Excellent source of sparkles!

To give you an idea of the sense of humor my brother and I share, here is what I put in his Christmas stocking:



In case you are worried about the nutritional value of your canned meat, the label assures you that the contents contain 100% daily value of magic, rainbows, giggles and sunshine, among other things. (Click to see a larger version.)



When you open the tin, you notice that perhaps the meat isn't as thoroughly processed as you might have hoped. But that means it's fresher, right?



Besides, ALL the parts are there. Now that's quality.



Mmmm. And don't worry, the nuns at Radiant Farms give their elderly unicorns the best possible life before humanely escorting them to their next stage of usefulness.

Christmas 2010

We've had some lovely sunsets. In winter the air can be so clear, and the trees have lost their leaves and don't obstruct the horizon so much, so it's a great time for watching the sun go down. On the Solstice night, Daddy and I stayed up most of the night, going outside periodically to look at the total lunar eclipse. There was intermittent cloud cover, but we were able to see the moon often enough to track the progress of the eclipse.



On Christmas Eve, Allie and Layla, Charlie, Taylor and Alex came over and we had our Christmas celebration: gifts and a barbecued ribs dinner. Layla happily monopolized the camera, so most of the pictures are of her, but I'll include one short video Allie appeared in.

Layla played with the crocheted nativity set to dramatize the nativity story, then gloated over her pile of presents, which was "the biggest of anyone's!" Later, we opened crackers. (A British tradition -- you pull apart a wrapped paper tube that contains a firecracker, jokes, small toys, and a tissue paper crown. It's sort of a smaller, less violent piñata, I suppose.)





Text of Layla's story: "Once upon a time there was a beautiful butterfly. Then a hippo appeared. Then they were BFF. THE END"

Wisconsin road trip photos and a note about Facebook

Last week, Mama and Daddy and I had the opportunity to take a roadtrip up north to visit relatives. We managed to see almost everyone, which was really nice, and to my delight there was plenty of snow. Daddy was less thrilled, because of the very cold temperatures and the fact that he was doing most of the driving in the difficult conditions. (Thank you, Daddy!) These thumbnail photos will click you through to the larger version, but if you just want to browse the whole mess on Flickr it's here (first four pages or so).

Edgerton train station & an old tobacco warehouse; the old Janesville Oasis giant cow statue (with giant bucket!)




We were able to visit Grammy in her nursing home a few times. It seemed pretty nice. (Though, sad to say, based on my childhood experiences, all a nursing home has to do to impress me is not smell bad.) It is or used to be a Catholic establishment.




The Rock River out Grandma S's backyard; young evergreens in the front.




One night, we drove up to Uncle Dan and Aunt Bobbie's and got to see their new house, have a lovely meal, and then in the morning I got up before dawn to take pictures of the snowy landscape. I got to see the light and snow going from black to dark blue to gray and finally the sun broke through the clouds over the farm valley.














This is sunset at Uncle Harv and Aunt Claire's, where we had a wonderful gathering with Daddy's side of the family. The night before, we'd had a blue moon, the second full moon in a calendar month.




Typical Illinois farm scene. Corn stubble, silos... FLAT.




Windblown ripples on snow; frost on the car's sunroof.




By the time we made it to Missouri, we thought the snow was gone, but we didn't count on four inches falling on our hotel in Springfield! The roads were pretty sloppy (but pretty!) all the way through northwestern Arkansas.



*

Family members encouraged Mama and me to sign up on Facebook because it's an easy way to share photos and personal news/randomness. I've gotten Mama all set up, she has scads of contacts already, but I'm apprehensive for myself. I know I don't have to spend a lot of time on it if I don't want to, but the general idea of social networking seems scary to a shy person. I don't think I want to be searchable to everyone in the world who knows my name, or knows someone who knows me! If anyone has ideas on how to work around the feeling (or fact) of techno-social overexposure, I'd love to hear them. :)

Holiday wishes

May you all have a peaceful Christmas and a beautiful Winter.







Apologies for getting carried away with the effects in that second card. :)


Here are a few pictures from our day with Allie and Layla. We took them to Build-a-Bear Workshop and then opened presents and played a few games at home. Layla wasn't feeling well some of the time, but she was determined not to let it ruin her day!

Recipes and an autumn weekend

Novelty cookie recipe: Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies. I made these for my brother this weekend, and although it sounds like a terrible idea, try it before you decide! (Unless you just don't like bacon, chocolate, or cookies, of course.) The consensus here seemed to be that they're surprisingly good, and they don't taste "meaty."



And another recipe that might be of interest with the holidays coming up: Gingerbread House. It's much easier to buy one of the kits with the gingerbread already baked and cut in the right sized pieces, but if you want to do it from scratch, this could work. I did it last year and Allie and Layla helped decorate it; it was very fun. (Edit: My bad! Andy provided vital assistance in the construction and decoration of the gingerbread house, too.)



We got to spend a day with Allie and Layla this weekend, so I'll continue learning to work with Flickr and share some pictures. (I've edited the links so they lead to large versions of the photos, rather than the photo page on Flickr, which I've made Friends/Family only. Let me know if it doesn't work!)

Layla had fun with a pile of leaves in the front yard.




And here she is playing with Zoe, and with pudding.


Allie is as tall as Grandma now!