Tonight we had a friend over, who helped us with our continuing project of popcorn strings. These are more work intensive than I'd imagined for the kids, but they really like it when they finish one off. We're going to put some on the new tree we planted, to see if the birds come, and the rest on our xmas tree, when we get it.

The kids have conspired to make even online shopping difficult, but today I did manage to buy some Christmas stuff. Part of my inspiration was that I was allowed to buy my own presents, since Chance is unreliable in this area. So I'm getting the thermometer I've wanted for a while! Look how fun that is! I also got a shirt for Chance from the same company--if you guess which one you get bonus points. Which can be redeemed for...well, nothing. But you would be a darn good guesser!

The other day Buffalo Solider was on the radio. In Seph's interpretation of the song, the men are 'fighting for saliva'.

So yesterday about lunchtime it was 80 degrees, and I was running the AC in the car, because it was so muggy. Last night it snowed. This morning Rone voluntarily put on pants, a jacket and shoes that weren't flip-flops on, so he could go check out the ice (a minor miracle). Both kids went out to pry ice off of Daddy's car so he could drive to work, and learned that bare hands aren't really the best tool for that job.

We're hiding out today--putting up our inside-the-house decorations and having a fire. We may venture out for marshmellows? mallows? One of those. Yesterday we put up our lights in the front yard. I may have gotten a little carried away at Wal-mart with that--but I think we did need more candy canes. And new icicles. And little LED light up presents.

While we were getting all that set up yesterday, we had some excitement. Dimwits buzzed up our street, and shot the van with a paintball gun. I would have been less freaked out if he hadn't been aiming for the open window (remember, it was 80 degrees). I probably would have been even less freaked out if the baby hadn't been napping in the van. I called 311, the non-emergency number to report it, because I yam old (you kids get off my lawn). I was surprised when they transfered me over to 911, and even more surprised when they sent a police officer out to talk to me. The kids were very impressed, and the officer was very nice. What ticked me off most was that they had our entire street to shoot up, and the only place they shot was ours--we were the only people out on the whole street. Why not shoot mailboxes? Street signs? Nothing will do for your testosterone-addled brain but to scare me and my kids?

Cue the smiles:

..and we live in Texas, so barbecued the pig.

The kids were great, and we were home at 2pm today, having driven 808 miles. We all had a good time. Full trip report, and some pictures, when we've settled.

Thanksgiving is wrapping up, and there was lots of food and lots of cousins. There are enough kids for a Kid Table now, and Nanna went all Pottery Barn Holiday Catalog, so it was the cutest kid table ever. The treehouse was a big hit, Uncle Gabe ran boat rides, and Nanna made a pound of bacon nearly every day--all good things!

Cotton is walking for a yard or two at a time on her own, but the BabyShamble is still in effect for most of her transportation needs. I'm going to miss the shamble when this phase is over.

I went to a play by Eric Carle. I saw the very hungry caterpillar the Mixed up Chameleon and The Little Cloud. The theater we went to was a BIG theater in Down town. I also had a sleep over with my friend Emma. It was a Pokemon sleep over!. it was really fun.I also wrote a letter to my friend Alana. well i have to go now By!

Yesterday, the radio station that goes all-holiday songs for December decided to step up their game. It's 80 degrees in Texas. I've been tempted to put the AC on, yet driving home yesterday I hear 'Winter Wonderland' on the radio. I figure I'm crazy, and it's an error.

It's not, because next up is Trans-freaking-Siberian Orchestra.

It's already all-holiday time. How can that be?

Cotton is one year old! To celebrate, she got her first real cold since the RSV scare at the beginning of this year. And this morning Rone woke up with a fever. This all matches well with the wet cough Seph's been working for a day or two.

Today's lessons are shaping up to be all about germs, it seems.

Before the muck set in:

We're watching a 'Secrets of Magic' show tonight as a family. Rone is 3 out of 4 for figuring the trick out. He was insanely accurate on the 'slice a girl in half' trick.

I think this is the flip side of his constant lawyering and searching for loopholes. It plays to his attention to detail, and his desire to watch tv.

Pictures from our trip to the museum today:

And there's one more babyshamble video up.

Cotton will be one year old on Thursday. It's difficult to remember a time when she wasn't here, so it seems like she should be older. She's not walking yet, as you can see in the videos, but she can stand freely and it's not too far off. She's got a few hollers that seem like words, and her favorite food is macncheese. I think. She eats anything, so it's hard to tell. Now that she's moving and has a funny little personality, Seph and Rone really dote on her. They carry her around, hide under blankets together, and help me keep non-food items out of her mouth.

At tennis lesson last week, Rone has a pretty bad fall. Later, when he was showing me one of the scabs, he told me, "It's from when I fell on the court of tennis." Apparently our ordinary patterns of speech aren't formal enough for my son.

We've had some really clear skies here the past few nights, and I got the telescope out. We were able to see Venus, and Jupiter with four of its moons. Seph was shocked that we could do such a thing, and when I pointed the telescope at the moon, she sat out there for about 20 minutes, just looking. I was about as happy as I could be, just watching her watch the moon.