and Kenzie but our train was cancelled as we were waiting for it to arrive in Waterbury.  It was cancelled due to flooding here in Vermont and, at the last minute, we decided to drive down to Manhattan instead.  That means Lukey and Kenzie missed out on a huge part of last Christmas' surprise trip.  They were sorely disappointed but we still had a great time in Manhattan at Christmastime.  That train cancellation really put a big damper on the trip though which we were reminded of constantly during the long 12 hours in the car instead. With Lukey and Kenzie's cancelled Amtrak trip in mind, Sheila and I started planning another trip for this summer way back in November.  We've had to cancel a trip to Dayton and the US Air Force Museum at least twice in the past ten years so we're long overdue for a trip t...

L ukey had asked for only one gift this Christmas which, on the one hand, made things easier for us but, on the other hand, created a need for some research on our part.  I knew that the specific item he requested for Christmas was junk and we're not going to buy junk. Lukey wanted his own drum kit and he knows this would be a big gift so he chose perhaps the least expensive kit he could find on Amazon and sent us the link.  Being a musician myself, I know that introducing a new student to a cheap, junky instrument almost always ends in failure and long-lasting disinterest.  I needed to do some research to find a better drum kit for a beginner. This really applies to anything though.  If you buy a kid junk, they are sure to lose interest quickly and it will leave a bad taste in their mouth for any future interest in that thing because they tell themselves, "oh man...  that really sucked" .  What really sucked was the tool and not the activity but their feel...

Note:  Kenzie will not receive this Christmas gift for another week  (New Years Day)  so, if you should happen to be reading this blog before then, please say absolutely nothing to Kenzie about this gift.  We would like this to be a surprise for her! I 've been busy the past few weeks designing and building a new dollhouse addition for Kenzie.  A few years ago, I designed and built a dollhouse townhouse for her and, over the years, we've added to the interior furniture and the number of dolls for the townhouse.  We've even added window boxes, shrubbery and a tree in subsequent Christmases.   This year, Kenzie asked for some food for the dollhouse.  She wanted only food, presumably to put on her kitchen table and countertops.  She circled a number of items in one of my dollhouse catalogs so I purchased these items for her townhouse.  I still felt like her gift should be more than just a bit of food for her dollhouse, so... Since Kenz...