I can't believe it's already the start of Advent. This year has seemed to fly by. Each year on the first day of Advent, Mom gives every person Advent jammies, which are usually a t-shirt and some comfortable pants. Then after we've changed into them, we sit around the family room and read our annual advent story, snack on the night's Advent treat, sing Christmas carols, and light a candle for every night leading up to Jesus' birth. This year our Advent story is one out of a three-book series. The story follows a young boy who eventually gets caught up in the birth of Jesus Christ. 

   This Thanksgiving, my Dad's parents and two of his cousins and their families came down from Kentucky. Night before Thanksgiving, when everyone was still on their way here, Dad told me and Travis that the Kyker family was a big Euchre family. So it was only natural to have a few Euchre tournaments throughout the weekend. Along with card games, we went on a couple hikes, went to the movie theater to watch Mockingjay Part Two, did a family olympics, and ate plenty of turkey and mashed potatoes.   

This Thanksgiving Dad's side of the family is coming over to our house to celebrate together. To kick off the week, my Dad's Uncle Tom arrived a couple days ago. Today, after we ate breakfast, we headed outside for a good hike through the woods.

   This past week, Ben used his money to buy the Monopoly board game. So naturally the past couple of days have been filled with laughter and rage as properties are bought and upgraded. A couple nights ago was no different. While mom made dinner, we traded properties, bought house/hotels, and moved our tokens around the board. As the first few people got out, the game grew more and more intense. Throughout the entire game, my five houses on the greens weren't giving me much income. Pretty soon my money dwindled to extinction.

   After a few more minutes, it was down to Dad and Jack. Surprisingly enough, Jack had been beating everybody by an enormous amount. With hotels on the pink monopoly, Jack was raking in a large sum of money. But as people began dropping out, Dad began building his inventory. Once Caroline, Ben, and I landed on Dad's red monopoly, it was all over. To Jack's great disappointment, Dad came out victorious.

   The last few weeks, TR has seen plenty of rain. Even though it was still dreary and foggy out, we met the Keigley's at Bunched Arrowhead Preserve. At first glance, Bunched Arrowhead Preserve looks like a desolate swamp. In a round about way, it is. Inside the abundant grass-like stalks snakes many different trails.

   With rain jackets secured tightly around our bodies and nature journals in our hands, we set off into the uncharted wasteland.

Along the way we encountered the biggest anthills I've ever seen in person. As we came across the largest one, we thought it was only necessary to give it an upgrade.  One so large as this needed a roller coaster and several skyscrapers, (AKA small sticks and twigs). 

While sitting on the couch, I overheard Eli saying to Mom,

Eli:

If South Carolina exploded then we would have to go to another planet. 

Realizing his mistake he quickly corrected it. 

Eli:

I mean galaxy. 

Dominion review

Five years ago, Donald X. Vaccarino created one of the most popular deck building games ever. What started in 2008 has now grown tremendously. Since then the deck building genre has taken over the gaming world. Over the past few years, Dominion has been translated into 18 different languages. A couple years ago, Dominion was ranked number two on Amazon's top selling games, right under Klaus Teuber's Settlers of Catan.

How to Play:

The base game comes with a total of five hundred cards. To start off you are given ten cards. Three of those cards are victory point cards and seven of them are treasure cards. After receiving your cards, you shuffle them together. When your turn comes, you draw five cards at random. The cards that you have drawn now become your hand. You now have the opportunity to buy whatever cards on the board you have the resources for. Using the treasure cards in your hand you can buy your first action, victory point, or another treasure card of higher value. Since the making of the game, players have figured out that the best way to explain the game is by using the letters A-B-C.

A: Action, If you have one or more action cards in your hand, you may play them.

B: Buy, Using the treasure and actions cards in your hand, you may buy at least one treasure, victory point, or action card.

C: Clean-up, The clean-up process starts with you discarding your hand. Once your hand has been discarded, you may draw five more cards from your deck.

Card types:

• Victory Cards: Victory point cards give the player more points to add up at the end of the game. 
• Treasure Cards: Treasure cards give you the opportunity to buy different cards to add to your deck.
• Curse Cards: Curse cards are identical to victory cards, except they take away one victory point.
• Action Cards: Action cards help you buy other types of cards throughout the game. 

Winning the game:

The game ends when the Province stack or two Action card stacks run out.

For me the hardest part about really learning how to play Dominion was knowing what each of the action cards do. As far as time is concerned, Dominion takes thirty minutes to an hour. When it's all said and done, I would give the game a 8.5 out of 10.

   For school today, Mom decided to go to Pisgah National Park with a group of our friends. Eager and excited, the Kyker family (minus one dad) hurriedly got in the car, buckled in their seat belts, and pulled up a GPS. After entering in "Pisgah National Forest," we drove out of our driveway and onto the road ahead. As we picked up speed, the arrival time in the corner was dropping lower and lower. Which was a good thing to because we were already a going to be a few minutes late. Slowly the car began a thirty minute spiral up the mountain slope that lead to our destination.

   Throughout the entire ride along the those mountain tops, Mom was continuing to declare how beautiful the trees were. And I have to agree with her, the view was amazing! Golden, vibrant red, and orange trees dotted the surface of the mountain sides.

   Within the next few minutes, Google Maps was telling us that we would arrive at our destination in five minutes. When we rolled passed the destination point we realized that we were lost. Our "destination" was just another pull off point where you could take a picture or two of the mountains. That was when Mom remembered that she had typed in Pisgah National Forest in stead of Pisgah National Park. At least we weren't really lost. Mom knew that if we kept driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway then we would eventually end up in a spot where we could get home. 

  As we drove through the mountains, a mixture of fog and mist started wrapping itself around are car. Soon it got so bad that we couldn't see at all in front of the car. About two hours later, we am-merged out at the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. But that didn't mean our adventure was over. As we passed through a Cherokee Indian town, Mom realized we were really lost with only 20% left of battery on her phone. What's more once we left the town there wasn't any cell service. On the little connection we got and the little battery left, we managed to get relativity close to Greenville before the battery died. Once Mom knew where we were it was only a matter of time before we drove up our driveway and into the comfort of our home. Even though we didn't make the Field Trip, we did get the privilege to drive for six hours straight without ever finding out why God had us do it.