Happy Holidays...

Here's hoping your 2008 holidays were as fun and uneventful as ours. We love nothing more than a relaxing evening (we do our gift exchange on Christmas Eve) watching those dearest to us marvel at their Christmas bounties :) We always take our time and make an entire evening of it. For the past 17 years this is something that the P & I have really cherished and have usually done alone but having a little one to share in the excitement these past few years has truly added a wonderful new spark to the festivities. Our beloved little H-Man still isn't quite sure what to make of the proceedings... but we're absolutely sure he'll have it all down pat by next year. Plus what's more thrilling than the idea of him having a little brother to share the experience with... we can hardly wait.

I know folks are gonna balk at our little 2 foot tree... what can I say. It's seen us through all 17 Christmases and I love it. Simple to put up and most importantly simple to Take DOWN! Although, the P informs and assures me that next year we're gonna break down and finally purchase a full sized tree. We shall see... there was talk about that this year, but the 1000$ price tag for a 9ft tree really helped support my side of things... being - it's a 1000 bucks you can otherwise spend on really cool presents!




With the holiday behind us we're still totally in L.A.Z.Y. mode... always a pretty damn swell way for the P to enjoy some time off. However, thrown in with all the leisure we are working towards clearing out the baby's room this week. Which we've shamefully been using as a library and storage facility for the past year.... also decluttering closets and moving the computer station out of the spare room and into the office (where it should have been in the first place) - upgrading the guest room with a new mattress set, trying to find new furniture for the theater room and finally adding a small sofa in the playroom. All in an attempt to gear up for the new carpet to be laid. Something we've been looking forward to for some time and with any luck it'll happen within the next few months...
before I start bursting at the seams :)

Late, Late, Late...

First let me just say...

My Christmas cards are gonna be late this year... Obviously.
I really want to include a holiday-ish photo of H-Man...
Which as you all know - is really going out on a limb for me.
Seems like a simple enough task... Auy-ya, as if.
Hind sight is 20/20 and had I known what a trial it would prove to be I'd have started back in May.

I know a lot of folks do the whole photo with Santa bit... but I just couldn't. These photo ops really creeped me out as a kid and I just wouldn't ever subject Lil' H to that form of torture. There's a good reason most kids completely freak out when they're subjected to this horror - I So totally get their point of view and back them up 100%. Thankfully my brother used to go completely apeshit just looking at the line - so we only had to endure it a few times :)
I think this fella pictured below is a terrific representation of how most kids (me included) see those ominous stranger danger Santie Clauses that crop everywhere this time of year.

So that said... it looks like our Christmas cards will be masquerading as New Year's cards this year :) Ahhh well.

The Trash Man Cometh...

One of H-Man's favorite entertainments during our visit to the

National Aviary over the weekend was collecting all the fallen leaves

on the breeze ways and pushing them off the railing.

Sure all the birds were cool ---

but lil' H really enjoyed these enclosed open areas.

Where the birds were free to roam and fly about at will

and there were tons of plants and trees to see and explore.

He really is our little trash man and loves to have things nice and tidy --

even within Nature :)

National Aviary Visit...

We headed over the National Aviary today.

They house over 600 species of birds -

we're talking all kinds of cool.

Getting H Man to move from one section to another can be a challenge.
He's not really terrific with transitions.
Plus it's complicated by the fact that he totally doesn't seem to trust us...
like we're going to take his fun away at every possible turn.
He's always giving us suspicious looks and
never, ever going quietly or all that willingly.

Of course, once it's time to actually leave -
his worst fears are realized, then all hell breaks loose.

It must be tough to be little and love doing everything
so much that you never want things to come to an end.
Poor little fella.

Books Read... July - October 2008

I may not have much of a hankerin' for sweets...
But books... Oh Yeah.
I'm a bit of a book glutton and will read just about anything that's fiction.
I like single novels and really enjoy a good series.
My sidebar list has been taking up more and more room --
so I'm moving most of it into this post. All titles are still linked with Amazon.com so that you can get the details about the books and their authors. If you've got a title or an author to recommend - speak up!
I'm always on the prowl for a good wordsmith.

Here's a list of books read between July and October 2008 --

Fearless Fourteen
Lean Mean Thirteen
Plum Lovin'
Twelve Sharp
Eleven on Top
Ten Big Ones
To the Nines
Visions of Sugar Plums
Hard Eight
Seven Up
Hot Six
High Five
Four to Score
Three to Get Deadly
Breaking Dawn
Eclipse
With Child
New Moon
Twilight
The Mummy's Ransom
The Deader the Better
Dirty Work
Lying in Wait
Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca?
McNally's Chance
McNally's Folly
Two for the Dough
One for the Money
Lost Light
The Accidental Tourist
Ransom Unpaid
McNally's Gamble
Son of a Witch
Wicked
The Sugar House
McNally's Dilemma
The Short Forever
The Alienist
The Worthing Saga
The Game