Snowboarding

Jake's company sponsors an annual night skiing event up the canyon. This is the second year he and Damon have gone, which means Damon has gone snowboarding twice in his young life. Really wish I would have thought to send the camera with Jake. Anyhow, Damon had a good time. Jake was having a good time until he tried to regain his former glory by doing some jumps. "How high did I go off that one, Damon? Twenty feet?" "Maybe four," Damon answered.

Jake says he'll snowboard by himself from now on.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with Aunt Annette, Uncle Conan, and family. It was fabulous. The food was great, the company was even better, and Claire did reasonably well. Annette was so considerate and even set aside yams, potatoes, and corn for Claire that were GFCFSF.

Here's how Claire did: the closer we got to Annette and Eric's house, the more anxious she became, saying things like, "I will just stay in the car." "I don't go into new houses." "Why didn't we just stay at Grandma and Grandpa's?" Nothing I said made her feel better, so when we got there, I just carried her into the house. She didn't want to be put down, and only said 'hi' to people when I prompted her to, which is actually an improvement: she used to just cry in those situations. But I was hoping she would say hello spontaneously. Sigh. During dinner, she did lots better. Meals are structured, she knows what to do, and she did very well. She even had a good time. She sat across from Lex, and he made her laugh for 10 or 15 minutes playing with the turkey table decorations Kiersten had made.

After a few hours her behavior started to deteriorate, and I would make people repeat things they said to her so I could prompt her to respond appropriately. For example: Lex said, "Claire, can I hold you?" And Claire screamed "No" at him and started to cry. I picked her up, put her back in front of Lex, and had Lex repeat, "Claire, can I hold you?" Then I prompted Claire to say, "No, thanks," and praised her. I should have repeated that process until she said "No, thanks" unprompted, but I would like Annette and Eric to invite us over again, so I'll save fun things like that for our house or my parent's house.

Amarillo by morning

or night. They left SLC airport in the morning, I think.

In October my parents took Damon with them to Amarillo to visit my sister and her family. Damon had the time of his life. Nothing like a trip with people who aren't Jake and I to see how sweet life can be. For the record, Damon DID NOT drink MD. That picture was staged by cousin Wes. He thought it would be funny to give me a heart attack.

Uncle Marcus taught Damon to play Monopoly, Lynsey bought him his own board, and now he plays constantly--if Jake and I won't play, he plays with Anne and Claire kind of. He rolls the dice for them, moves their pieces, and then hollers, "Claire! Do you want to buy Mediterranean?" Claire, playing with Anne in the next room, says, "No." Then, "Anne! Do you want to buy Oriental Avenue?" Anne calls back, "Yes!" and so on.