Once in a Blue Moon

According to my research, which was a bit shoddy, we are in for a blue moon tomorrow night. I think this is an excellent way to ring in the New Year.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Pajamas!

My favorite part of Christmas this year (besides The Crud) was the pajama photo shoot.


Mother had made us all awesome pajama pants this Christmas, so naturally a photo shoot was in order.


Mary wanted to do a Not Serious photo, and for some reason, Not Serious meant volleyball. We didn't plan it, and somehow we ended up with a bump, set, spike photo. I don't even like volleyball. It's a great photo, though.


Also, did you notice that the males have duck pants? Duck=Manly, of course. Well, if you didn't notice the ducks, I'm holding Brandon's leg up so you can see it more clearly. Enjoy!

Grandma's got The Crud.

This year I got a cold during the Christmas holidays. Usually when one person gets a cold in the house, everyone else can ward it off pretty well.

That didn't happen this year.

I got a cold, then the kids got a cold, Mary, then Dad, then Brandon and Jodie got sick as well. It's nice to see how unified we have become.

Paul, Marissa and Mother, however, the stalwart ones, have yet to experience any symptoms, but we'll see.

Grandma had spent time with us as well, and she was doing fine.

This morning she called the house and I answered the phone:

Me: Hey Grandma.
Gma: Hey, how you doing?
Me: Okay, how are you?
Gma: Is your father there?
Me: Sure.
Gma: I think I've caught The Crud.


If you think you have caught The Crud, I'm sorry to say, you may have picked it up at our house. We are pretty sure that is where Grandma got it.

Christmas Miracles

Is it too early to discuss Christmas Miracles? We have a few days yet before Christmas, so there might be a Christmas Miracle that has yet to happen, but I so wanted to post on Christmas Miracles. I dearly love them. They seem to happen to me all the time. I'm sure they happen to you as well. The first of the season happened the night of Vine Street. You see, it had been pouring rain all day and it didn't look like there was going to be any chance to make it there this year. We were quite distraught as we had heard the Grinch was to make his Vine Street debut.

Well, we were eating dinner in rather glum spirits when Mother suddenly noticed that it had stopped raining. (Christmas Miracle #1) Mother hollered, "Everybody get in the car!!!!!!!!!"
So we did. We went to pick up Jodie and the kids, and then we picked up Judy, and we were on our way to Paso. And we did it. We got to see the Grinch.








It was a dream come true. I recommend making those pictures larger, and you will see how awesome they are. And how awesome his set was. Well, after we had our fill of the Grinch, we walked around a bit more, and soon it started to rain. No problem, I'll just employ my hood. (The hood on a new jacket that I bought in the summer at half price which is not really a Christmas Miracle because it happened mid-summer, so it's more of a mid-summer type Miracle, so we won't count it here in our Christmas miracle list even though this jacket and its price point were truly miraculous.)

After a few more minutes in the rain, it became necessary to head back to the car. By then it was pouring down and we were quite wet. Upon reaching the car, I still had to wait a while in the rain as I was one of the last people to get into the van. Finally, it was my turn and everyone was beckoning me in. So, blinded by the rain and my hood, I hurled myself toward the opening of the van. With a thud my head hit the top of the door frame and I fell backward.

I totally did not see that coming.

Judy caught me as I splashed into the gutter. Embarrassed, I slowly climbed into my seat and took stock of my injuries.

No blood.
No gash.
No broken skin.
Head throbbing.
Goose egg forming.
Very warm to the touch.
Vision improved.

What?

Vision improved??? It was a Christmas Miracle.
#2.



Yesterday Paul and Marissa arrived at our house. Their daughter Audrey takes a while to warm up to people, even if she's met you before. I didn't have high hopes for her remembering that she liked me. I estimated 24 hours. Within 48 minutes of her arrival, Audrey willingly hugged me. Christmas Miracle #3.



