Winter Wonderings

'Twas the day after Christmas,
And the couple surveyed
The pieces of puzzle,
The joint gift they obtained.

The past few years, Jen and I have used Christmas as a time to purchase a gift for ourselves, something we can do together. This year, we bought a couple of new board games since we enjoy playing games like Yahtzee, Risk, and Word Thief. We also bought a Lego set to assemble.

As kids, we both had the Lego building sets, but we never had the specially designed kits to assemble that are so popular now. So, we decided to try building one of the kits together. We chose the space shuttle because we both had fond memories of the shuttle program as kids, and it looked like a set that would challenge us but not be impossible to build.

We started working on it Christmas Day, and we got the shuttle assembled before going to bed. I'm not sure how many hours it took because we really weren't keeping track. We worked on it for a bit, and then we watched a Christmas movie or talked to relatives. Then, we built a bit more.

On Wednesday, we worked on assembling the external fuel tank and booster rockets. Assembling a kit like that was a lot of fun, and it gave us a chance to work together on a project while laughing and joking around. Truly, enjoying an activity together is the best way to spend time with the person you love.

It was also a great way to spend Christmas since Jen caught a Christmas cold. I had a cold two weeks ago, and I was afraid she'd catch it. Either it took a bit or she found some other bug via her colleagues or the train. Either way, she's definitely fighting something. I'm hoping she'll feel better soon.

I also hope she didn't pass it to the friends we saw on Christmas Eve. We had dinner at their house before attending a late showing of "The Hobbit." I'd really feel terrible if they caught her cold since they have friends coming in for New Year's. It's the time of year when lots of stuff goes around, I know. I just hope our flu shots do some good this winter.