Nacht der Untoten

My brother and his boys LOVE their X-Box 360. It's kind of fun to see the boys play with their dad and watch my brother (who is amazingly good at the games) get beat by his 7 year old. On a recent trip up to my brother's house, he hooked up the X-Box in their new theater room. Watching my brother play Call of Duty: World at War was so cool because the people were pretty much life-size. So I was curious when my nephews started talking about 'zombie mode' on the same game, a level called Nacht der Untoten (German for "Night of the Undead"). Could it be? I love zombies! And to see them life-sized and in the dark would be so cool! My brother set it up, all the kids gathered in the room, the lights were lowered and the game began. It was AWESOME! After about a minute, the 5-year olds tapped out. They were freaked out. After a few minutes, the 7-year old left. The 9-year old was the one playing and all of a sudden, he handed the remote to Brian and said he was was leaving, too. I don't know if it was the content of the game or the fact that the screen was so large, thus making the zombies very real looking, but it scared the kids. Nacht der Untoten is extra creepy because you play this game in first person mode. Brian got a little freaked when, after successfully building a barricade, he turned around and a Nazi zombie was right there ready to chew on his neck. He was pretty much done after that. Anyway, I love it. So much so, that I recorded some of the game and have posted it below. This is my camera recording the screen in the theater room (you can hear everyone commenting)...very cool!

Doc Mama Aint Gonna Git My Guns!

During a recent visit to my brother's house, he proudly broke out his new toy...an M4...seriously, click on the link and check out this gun. Although it was scary and totally strange to be holding this freakin' gun, it was also kind of cool. My brother has always been obsessed with guns, the military, etc. (he subscribed to Soldier of Fortune magazine as a pre-teen), so it's not surprising that he has this and other guns. But with the election of Barack Obama (or Doc Mama as Jack calls him) and his plan to renew the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, my brother and many others are stocking up on their beloved guns and rushing to get their concealed weapons permits. Although the Watkins family will not be doing this (except if you want to rob us, then we have an Uzi), I decided to write a little tongue-in-cheek tribute to my brother and his M4, followed by a sweet Watkins family M4 picture montage:

(Read this out loud with a George Bush-esque Texas accent)
Now that Doc Mama's El Presidente, he's gonna take away our rights to defend ourselves from the Redcoats. Look, if I want to have an M4 to defend my family and my property here in Lehi, Utah, and I want to be able to carry it under my trench coat with a silencer and laser scope attached, well then dammit, I got that right...the Constitution of the U-nited States of America says I can do it. Hell, if I want my 5 year old daughter to learn how to convert my semi-automatic weapon into a fully automatic weapon, then I got the right. Now, Doc Mama's gonna take away my guns! El Presidente is gonna renew the Federal Assault Weapons Ban! So all y'all Constitution lovin' Americans go out and git some before the gittin's gone.

December Wrap-Up

We did lots of stuff in the month of December. At the beginning of the month, Kate and I took a Girls Only trip to L.A. We went to Disneyland with Grandma and Papa and she had a great time being the center of attention.

We cranked up the Christmas spirit with a trip on a local Polar Express. The kids (including Baby Dylan) got to ride a 'Silver-Spoons' style train, visit with Santa and remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Next it was time to put up and decorate the Christmas tree. We had a borrowed, Griswold-ish fake tree, but after the lights and decorations were put up, it actually looked really nice. The kids even enjoyed posing in front of it in their Christmas best.

In the middle of the month, we realized that injury was inevitable if Jack continued sleeping in a crib, (he would jump out, stick his legs through the bars, etc.) so he got a 'Big Boy' bed.

And before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve. We were lucky to have Grandma and Papa stay with us overnight and have Great Grandpa Jack come for Christmas Eve festivities. He was even kind enough to narrate the Christmas story for our performance. At the end of the night, Kate left cookies for Santa and hit the sack.

Christmas morning was so fun. The kids weren't allowed downstairs to see the presents until everyone was up and ready to go. They were very excited to see their presents and had a blast opening them. Every time Jack opened a present, he would say "Open this!". Later that morning, Aunt Jana, Uncle Brandon and Baby Dylan came over to visit and exchange gifts.

The next day, we were off to Logan for a quick visit with Tom, Shelly and the Boys. Even though it was a short, it was a ton of fun. The kids played in the snow and Michael showed us some of his sweet dance moves.

After getting back from Logan, we were off again to L.A. We actually beat Grandma and Papa there! The weather was beautiful and we had fun shopping, eating lunch outside and watching all the AWESOME bowl games. We were proud of the Trojans and especially the Utes! Kate had fun imitating Judy Merrill with a creepy baby doll hand, too. We wrapped it up with a quick trip to Disneyland (it was cold and crazy crowded, so we only stayed for a few hours) and Kate even got to spend some time with her future husband and siblings-in-law :)