So every Sunday after Church, Mother goes to pick up Grandma. She takes the same route nearly every time. I've taken this route many times in my life. Those roads are full of deer. I would say almost 80% of the time I will spot a deer. Well, today I had the pleasure of the Grandma pick-up, and as we traveled the same roads as always we saw some deer. Grandma gasped. "Oh!" She says. "I haven't seen a deer this close in a very long time!"

"It's a Christmas Miracle!" said Mother.

Christmas Miracle #4, Mother.

Christmas Miracle number four.

No Idea

I have no idea how I'm going to wash my clothes or clean my room this week when I'm watching The Sing-Off every night for two hours. Also, the commercial breaks aren't even very long. Even now, I can hear the show starting again. I can't hardly write a couple sentences, let alone clean my room during a commercial break!

I need a DVR. Add that to my Christmas list.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This picture was taken on Tara's camera, and she just now posted it on her blog, so I just swiped it. Happy Thanksgiving!

Logical Explanation

It has been freezing here, and it has confused me to no end. I'm not saying, "Oh, I've been so cold," I'm saying, "It has actually been below freezing when I leave in the morning and when I come home at night."

It's weird. I don't remember it ever being this cold here. Maybe I have a bad memory, but I'm pretty sure this weather is a bunch of crazy talk. And it seemed to have come on suddenly. Only one month ago I was at the beach, enjoying the sun, sand, and surf. And now, well now I want as many layers as possible when I go outside.

My only logical explanation for all of this is that Jodie brought the cold with her. She's from the Great White North, you know.

Fabulously Successful Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, the family participated in a 8 mile run and two mile walk.
Well, to be specific, Brandon participated in the 8 mile run, and the rest of us participated in the two mile walk.

It appears we are going the wrong way...



We set out with the rest of the group at a pretty good pace. The most short legged children were tucked away into the Cougar and the adults and Elle were making good time.

But then we found a leaf.


And it just so happened that we needed some leaves for our Thanksgiving table decorations this year. Then, about two minutes into the walk, Wade needed to get out of the Cougar and run. He ran the remaining first mile. Running usually speeds things up, but seeing how he's only 20ish months old, it kinda took awhile.



And then I found this cool thing growing from the trees we passed. I have no idea what it is, but it makes a lovely Thanksgiving picture. I love California.


And then, I found a spider about to enjoy his Thanksgiving feast! Spiders give me the heebeegeebees, but I braved through it to capture this great shot.



So, 50 minutes later, we crossed the finish line. That's right. Two miles in 50 minutes.
Ten minutes later Brandon came across the finish line.
I'm glad we didn't have to wait long for him.





After the race it was time to go set the table! Woot woot! I love it!

Because our white rose bush is obsessed with blooming, even at the end of November, I decided to make good use of those pretty blooms and I put them on our table.


I got that vase at a giant garage sale. I just wanted you to know that.

And now, a gazillion pictures of my Thanksgiving tables:






We were watching football in the background. Can you see it?






The Thanksgiving Grouse.
And Grandma.

It was a fabulously successful Thanksgiving. I'd be willing to do it again next year.

Christmas List

I like gifts. And, in case you wanted to prove your friendship by getting me something for Christmas, I have a few ideas, in no particular order:

1) A calendar. As you may know, I take comfort in many calendars, so feel free to purchase all you want. If you can manage to get Gary Larson out of hiding long enough for him to produce a Far Side wall calendar, I will promise to be your best friend. Unless I don't actually know you, then there will be an initial trial period before I make any commitments. And, not to be too picky, but I don't particularly like anything cute of cuddly on my calendars. Or lame-stick. Scenery type things are usually good. Or funny. And pay special attention to the fonts.

Okay, never mind with all that, just surprise me.

2) A letter opener. Right, you are surprised that no one has yet to purchase the Gryffindor letter opener. I am just as surprised as you are. I'm borderline shocked, actually.

3) A CamelBak reservoir dryer. I just don't think the old dryer that I have is very efficient.

