Christmas Day

What says Merry Christmas more than a big box of Homicide?






Unless perhaps a steamy hot mug of Eeyore?






Or some spectacular Pajamas? Look! The instructions for how to prance about in them come printed right on them! Woo Hoo!.




Can Alex show any more enthusiasm? Kids are supposed to get noisy things for Christmas. How else will they drive their parents Insane?



Well, there is the annual covering-every-last-square-inch-of-floor-with-clutter ritual. That's good for endless holiday joy.




But truly, Christmas is when you open up your house to friends and family...





... and they gather for the Whoo-pudding and roast beast.


I hope yours was as Merry as ours was!

Christmas Eve

We hosted a family gathering for Christmas Eve. We spent most of Saturday and Sunday cleaning and prepping the house. Everything was warm, cozy, and full of Christmas joy.







Even the squadron of Attack Eeyores on the back of the couch was ready for their part.





A grand buffet was laid out in the kitchen. There were Christmas cookies, stuffed mushrooms, meatballs in beer, scallops with bacon, and hot crabmeat dip.




Alex shows Papa what his dinosaur can do.






Alex enjoys the company of two of his Nanas.






Jay and Christine have a good time. Sorry, Christine, No Taters.

Thanksgiving

You might be able to dress a kid up,







But you still have to worry about what he might do in a fancy restaurant.

Egypt Project

Alex had to make a diorama for school. They were studying Egypt. This lovely arrangement is made from a shoe box, parchment paper, colored pencils, rubber stamps, plasticine, ruby decors, and bits of Legos. Inside the sarcophagi is a smallish GIJoe wrapped in an ace bandage. Hey, if I were six inches tall, I'd sign up for a resting place as cool as this!

Tree Tagging

On November 5th we went out to Big John's for our annual tree-tagging jaunt. Our previous record for finding and tagging a tree was under five minutes. Could we beat our record? Laurie scopes out for the perfect tree.





Alex eats the obligatory bag of popcorn.






Tree found, it is wrapped with Valentine's Day party decor, tagged, and released back into the wild to await our return in December.











Alex also visits with the antique fire truck. An annual tradition.






As well as the annual post-tree-tagging visit to the Cracker Barrel restaurant for orange cream soda, Lima beans and pie.