At Auntie Christy's house

Here's Auntie Christy recovering from surgery with her new purple cast.
We had a visit from Beth and Madeline and Owen! It was nice to see them again! She got to meet Logan and Brennen for the first time. Madeline enjoyed holding Brennen.

Deal or No Deal

Last week we got to attend a live taping of the game show Deal or no Deal! For those who maybe have never seen it, here's a picture. (Logan thought it was daddy!) The contestant chooses cases to open that contain different amounts of $ from 1 cent to $1,000,000. Each amount that is opened is eliminated. After each case opening session, the banker makes them an offer, trying to get them to leave with as little as possible. They can take the deal, or open more cases and risk eliminating the big $$. The strategy is in knowing when to get out. Most people get over-confident and greedy, and end up loosing out on a lot of money. Hopefully that was a good explanation. Anyway, it was fun to be there in the set! We had really good seats right up front, so we should be seen on TV a lot! Watching it in real life is a lot different than the show. First of all there's no music or sound effects. That's all added in later. They have the ladies walk out several times to get different shots, and do retakes throughout the show. There is a guy who is in the audience of every show, who leads us on when to clap, stand, or boo. During commercial breaks they give instructions on what's coming next, and do contests, like a spelling bee, and who's had the worst job, etc. We didn't participate in any of them.

Our show was a special episode of men vs. women "winner takes all", where two contestants play. The man played first but we had to leave before he finished. When we left, he was offered $123,000, and was deciding whether or not to take the deal. On our way out Helen and I met Tamika, one of the case models, in the bathroom of all places. Helen talked to her. That's our claim to fame. She seemed nice.

We don't know yet exactly when our show will air. We have to keep checking the website for our episode #. I think it will be around the end of February or beginning of March. We will record it for anyone who would like to see us on TV! "Oooh, how exhilarating!" -New York Times

Day trip to L.A.

I've always wanted to go somewhere (other than Seattle) for the day. Well we finally did it! Matthew & I, along with Helen & Jasen, started out early Wednesday morning, and flew to Los Angeles! We left the kids with my mom and Christy in Seattle. We went to attend a Deal or No Deal show! Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of our trip. It was our first stop in L.A. -a hardware store of course! Here we are each buying a pair of $3 sunglasses. None of us thought to bring any, and when we arrived there was something big and very bright in the sky...I believe it was called sun! Our eyes couldn't handle it. The reason we didn't take any more pictures was because we were told not to bring cameras or cell phones to the studio or they wouldn't let us in. So, being good citizens, we left them in the car. Then we headed to the studio. We all dressed fairly nice, in case they decided to pick one of us for the show. Notice Matthew in all black. He thought I had spoiled his possible chance of getting on the show because I didn't pack black socks for him. That turned out to be the least of his fashion blunders. After walking 4 blocks looking for the studio, I realized we didn't have our tickets. So Matthew ran all the way back to the car, which was parked on the 8th floor of a parking garage. When he got back to us, he was dripping in sweat! Then we discovered we had gone in the wrong direction! Finally we found the studio, but were told the morning show was running late, so we should come back in about 2 hours. To wait it out, we went to cold stone and got some ice cream, which Matthew spilled down his pants! Then we found a nice bench to sit on under a tree. And guess what...a bird pooped on Matthew's shoulder! Finally we went back to the studio to get in line. They told us the show could take up to 6 hours, and they didn't like people to leave early, which meant we would miss our flight back! We decided to go in anyway and take our chances, since that was the whole point of coming to L.A. As we stood in line we saw that everyone had cell phones and were taking pictures with them! They just told everyone to turn them off inside. So much for rules. I wish we'd known that! Then we might have had some good pictures! Oh well!

(I'll write about the show in the next post so this doesn't get too long!)

Anyway, it turned out to be perfectly fine to leave the show early. They just brought in extra people to replace us, since they don't want empty seats. We ended up back at the airport just in time to catch our flight back to Seattle. By then we were all very tired and hungry and had headaches. I felt really sick the whole way back from exhaustion. (Up all night with children the night before!) But, overall it was a fun adventure!

Brennen's 1st flight

Brennen took his first flight this week! He was very good! He had to wait 3 months to fly. By this age, Meadow had already gone on about 10 flights! He's a very happy, sweet little lad! (BIG lad!)

Christmas Day

Ever since Meadow saw these in a catalog several months ago, she has wanted and fully expected to get a "back hoe" for Christmas. So Grandma and Grandpa John gave them each one (a battery operated excavator and loader with levers that really work!). Meadow gives her animals rides in it.

Meadow got a fun easel set from Grandma Cooke with paints and chalk.
After presents we have our traditional breakfast of ham, egg & cheese croissants topped with hollendaise sauce, made by chef Matthew.
Matthew made Meadow a nice twin size bed. The picture doesn't show it, but there are drawers along the bottom, and there will be a shelf headboard eventually. She liked it but when I checked on her for her first few times sleeping in it, she was back in her old bed which was still in her room in the closet! I guess she doesn't like change. She's more used to it now.
Then we went to the delicious feast at the Goulds. I guess next year I'll be the preparer of the Christmas feast at our house. It will probably take many years to get up to Sheila standards! But I've learned a lot from experiencing her many Christmas dinners and Sunday lunches!
Here are the hosts..with dad in the middle.

All 8 kids! From youngest to oldest. We should re-take this photo in 10 years!