Home for Christmas - Part I

Let me announce up front: Yes, we are out of town right now.

Generally I don't like to make that info public online. However, since family members of local (home) friends are staying in our house, and the place is going to be crawling with landscaping crews during most daylight hours, I feel a little bold.

I'm sitting here in my jammies while J, DD (my father) and the kids are up at the farm. I better get dressed and wrap a lot of presents before they get back!

A day or two after we arrived, J and I celebrated our eleventh anniversary. I think I mentioned our anniversary tradition of using an old-fashioned list of gifts, and that this year was "steel."

Well.

This year, with the help of my parents, I combined J's love for puns with the theme and decided to "steel" him away. Before we left SB I booked us at a B&B in Americus, GA, which is about an hour from my parents'. They kept the kids for the night and we had a great time. It was perfect--He thought we were running out to the store while the kids were down for naps...and I just kept driving.

Being December, it didn't look exactly like this, but it was still lovely:



This was the sitting area of our room, where we sat up late watching Bogart & Bacall in "The Big Sleep" which we'd never seen. (Seriously? We were going to just start it but then we couldn't turn it off. The dialogue! The writing! Aaron Sorkin isn't alone! No, my friends, William Faulkner was there first. Duh).


It was wonderful, glorious, delightful. Thanks, Mom and Dad!!

After having a PST Bedtime, we had an EST morning because we decided to get up and go to Sunday School.


It was great. He really surprised us with his biblical literacy, which matched his knowledge of world events (he talked Middle East a bit when he got started; fitting because of the news that morning and the fact that it was the location of the events of the Sunday School lesson...Christ's birth).

Wow!

Gone to Seed

I have gotten way, way behind on deadheading the basil. Actually I started way behind and made a few (futile) slash-and burn attempts to keep it leafy instead of flowery.

I acknowledge defeat.

There is little sting, though, since J made a delicious pesto last week. Also, it's December; I shouldn't really be allowed fresh basil right now, anyway. And finally, we have flocks of little birds coming and perching on the basil plants, eating the little seeds.

They are really cute and numerous.


We love to sit and watch them. Pixie especially likes to describe the plumage of the different varieties. I love so much to see her delight!

Stay tuned for Pixie & Bud's Christmas recital...

Vehicles

Some time in the last 2 weeks I came home and found that J and Bud were setting up to "play cars." How cute, I thought. It really is an idyllic sort of thing, isn't it? Bud asks his Daddy if he will please play cars with him, and in the midst of a somewhat-trying-overwhelming-season, J starts hauling out the tracks.

So I was in here working--or facebooking, can never be sure--and J runs into get the camera. The camera. To play cars? "Oh, yes. We've got it set up to do some crashes, and we want to catch it on film." ("film" having gone into metaphorical usage in our house, or very nearly).

I don't really have anything more to say about that little episode, except that there were repeatedly howls of laughter and cheering in the next room. I was reminded of the day J taught math and Bud's "Some, some went away" stories involved vomiting plastic teddy bear counters. And again, lots of laughter.

Here is some evidence:




Also, in other vehicular news, we got a new van. We are trying to figure out where the Astro's new home is going to be...I mam emotionally attached. But we are LOVING the Sienna, which I found on eBay! We didn't end up using eBay to purchase it. When the auction didn't meet reserve, we drove a couple of hours south and checked it out...and did the private party thing. The seller was wonderful and I think everyone ended up happy. I know I am! It is just so much easier then the Astro, which was still running but was experiencing progressive systems failure. Poor thing. It had been driving as long as I have! It needs a gentle retirement.


The children danced in the back on the evening it came home.

PW!

I have so, so many fun things to share. Like Thanksgiving, lizards, more mud, and vehicles. There are many vehicles in my life. Old ones, new ones...mostly matchbox-sized ones. Underfoot. Overhead.

But that's for tomorrow.

Here is the picture that my sister took of herself, me and PIONEER WOMAN at the Pioneer Woman's book signing away back in the sprawling metropolis on the East coast. I think I should've put on some lipstick, but otherwise it's a great shot--don't you think?


Thank you, thanks NMBG! :)

Regal Riddle

Can you guess what this is?

Sure you can.

What about now?

Any ideas about how this happens? Would anyone choose to SPECULATE?

COULD ANYONE HAVE WARNED ME ABOUT THE ATTRACTION BETWEEN LITTLE BOYS AND MUD? MAYBE??

Well, OK. Maybe I had some idea of the cultural tendency to pair the two. Snips and snails and all that.

I wish I had a picture of him sitting in the mud down by Allison's house...where an old irrigation line--mostly burned up, of course--had been switched on somehow and left a pit of about 4-6 inches (deep) of mud. A couple of yards across.



Do you know what it looks like when someone sits down and plays in that?

Let me tell you what it looks like after that, when his neighbor brings him back next door to his mom. It looks like a little boy lying nakey on the patio having water dumped on him to rinse some of it off before coming into the house and hopping into the tub. Because it was caked on. Caked. He thought the process hilarious. And not torturous--it was SB in November, yes--in the 70s.



By the way, these stayed a month. Until it rained...today.

Can't WAIT to blog Thanksgiving.

12 Dayszzzzz

I have been up tonight starting my Christmas gift plans. STARTING.

We are doing the 12 days of Christmas with the kids again this year...one of my steps toward moving some of the gifting away from Christmas and celebrating the Christmas season as such. And what does this look like? One present Christmas morning. And another the next day, and another, building up through the 12th day. On that night the kids set out their shoes and look forward to the "big" present that is for all of them to share.

My hope is to have Advent be Advent, and not Christmas. Christmas starts at Christmas! I have ceded some points, though; we have decorated and lit our tree, for example (I have never not had this happen before Christmas. But one day...heh heh heh...). Anyway, as you might imagine, the 12 days can take some planning and hunting down. I had some vague memory of things in closets (as well as a couple of visuals) and tonight after the children were in bed I started pulling things out.

Are you KIDDING me? I have enough for Pixie. Her Christmas morning gift and the Epiphany gift remain, that's it. I had enough random things picked up at book sales, church sales, Target's $1 spot, etc. There were more things than I would like to admit in there that we had moved out here from Wheaton. Absolutely ridiculous. [moment of silence for Wheaton church sales, Springbrook Market, and Aldi].

I'm not far off on the boys, either. It took an hour or so to pull things out, divide, and schedule, but all of a sudden I'm really, really close on the kids. And without feeling like I've spent any money. I'm just very excited (and a little ashamed, but I'll just admit it and move on).

Now...what to get J for Christmas? And our anniversary, for that matter? We try to do the "traditional" anniversary gift theme, which has led to some fun/ny gifts (leather, year three fruit (4), and candy(6)). This year the category is "steel."

What are your Christmas plans? How are they going?

Roll Tide!

I can't believe I am posting this...but both Kraig and 'Bama deserve whatever props little Wombles can give them today. WHAT A GAME!




He got up from his nap in time to catch most of the fourth quarter. We had fun snuggling and cheering. And then, what a classy finish from Saban...


In other news, Wombles moved into his big boy bed today. It just kinda happened...but for tonight, anyway, he stayed in. Cheerfully yelling back and forth with Bud (who was in the bunk above him), yes; but in his bed.

PS I love the "suspicious" look we caught on Bud in the first frame of this video.

For Uncle Kraig

At lunch today, Wombles had a lot to say for Alabama. Mostly "Alabama" over and over. I think he wants them to win (after Notre Dame, of course, and Georgia...but that's a little complicated to explain to a two-year-old). So here is a video in celebration of their first touchdown.

I'll post "Roll tide!" later if it seems appropriate. :)

Italics alert

It is winter here in SB. You know how I know? I am wearing fuzzy slippers. I have worn them much of the day. I am wearing them instead of flip-flops. This is a big deal.

These are the yummy black slippers that my dear in-laws gave me for Christmas ...gulp...five years ago. They are very nice slippers. They were given to me when I was going barefoot on the cold, hard hardwood floors of our house back in the other SB. The other SB, where we averaged 70 inches of snow every year instead of averaging 70 degrees all year. Or something like that. But I digress.

I have weather on the brain because tonight was the night of the "Giant Pickle" up at the college. This is the annual tree lighting event, so-named because in the dark, the lit tree looks like...a giant pickle. There is gospel choir and an Annual Pickle Address. The students really get into it, but nearly so much (I think) as the neighborhood kids. The Pickle (and accompanying cider and cookies) are a major event. Last year we drove all the way over from the rental!

This year, however, there was a new addition to the list of festivities...the powers-that-be actually brought in snow. SNOW, for all love! And I hope that there are pictures. I am stalling, you see, because the lovely Maddie was at the snow with my children, and she still has my camera. I am sure there are precious photos, in spite of these facts: Pixie was crying because of snowballs, Wombles said, (I quote him telling me later) "NO! Miss Maddie!!" to snow, and Bud had to stay home as a consequence of un-bud-manly behavior this afternoon. This is all rumor though (except the Bud part, and Wombles telling me "I said, No!, Miss Maddie!" whenever I asked him about the snow). I was teaching Spanish.

So, snow was carted in, and I wore (1) long sleeves (2) trousers and (3) a sweater tonight. It's December! Winter is here!!

By the way, J thinks it would be bad form to admit I've developed a sock allergy. I say there's no reason to be smug about living in a perfect climate...it means I'm going soft. Gone are the days (?) when I come home from errands with just a down vest over my clothes and declare it gorgeous, warm, we must go for a walk!

And J smirks and says "It's 15 degrees outside...there's just no wind."

I'm a total wimp. And I'm OK with that.

So, since I have no Thanksgiving photos, no Boppy-and-Grandma photos, nothing--they being on my camera--I give you one of the past month's delights.

A couple of weeks ago, we saw Wombles turn the corner to being accepted in Pixie and Bud's play. There were a magical few days where I realized it was happening...somehow, to them he had graduated from baby status and was welcomed as a co-conspirator. He was so incredibly delighted.

Here is one game they played over and over. They are using a "Big pop," a gift from Aunt Joy. It's a half-dome that you turn inside out, set down, and wait to pop up into the air. It gets about a 12-minute EV (entertainment value) rating, unless you do NOT restrict surfaces on which it may be used. Then, my estimate would be about 45 minutes or until something gets broken.

Here they are waiting for the (green) big pop to go.


POP! There it is!



It is so fun and crazy to see what these three are getting into these days. Today it was ashes out of the charcoal grill; Bud spread them around on the patio. Pixie made a cake from a mix by herself (mostly) for the first time. Wombles...Wombles said "Giant Pickle!" frequently and clearly. And looked up at that bright 150-foot-tall redwood tree with the shining eyes that make motherhood feel like the privilege that it is.