Attention Larry Feathers

After While.......Crocodile

A quick shout out to a few members of Daphne's family in Indiana. We miss all of you...have a great Christmas. Send us some of your snow, please.

Three Cheers for the Swing

This video was taken a few weeks ago, but I thought I'd post it now because it makes me happy. Wouldn't it be great to be this excited about something as simple as swinging? I'm glad that Daphne gets to be carefree, at least for a little while, before she finds out about the bad stuff in the world. Look at her face at the end...absolute joy.

(In case you can't hear Daphne because of the dang Chipmunk Song...Sorry! I don't know how to make it stop besides deleting the post, and I don't want to do that...she says "Weeeee...hooray, hooray, hooray").

UPDATE: Chipmunk song disabled!

Monkey Business

Monkey for Jakob
Originally uploaded by Tara H.

The newest member of the Palo Pinto sock monkey family...this is One-Eyed Jack Monkey, and he's on his way to Indiana to live with Jakob.

It's Christmas-Time in Dallas, TX

Big weekend. Here's the basic run-down:

1. Finished placemats
2. Mailed Secret Santa gifts to HPNY
3. Bought Christmas tree
4. Saw owl
5. Ate sweet potato fries
6. Went to breakfast with friends
7. Had tea and chocolate from Portugal
8. Decorated house for Christmas
9. Other

Please check out Number Four. Yes, that's right.

I SAW THE OWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness, I am beside myself with joy.

I didn't tell you that Kev saw the owl a few nights ago when he went running. Oh, I was so mad. But he assured me I would see him, and Saturday night, as we were bringing in the Christmas tree, I happened to look up in our oak tree and there he was. It was too dark to get a good picture, but there he is in the photo below, eyes a-glow. A real owl. In MY tree. We have named him Octavio. There is a chance he should be called Octavia...there is really no way to tell for sure.

You may ask, Tara, now what do you have to look forward to? Your quest has ended. Certainly you feel let down.

Not at all, my friends. Now I just want to see more and more owls. Keep 'em comin'.

Happy happy happy.

Back to Christmas...as you can see from the picture at the top, we put up our tree. We got a real one this year since we won't be travelling. It's taking a while to get the thing finished. We put it up Saturday, put the lights on it last night, and we'll do the ornaments tonight. We have to do things in stages with the Peanut around. She knows the #1 Christmas Tree Rule: No Touchin'. But time will tell if she can resist the temptation. In that picture, we asked her to show us the angel...she is pointing, although it unfortunately looks like she's shooting the bird!

I have been awake since 4:47 am. That is why I have time for all this blogging. We have to go to the Peanut's 18 month doctor visit today and that means shots. I'm taking her for ice cream when it's over. We're both gonna need a treat.

I hope you all had a nice weekend and enjoyed that we finally have some cold weather. I'm officialy declaring Winter and putting the flip-flops away.

Placemats For Us!

Placemats for Us!
Originally uploaded by Tara H.

Today I decided to take a short break from making gifts so that I could make something for us. I had this groovy Christmas fabric, so I decided to make some placemats. We always use the same old boring off-white placemats. These are much more festive. One is finished, three to go. You can't get much easier than sewing four straight lines!

HO HO HO

Santa has been hard at work at our house trying to get everything ready for Christmas. And in spite of battling much sickness, things are moving along pretty well. I found...um I mean SANTA found that cool bird paper on the one dollar aisle at Target! What a bargain.

A couple of things:

If you are going to be doing any gift-wrapping at your house this year, go get one of these. It is only about five bucks, and I swear you will thank me. It has made things so much faster and easier.

Also, please please please try to save and re-use gift bags and boxes and such this year. Think about how much trash we throw away each Christmas.

Also, LarryFeathers has a MAC and has started a new blog here. It is very fancy and interactive. Please read his blog entry "A Good Cause" about helping people if you have time.

If you are going to be doing any air travel, I encourage you to consider the people sitting behind you, and don't lean your seat all the way back. It is really rude, and very uncomfortable for the person behind you. Airplanes are bad enough without all that. And take plenty of hand sanitizer. Planes are full of disgusting horrible germs. And if a curious 18-month-old tries to touch the sparkly chip-clip in your fancy hair-do, just smile, because babies are good. No need to get all huffy. It's Christmas for crying out loud.

And if you are having trouble getting the Christmas spirit, try listening to this: