On The Road

Look! It's a picture of Greeley. It doesn't relate to any sort of story or anything, but that's what I've got on the road. Most people probably remembered to take the camera out of the diaper bag to capture all of those Christmas memories. Not me. Wait. Wait. Greeley's holding a toy camera... I'm talking about forgetting the camera. Yeah, I totally meant to do that.

I haven't forgotten about all of you, I promise. We're off to New Hampshire tomorrow to greet the New Year. After that we'll be back in Gettysburg where I can resume my leisurely life of blog reading and bon bon eating.

But I want to hear from all of you, so...tell me.... what was your favorite Christmas present this year?

It Just Screams Christmas...

Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer posted this and I had to share it too because what else is better than tornadoes and Christmas music....



Thanks to TornadoVideos.net

Because I Didn't Send Out Christmas Cards This Year...

I'm sorry, but it's true. It just didn't happen this year. I could try to bluff you a thousand ways as to why I didn't do it (I've decided to become greener and it seemed like a waste of paper...), but it just didn't happen this year. Please don't think it reflects on how much I love you all.

If I had, this would have been the picture inside...

We've been having all sorts of Christmas like fun though.

We went to see Santa. We even had breakfast with Santa. My kids seemed to be more excited about the all you can eat bacon aspect. Atlee has a sort of knowing smile here because she knows Santa is our close friend, Uncle Ricky.


I walked into Atlee's room the other night and saw this.

I was kind of hoping my little princess wouldn't pass out with a beer bottle on her headboard until she was sixteen. It turns out she was writing a message and trying to put it in a bottle- or at least that was her cover story.

This is just a random shot of Greeley with the Santa Bear.

We're getting ready to roll out of Gettysburg for Upstate New York on Tuesday. Greeley's driving the first shift.

Have a great Christmas!

Parenting by Cyrano...

Are you familiar with the story of Cyrano de Bergerac? My favorite scene is where a man points out that his nose is rather large. Cyrano then goes off with all of the insults the man could have used, but didn't.

We have a similar situation going on around here. The seating arrangements in Shea's class were recently shuffled and resulted in Shea being seated by a boy who calls my son retarded daily. Not surprisingly, this kind of bugs Shea. Rich and I both offered our (ahem) sage counsel.

Rich's solution: [aka the boy solution] Retaliate with like insults. There was a brainstorming session which brought up such words as butt licker.

My solution: [aka the Cyrano approach] Point out that this young man's vocabulary is exceedingly limited. Offer up five or six alternatives to the word "retarded". I'm happy to say Shea listed a host of possible words immediately... but we went to the thesaurus for extra firepower.

We'll see what happens. I'm curious though- what would your advice to Shea be?

Have You Ever?

Have you ever had an outstanding Christmas Party? And at the end of the outstanding Christmas Party- a friend, who has perhaps had too much to drink, sees your computer with its annoying little viruses that you've learned to live with and that friend says, "Oh I can fix that!"? And then your computer- the one that you love and cherish and without it you feel like an isolated frontierswoman on the prairie a hundred years ago- it seizes up like a car engine that's never seen a drop of oil and stops working for a week? No? I don't really recommend the experience.

Because then you have to be fortunate enough to have another friend who knows an awful lot about computers considering he doesn't work in the computer field come over and spend a few hours fixing the problem. And he might mention along the way that he told you after the last incident-the one that cost you $250 and the computer still wasn't ever quite right- to start backing up your information. Like, at least your husband's business information. And you didn't.

On a slightly different note, I learned this morning that my friend Gretchen has joined an exclusive group of North Country residents. I belong to the group. It's the "A Tree Landed In/On My Car and Destroyed it During an Ice Storm" group. I'm actually a two-time member. Do you belong?

Have You Ever...

Have you ever started the holiday baking only to realize that EVERY cookie recipe you're planning on is in a magazine and you can't find ANY of the magazines? Not a one. Then you realize you asked your husband to clear and set the dining room table for dinner last night- so dear god- they could be any where? Then, you find them in the recycling box and instead of starting the holiday baking, you run downstairs and write up a quick post about it before you forget? Or is that just me?
** Bonus Non-Christmas Party related photo content included complimentary-like**

Multiple Countdowns

That's right. We've got multiple countdowns going on around here. The first is the dog countdown. My parents are back from their fabulous vacation and are ready to collect their dog. Well, my Mom is.

However I have enjoyed the best feature of a dog for the last month. The clean floors.


Well, there are still scraps of paper everywhere. She doesn't eat those. She's licking up orange juice up there. The roaming vacuum cleaner- it's a nice feature on a pet.


In other countdown news, have you perhaps heard we're hosting a Christmas Party? Did I mention that? Are you sick of it yet? Not much longer, I promise.


***Right here is where I realized the two girls had been far too quiet for far too long and went to investigate. I found them cleaning the toilet. I then cleaned the entire bathroom while they took baths. I'm back now. ***


Did you hear Rich built me bookshelves? Love them. Look at all the books they hold. Even my Nancy Drew collection in the upper right hand corner there. The shelves are decorated for Christmas. That's the other countdown going on around here.

We got a tree on Saturday. Slung it on the roof of the car and strapped it down like it was a dead animal.



We brought it in and decorated it .

The railing too. I didn't realize Corwin the kitten would think this was here just for him.

Nothing says Christmas like Santa tins next to almost dead succulent plants. Because I can't even keep a jade and aloe plant alive.

Whimsical touches (shouldn't I be writing cheesy travel articles?) are appearing throughout the house.
Did I mention the dog was leaving on Friday?

Definition of Fun

Fun: When both your one year old toddler and your four month old kitten discover on the same day that you have a ten gallon aquarium filled with water and swimming fish. And it's within reach.

The Obstacle to Christmas Party Preparation

Do you see the Currently Reading (or maybe it was back in February) section over there to the right- way, way down? I love to read and I read a lot. Honestly, I can't fathom people who read two books a year. I'm not insulting them, I just can't understand them. However, I recently stalled on a book.

I have spent the last six to eight weeks reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter. It's only 200 pages. It was ridiculous. I could not get excited about reading it. I trudged through it a page or a two at a time. It's a quirk of mine that I generally feel obligated to a book to finish it once I've started to read it. I finally finished it the other day. Then I devoured a James Patterson in two days.

This week I'm supposed to be planning and cleaning and preparing for the annual Christmas Party around here. The one where sixty people show up- looking for food, spirits and merriment. I've encountered a harsh obstacle though. When we were in DC for Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law, Bev, passed along two books to read.

Stephanie Meyer's Twilight. and New Moon. I read 250 pages yesterday. This is clearly not getting my deck cleaned off and decorated. I know I shouldn't, but I can't help picking it up to read just a little more. I think I get all the hoopla now.