Home for the Holidays

We're headed home for Christmas in the morning. Roundtrip, approximately 2500 miles. The whole Griswold family Christmas vacation before us. The oversized vehicle loaded to the hilt inside with another big luggage box busting at the seams on top.

If you don't hear from me in another week or so, you'll know I bailed out somewhere in between. Seeing as how you're not supposed to drive over 60 mph with one of those things on top of your car, you can probably find me by following the underwear strewn along I-81.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Anchorwoman

If you have a fast connection, you can click on this if you want to see Dylan broadcasting the school news.

Bring in the New

I'm posting this on our new computer. "Old Faithful", after taking all the abuse it could, decided to give up on me. It seems so quiet around here now without hearing that grinding, sick tractor noise that it's been making for months. It was noisy, but it would always manage to crank back up. It wasn't pretty, either, all those wires and the extra keyboards hooked up to it. It's probably best that it's suffering has ended. Although, since Scott did give it to Isaac, that's probably not a true statement.

The rest of us are in slightly better shape. I think Isaac is finally beating this nasty cold that's had him down for a week. The rest of us have had it, but none of us were nearly as miserable as he has been.

The girls have been busy. After singing during the church service on Sunday morning, they performed in a Christmas program Sunday night. Both of them had speaking parts and solos in the program, and they both did great.

Dylan made her broadcasting debut on Monday. Along with her friend, Cameryn, she anchored the school's morning announcement program. I will attempt to post a link to this later. It's really cute.

Dylan's Orchestral Debut

We have been amazed at how Dylan has learned to play her clarinet so well in such a short period of time. Thursday was her first public performance and she did great! We're so proud of her!

(In the group shot, she is behind the post on the right.)

Scott's Turn

I'm usually the one with my mind on so many things that I end up doing something totally brainless (backing out of the garage before letting the garage door up, putting the phone in the refrigerator, etc., etc.). So, it's with glee that I relate the following story.

In the last month, Scott's had problems with his teeth. So he's been working in dentist appointments into his already overfilled schedule. On the last visit, he left work to get a broken crown fixed, taking the tooth with him.

As he was being examined, the dental assistant, looking confused, asked him to wait for a moment while she went to check on something. After a few moments, she returned with the dentist, who began to question Scott about his tooth which, oddly enough, didn't seem to fit into his mouth.

Of course, Scott argued with them. Of course it was his tooth. They were somehow mistaken. He wasn't thinking about the fact that his tooth might not be the only tooth lying around our house in a ziploc bag. He apparently forgot that the tooth fairy sometimes leaves a special little memento for us after one of her frequent late night visits. So there he was. With Dylan's tooth in a bag.

Oh, and this was the same day that he wore his sweater wrong side out.

Now it's my turn to say, "I'm not laughing AT you, ....."

Good Tidings to You

Oh, the joys of the family Christmas photo.

I could write for an hour describing our ordeal, but I'll just hit on the highlights.

Let's start with the weather. It was cloudy, windy, and in the 20's. But Scott was determined to get an outdoor shot. Needless to say, the coordinating outfits were no longer an issue. We would be wearing our heaviest winter survival gear.

Our next problem was the issue of taking the picture ourselves. Nobody else was crazy enough to brave the elements on a Saturday when they could be sleeping in. This meant Scott would have to set up the camera on a tripod and then attempt to get the kids to smile charmingly at a blinking black box.

The biggest problem of all was our very own little Ebenezer who was cold and cranky and in no mood to smile at anything or anyone.

So we got home with about 50 shots. Surely there would be one decent one. That's all we needed. Just one.

We had lots of shots of Scott's profile because the camera was on a 6 second timer and he wouldn't make it in time. We had one shot of just our backs as we are looking down at Scott after he tripped and fell trying to beat the timer. (This was actually funny later on, when we had thawed enough to see the humor in it). There were pictures of Isaac pulling Katherine's hair, pictures of me trying to hold Isaac down as he fought to get free, and lots of pictures with at least one person looking off to the right or left. We ended up with one good shot that captured everyone looking and smiling. The only problem was that Isaac wasn't even in it. He had finally managed a successful escape and was making a run for the car.

So we used the only other picture that met our very low standards - It actually had all five of us in it. It's not a good picture, but it will have to do.

Oh yeah, and to make matters worse, it began to snow the very next day. There were beautiful, picturesque backgrounds in all directions. Scott's mom suggested that we go back out to get a picture of us in the snow. Let me just say, YOU COULD NOT PAY ME ENOUGH TO REPEAT THAT ORDEAL. It's behind us. Over. Done.

Until next year.

Welcome Winter

It's true that I'm not crazy about the cold weather, and it has been cold (26 degrees at noon today).

I have to admit, though, that today was really beautiful. As we were passing all the houses newly decorated for Christmas, it was like a winter wonderland scene come to life. And the girls really had fun sledding and getting some good use out of the snowball maker that Richard and Angie gave them!