Better Watch Out!

Here is a little Christmas chuckle to share.

Though A is 9 and is well aware of the Santa situation, he is very helpful with Santa preparations for the little ones.

Last night when daddy asked him if he had gotten Santa some milk to go with his cookies, A replied "Oh, I forgot."

Daddy - "You better get some. You wouldn't want Santa to choke on his cookies."

A - "No.........................but I would have a whole, big bag of presents!"


Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. Much love to those we can't visit with this Christmas.

Venting

So here is my first venting blog! Am I venting about the never-ending pile of laundry, the 5+ glasses of spilled milk last week, the weekly visit to get A's glasses fixed, the poopy underwear that I cleaned up this morning?!? (Okay, maybe a little!:-) ) Yet, the real vent is about my camera troubles. I have had this wonderful, reliable, point-and-shoot EasyShare camera for about 4-5 years, and now I can't take a picture without doctoring it so that it is bright enough to see. Here we are approaching Christmas, and camera-happy me can't take a decent picture. To top it all off, today, my EasyShare software decides it won't let me in to doctor for more than a minute before it shuts down. As I moan and grumble, I sit here in my warm, fully-stocked home, while the freezing wind whistles around my house and my beautiful, picture-perfect (other than a little hat-head!) children giggle over some hot chocolate.. Guess things aren't so bad!

SnowAlien

The boys built an awesome snowalien (He has an extra head behind Ki-Ki and Neil-te and an extra nose and eye.) with my mother's helper on Thursday, and wanted me to post a picture of it. They built it pre-snowstorm, so now he is buried under a foot of snow, but Anni still wants to bark at the "stranger mound" in the yard.

Poison, Dear?

A couple of months ago, we were informed by the health department that some area wells had traces of arsenic. We had our well tested and found that we also have trace amounts of arsenic. We have been using bottled water since we found out - even though our 87 year old neighbor is still drinking her water, shoveling her own driveway, and has no sign of arsenic in her blood! Something about the concept of giving this water to my children is just disturbing. So I have been filling water jugs at our parents', at church, and at friends' houses. I was nearly out of water yesterday, and commented to hubby that we needed more. He responded that it is too much hassle, and we should just drink our own water. He could just say, "Poison, dear? It's very refreshing!" :-)

Early Christmas

Hubby and the boys wrapped some Christmas gifts for their cousins on Saturday while KiKi was napping. They then put the gifts under the Christmas tree. It looked quite festive, and the boys were proud of themselves. Yesterday was very busy, and I am not sure that KiKi even noticed the gifts; but when I went downstairs this morning, it looked just like Christmas morning. There were wrapping paper and gifts strewn across the entire room! KiKi was reprimanded by his brothers, but I didn't even know what to say. Do I punish him when I never told him that they weren't for him and when I left him unsupervised so that I could take a shower?!? I am actually astonished that I ever thought they were safe! Unfortunately, I cleaned up the mess before I thought to take a picture; but here is a chocolate-faced Mr. Innocent!

Happy Birthday, Sister-in-Law

Birthday greetings to my brother's wife! Hope that she is doing something wonderful in sunny Florida on this birthday! We love you! (I realize that Banana is doing a half-blink, but it was my only recent whole-family shot. Hmmmmm.... wonder who could rectify that problem????)

Frogs, anyone?

SS and I had to stay home from our weekly church dinner last night because KiKi was running a fever. I was very enthused when SS said that she would cook; she is an excellent cook. I almost always enjoy her meals. I can't handle some of the spices because they are too hot, but... So last night she was craving frog. We've eaten frog with her before, but when I watched her pulling out the innards and thrusting the frogs in a too-small pot so that their legs stuck straight up in the air, I thought that I might not be able to handle it. However, they were delicious and a wonderful reminder to not look at the food before she cooks it! (I did encourage her to cut off the feet next time though, since I really don't like looking at them on my plate!)