Dear Cindy, Daniel, and Luke,

I love you!

These pictures are from a Disney trip back in January of 2005. The lines for character meet and greet were long, so we gave Daniel a choice: Mickey Mouse and friends, or princesses. He chose princesses. So here he is with four princesses He received a kiss from Snow White, and was very proud of it.

My talk is out of batteries.

~This was Luke’s reply after Cindy asked him to tell her about some of his favorite things.

A while back, Cindy tried to tell me about a memory card that goes in your camera, and automatically uploads pictures to your computer. I didn’t believe her. I don’t know how I missed this wonderful little Eye-Fi device:

It was not hard to set up. If we turn the camera on in range of our wireless network, it will automatically upload the pictures to our computer. It can also send it to an ftp server, or an image service. Very cool!

Well, Daniel loves it. It has come in as a surprise Christmas present victory. Snap Circuits Jr. is a modular circuit construction set with several projects you can build to learn how electricity works. He can pop in different modules for different effects. There is a light, a fan, a speaker, and several other modules that he connects with wires and switches. This is a great father/son activity.

It reminds me of my old science fair projects that my dad helped me set up… I set up a circuit like this and ran the wires into a glass of various liquids to see which ones conducted electricity. I remember how cool I thought that was. It seems that kids of this generation find it to be just as cool to play with electricity.

This movie was great. It stayed true to the characters. It stayed true to the original Muppet Show format. It stayed true to guest hosts and cameo appearances. It stayed true to musical numbers (I was glad to hear Kermit sing Rainbow Connection again!).

If my 8 year old is a good representation of kids across America, the Muppets just connected with a new generation in a big way. He wants to see it again. He wants more Muppets. In fact, we’ve gone through our video collection to try to give him his Muppet fix. Hello, A Christmas with the Muppets featuring John Denver from 1979!

In this movie, the Muppets get back together to do a benefit show to save the old Muppet Show Theater. It is a plot that has been done over and over again in other movies, but there are several subplots that will keep you going. There’s the question: are you a man or a Muppet (which I believe actor/writer Jason Segel honestly had to ask himself). Then there’s the continuing romantic saga between frog and pig. Then there’s trying to figure out exactly what Jack Black does for the movie (which is nothing… that’s why it’s funny). Finally, the real plot of the movie is the same as its real life plot… will people today watch the Muppets? With a box office gross of 58 million, I would say the world still needs the Muppets!

Add it all up, and this movie is good, clean fun. I felt like I was visiting old friends, and I loved whispering the names of the characters to my 4-year-old as they came on screen for the first time. I knew that I was introducing him to something great. Welcome back, gang! In control!

I admit that last year I thought this whole elf thing was a bad idea. I also admit that I was wrong. The kids (8 and 4 years old) absolutely love the elf. They have talked about him all year. They literally begged Santa to send our elf, Jeremy, back. Jeremy did come back. Daniel found him sitting on the logs in the fireplace, and he and Luke started a celebration that would rival anything ever witnessed by Ed McMahon and the Prize Patrol.

So, we have Jeremy back. The kids are very excited. What does Daniel do? He uses this as an opportunity for research. He wants to know all about elves. He wrote Jeremy a note last night asking Jeremy some questions:

1. 1. How old are you?
2. 2. How many owners have you had?
3. 3. Do you dance?
4. 4. How many friends do you have?

Here are Jeremy’s responses:

1. 1. 212. I’m a teenager.
2. 2. No owners, but I’ve visited many families.
3. 3. Always.
4. 4. More than I can count.

Daniel has already made up a list of more questions. Is anyone else giving their elf the third degree?