4) Books. I simply adore books. I love how they look on the inside, and I love how they look on the outside.

5) Stemware. I'm really looking for a set of eight.

6) Office supplies. I love pens, highlighters, sticky notes and paper clips. I do. I really do love them.

7) Stationary. Not lame-stick stationary. Cool stationary.


Well, that list should be sufficient for your shopping needs. If you want to just mail the items straight to me from the manufacturer, that is fine. I'll keep my eye out for the UPS guy.

100 Is Old

This was a mistake.

I basically knew it would be, but I ate it anyway. You see, I've never eaten one before, and I was on a road trip. It just seemed like the ideal time to venture a MoonPie. I was certainly wrong. But on to other things, eh? How about a stop at the General Patton Memorial Museum? We had lunch there. It was wicked hot, but we did it anyway. Here we have the Wades eating over at the boy table. We are all about boy girl separation these days.

I know, I know, I need to explain myself. You see, last weekend was my Great Grandma's 100th birthday celebration. Yeah! I know right! One hundred years! Holy smokes! I wasn't going to miss that party, and neither was my family. So we crammed as many people as we could into the van and headed to Phoenix. At the end of the 10ish hour drive, Elle proudly proclaimed how awesome she was for not sleeping even once on the trip.

Way to go Elle.
But back to the General Patton Memorial Museum. I saw this guy there, and his outfit was so ridiculous, I simply had to take a picture.

Did you notice the socks and the Birkenstocks? Did you notice his holster of electronics?
Good. I'm glad you noticed all those things.

Like last time, we rented a house so we could all stay in the same place. This house was a "ranch with a modern interior" and they weren't kidding about it being "modern". I have decided I like the look of modern but I simply couldn't live with it for any serious amount of time.


Please notice Jodie's expression in the above photo. This is her Kitchen Face. According to my research, she almost always makes this face when she is in the kitchen. She probably didn't know this, so I figured I would use this forum to inform her of her Kitchen Face.

I would like to make a plug for renting houses while you are on vacation with your family. It beats the pants off renting hotel rooms. Everyone gets to be in one place, all together. This is (hopefully) more fun. The kids get to run around screaming like crazies and it's no problem. Also, the adults get to play high intensity and/or hilarious games after the children go to bed. ALSO, houses usually come with yards and kitchens, so we get to play outside, and make our own meals instead of eating out the whole time. AND, when it comes down to it, the costs are relatively comparable. I'm just saying. Renting is da bomb dot com.

For example, would this scene have happened in a hotel? I think not.

Here we have a cousin face-off for the last juice box:

But please, with all the wonderful, positive attributes of vacationing with the immediate family, let us not forget that we came to Arizona to celebrate 100 years!


Thanks to my Great Grandma, I've got cousins:

Yes. That's a side-bun I'm sporting. Mary helped me with it. You want to see a closer picture? Okay. Here is the bun at the end of the day:


And here we have the men... looking at something. They are looking at a kid, I'm guessing.

Another perk of staying in the same place as your family is the increase of available shoes. Audrey spent all weekend trying on Bryn and Elle's shoes.


Bryn's favorite part about vacation is the permission to run in the sprinklers at 8:30 in the morning.

Everyone was in charge of a meal. Brandon chose to grill hamburgers, and Paul chose supervision.


After dinner, the girls had the option of reading bed time stories or playing a game.
Duck Duck Goose was chosen every night.


We play elimination Duck Duck Goose. You see all those people on the couch behind Brandon? They were eliminated.
The last three were Brandon, Paul, and Bryn. That wasn't surprising, as they were the favorites from the start.


Sunday was the perfect time for a few family pictures.
This weekend was the first time that Wade and Audrey have met since their existence.





Later we went to the Grandparent's house for some more family bonding.

Don't mess with these guys:


Some old people:


Happy Birthday Great Grandma! Wicka wicka!