Star Wars: In Concert

This afternoon Mel, my sister, and I went to go see Star Wars: In Concert at the Xcel Energy Center. Having a sister with connections it really nice, as our seats were in one of the suites, complete with complimentary cookies, brownies, and soft drinks.

Before the show, I really did not know what the show would be like. All I knew was that there would be an orchestra playing music along with Star Wars movies being shown on the screen. The show began with the orchestra playing the 20th Century Fox fanfare, followed by the theme song to Star Wars. While they played this, scenes from the various Star Wars movies were shown behind the orchestra. Also shown on the screen was views of the orchestra playing.

Then, Anthony Daniels, the actor who played C-3PO in all six Star Wars movies, came out and introduced different musical numbers, many of which focused on different characters in the saga, telling the story of Star Wars as the show progressed. Through talking about each of the characters, and some of the events of the movies, Daniels told the story of the whole Star Trek saga.

This was a great show. I really wish we could have brought Emma along as she is somewhat interested in Star Wars. Not only would she have been able to see clips from Star Wars, leaving out some of the parts that maybe wouldn't be appropriate for someone who is her age, but it would also have been a good introduction to seeing a symphony orchestra perform. However, the show was probably a little to loud for Emma; she hates loud noises. Also, I do not know if she would have been content to sit and watch the performance for the entire hour the show lasted before the intermission. If Star Wars: In Concert were to return in a couple of years, I think she could handle it.

3

Today was the third anniversary of Emma's birth. I still remember receiving a phone call at work from Mel on this day three years ago telling me that her doctor had told her to go to the hospital. Since it was still a couple of weeks early, I was sure that it was nothing and that Mel would be going home from the hospital that day. I even told my coworkers that I expected to be back at work the next day. How wrong I was. Mel's water had broken and Emma was breach, so they delivered Emma that afternoon.

Today was, of course, much less eventful than that day. Emma did have a good birthday. Mel asked her if she wanted anything special for breakfast, giving her the option of McDonald's or doughnuts. Emma decided that she wanted a doughnut, one with sprinkles. The doughnut always has to have sprinkles. After breakfast, Emma opened her presents from us. We got her a Memory game, a pink soccer ball, and five T-shirts. It was good that we got her some T-shirts as we had her try on all of her short-sleeved T-shirts this morning and discovered that she had outgrown most of them. While we didn't have McDonald's for breakfast, we did have it for lunch as, after she said that all she wanted for breakfast was a bowl of cereal with milk, Emma decided that she wanted chicken nuggets, apples, chocolate milk, and a toy. So off to McDonald's we went to get lunch.

Emma took a really good nap after lunch. Then this evening we got the chicken alfredo pasta from Pizza Hut, one of Emma's favorites. She really likes pasta. I think she would eat noodles every day if we let her. She then blew out the candle on her birthday cupcake. We are having a larger birthday party tomorrow, so we decided just to have cupcakes and Dairy Queen ice cream tonight. After desert, it was bath time, followed by bedtime. For some reason this evening, Emma just started saying "X-wing fighter" over and over, so for her bedtime story, I located my Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back pop-up book from the basement and I read that to her. She really enjoyed it. She especially liked pulling the tabs in the book. Remarkably, the book is still in really good condition. Only one of the pop-up features does not work. Now Emma just needs to go to sleep, she's been in bed for quite a while, but she seems to be resisting sleep. We have to get up early tomorrow morning to head to Iowa for a birthday party with our relatives, so she better sleep soon, otherwise she is likely to be cranky tomorrow.

Nostalgia

For Christmas my sister got my mom a new scanner. Since the majority of the photos that my parents took for the early years of my life are on slides, she got her a scanner with a slide attachment. This week my mom has started getting to work as scanning these old photos in her collection. From what she has told me, she scans about one hundred slides each day. Some of these images are making their way to my mother's Facebook page. She started with photos from 1979 and has worked her way to 1980. I assume she will make it back before 1979 at some point. I for one really enjoy seeing these photos, such as the one of me at my seventh birthday party with the R2-D2 cake that Mom made for me. And I can not wait to see more of them, as long as she doesn't post any of the photos of my in my Underoos!

A Late Christmas

We were supposed to have Christmas with my wife's family last Saturday, but since the weather was so crappy, we had to postpone those plans for this weekend. So today we managed to squeeze fourteen of us in our house to celebrate Christmas. While our house isn't all that large, we did manage to fit in it alright. It's just a good thing that we received, not one, but two card tables and sets of chairs for our wedding in 2005.

Before lunch, all six of the kids managed to make a mess of my daughter's room playing with her toys. When I eventually told everyone it was time to pick up the toys later this afternoon, it took a significant amount of time to get things straightened out. After lunch it was time to open presents. To avoid having too many presents to buy, the adults each draw names so each of us gets just one present from another of us, so most of the present opening is left to the kids who get more presents. My present came from my parents-in-law. They gave me a book, Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary, published by DK. The book is "the ultimate guide to characters and creatures from the entire Star Wars saga" according to the text on the cover, and it is right about that. It includes photos of many of the characters in each of the movies, as well as nice photos of the various weapons and ships from the films as well. I was looking over the book with my nephew David. He  has a rather extensive knowledge of the Star Wars movies, especially episodes I and II. It is a pretty long book, so I will need to make some time to read it from cover to cover.

We are going to be meeting all of the family tomorrow morning for breakfast at Perkins before those who live in Iowa leave for their homes.