I love this game!

I'm going to spill the beans about a present that we are getting M for Christmas.  I figure that even if she was clever enough to somehow log on and find my blog, she couldn't read it anyway. :)  I was a little concerned about getting her a video game for Christmas, because really it isn't all that exciting for a 5 year-old to open and let's face it, she has a short attention span! Video games are not cheap.  The game we wanted/got is EyePet.  I cannot put into words how freaking adorable this game is!  It doesn't come out in the US until April so we ordered it on eBay from the UK.  Surprisingly, after converting it to US dollars, it was only 3 dollars more then it will be when it comes out here.

The main idea of the game is that you get a new pet to play with.  You watch it as it is born and you take care of it, completely.  You are responsible for feeding it, cuddling it, cleaning it, etc.  It probably sounds like a typical virtual pet, but this thing is so cool.  It uses the EyeToy, which is pretty much a web-cam that hooks up to the PS3 and puts you in the game.  So you see your living room on the TV and when your pet is on the screen, it looks like he's in your living room.  When you put your hand out and "pet" the animal, the camera notices your movement.

Another thing that's really cool is that you can draw a picture of whatever you want, within reason, and hold it up to the camera.  Then your pet will draw it, and it will come to life on the screen.  Oh yeah, and you can teach it to sing!  Jason's pet can hum to "Smoke On The Water." :)  It really is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  Plus, if you already own the EyeToy like we do, the game is only $39.99 when it comes out, which is cheap for the PS3.  If you don't have a camera, it's the typical $59.99.

The game has a lot of downloadable content and it seems like most of it so far is free.  Just this past week we downloaded the Christmas pack, so we can dress our little guy up as Santa, a reindeer, or a snowman (complete with a cute little carrot nose!)  You can completely customize your pet, he can have nearly any fur color you want, you can make him polka dotted, you can make him short-haired or long-haired, and he has tons of styling clothes to pick from! :)

Here is the cute little guy:

Try looking at him without going "awwwwww!"  And here is a video of him in action!







Pretty cool, huh?? It comes with a "magic" card, so when that card is on the ground, it transform into whatever you choose. So when you see the jar of food or the trampoline, you would be holding the magic card.  I'm so excited for M to see this!  I know she will love it, and I can almost guarantee that she will have a cute little green pet, with hot pink clothes! :)

The story of my Nativity

I have to start out by saying that I've never been a very religious person, I consider myself very spiritual but I don't classify myself into one specific religion.  But that's a whole other subject that I could write pages and pages about!  This story is about my Nativity scene and how I acquired it.  I still get goosebumps talking about it.

I bought the Nativity scene a long time ago.  I believe it was around 1998.  I was living in Ames, IA and was doing some after-Christmas shopping to get a few 75% off bargains.  For anyone that is familiar with Ames, this was before the new Target open, it was a just a little hole-in-the-wall store over by JoAnn Fabrics.  As I was scanning through the 75% off Christmas clearance, I saw this Nativity set.  I had always wanted one but for one reason or another never bought one.  But I wanted this one, it was really nice.  I think it was around $3.00 for the whole set.  The box was torn open, the figures were all over the place...and that's when I noticed one big problem.  There was no baby Jesus in the set. Well what good is a Nativity without the baby Jesus??  I put it in my cart anyway and did more shopping, trying to decide what to do with it.  Downtown Ames is full of little gift shops and I knew that several sold the figures separately, so I bought it!  I finally had my Nativity, now I was on a mission to find a baby Jesus!

I can't remember if it was the same year or the next year when I brought my Nativity out for the first time, but I started shopping around for a baby Jesus for my Nativity.  I swear that I looked in every little gift shop in town.  They were all either too big or too small to fit my set.  It would look akward having a 2-ft tall Mary along side a 2-ft tall baby Jesus!

I worked at Kmart at the time, as I did for the whole time I lived in Ames.  I rememeber everything about this day perfectly, except the actual date.  I believe it was around Christmas time the year after I bought my set.  I was pushing a flat-bed cart back to our stockroom in the back of the store.  I was walking by the shoe department and remember watching a little girl playing with the snowboots while her mom was shopping.  She looked at me and we both smiled at eachother.  And as my cart was passing right by the snow boots, a children's snowboot fell off of the shelf and right in front of my cart.  I noticed something fell out of the boot, but at the time assumed it was just the paper stuffing that comes with new shoes.  I backed up my cart, picked up the boot, and I could hardly believe what I saw.

A tiny baby Jesus figure.

I stood there, with it in my hands, staring at it for a few seconds before asking the little girl if it was hers.  I just assumed she was playing with it.  She said "no" and ran to her mom.  At this point, I know I was still in shock.  I ran the cart back to the stock room as fast as I could and then hurried over to our Christmas department.  Surely the baby Jesus was part of a set that we sold at the time.  Nope. He was the perfect size, the perfect color.  He was plastic, where the rest of my Nativity was ceramic...but he was still perfect.

To this day, I have no idea how that baby Jesus ended up in a boot at Kmart, and what made it fall off the shelf at the exact time I was walking by.  Like I said, I still get goosebumps talking about this and sometimes I think that it's just a story that I made up.  But I have my Nativity and I have that little baby Jesus, and it's not just a story.  Here are are the pictures of it:

Here is a close-up of Mary and Jesus, you can see that Jesus is plastic and Mary is not.

I hope everyone reading this made it through the whole story.  And for those that have heard it before, I apologize for repeating it.

Merry Christmas!

Welcome to December!

I know we all say this every single year/month but I cannot believe how quickly this year has gone by!  In just a few short weeks I will have a 1-year-old!  Seems like he was just born :(  Before I know it I will be sending him off to kindergarten too!

I've been sick with a terrible cold for a week now, each day it seems to get a little worse.  Because of it, I just feel like I haven't gotten a single thing done.  I haven't worked on the projects I am doing for other people, my house remains a disaster, and my poor kids have been stuck eating cold cereal every morning!  I also haven't taken the time to update my blog.  I have a wonderful post about my Navity and how I acquired it, and I can't wait to share it, but I just don't feel like it today!  So keep your eyes peeled for that, it is sure to give you a goosebump or two!