They've Messed with the Wrong Girl

Christmas morning was spent at home, just with our immediate family. We leisurely spent the morning opening a few presents and of course, the best ones were things that the kids had picked out for us or had wrapped themselves. Example: Evelyn created her own wrapping paper by coloring a piece of white paper with a design and used it to wrap and tape a candy cane to death for me. She even created her own miniature tag with "TO MOM LOVE EVELYN" on it. Kenneth had chosen a chocolate-scented candle at Target with his Nana because he knew I would love it. I could not be more blessed. Later that day we headed over to my Mom and Dad's house and met up with them and Elizabeth's family for a dinner. The cousins always enjoy each other.

Today, I took the kids to the Texas Memorial Museum, which, despite its name, is somewhat of a natural history museum. The best thing about it is that it's free! The museum had several exhibits specific to Texas natural history, which made it more interesting for the kids. For example, we saw a huge underwater dinosaur skeleton that was found in the Austin area. Just neat. I should have brought my camera and am seriously regretting that I didn't.

On a different note, I noticed water leaking out of our water softener and when Rod got home tonight he confirmed that it was indeed broken--just a rubber piece on the inside so hopefully it's easy to find a replacement piece. All of the household water has to run through the softener (at least how ours is set up) so we had to turn off the main water source to the house to avoid continued leakage. I'll have to take the kids out first thing in the morning until it's fixed. We have people coming over for dinner on Friday so we need a solution ASAP!

Evelyn was outside with me briefly this evening when we went to get the mail and we saw our neighbor with several of her age-11 friends waiting for a pizza guy to deliver pizzas for a birthday party. One of the girls in the group must have said something like 'that girl is staring at us -- that's weird' because Evelyn heard it (she does not miss anything). I'm sure they were just being 11-year olds in herd form, but Evelyn has not experienced that yet. When we got inside she told me what she had heard and added "Mom. When I heard that girl say that, I just thought in my mind 'they've messed with the wrong girl.'"

Getting Ready for Christmas

Last night we got back from a nice trip to Houston to visit Rod's family. We saw his Mom and Tracy, Rod's grandmother, Scott and Lucy, and Gwen's family was visiting as an added bonus. Tatum is the most independent child I have ever met. Jeff had been on deployment for 7 months, so he just got back to his family and you can tell he's enjoying it.

We spent tonight back in P-ville getting ready for Christmas. The kids and I baked roll-out cookies and they decorated them. In contrast to the usual angels, crosses, Christmas trees, etc., Evelyn made a cookie snake for Santa "because Santa would appreciate that." She was actually very creative with the snake design.

We've been listening to old Christmas records that I listened to with my family when I was growing up. They really are much better than most of the currently available music fare, such as Mariah Carey's blah blah annoying songs.

Have a fabulous Christmas with your family and friends!

Purse Returned!

In a wonderful turn of events, someone found my purse on the street in Rod's Mom's neighborhood and tracked us down! Yea!

MIssing Purse

If you have located my purse (lost in Houston area) and found this site via my driver's license, please call me at 512-517-3746. Thank you!

Vacation Starts!

The past few days have been great. We hosted our neighborhood Christmas party and had a great time. Basically, everybody congregated in the kitchen the whole time and we laughed about suburban incidents.

We saw Tiffani, Jim, and Abby on their way back from a family trip to San Antonio. We met at Central Market, and Fred, Jed, Adrian, and Nate joined us as well. Later that night we went to the Zilker Park Trail of Lights. It was busy, but it was very fun. Most of the displays were pretty traditional, but there was one that had some kind of bastardized Jetson's theme with Santa in the flying car. Not sure where that came from. Supposedly Dell sponsored that display. Someone thought it was a good idea.

I went into work today, but now I'm on vacation till 1/2/07. Sometime over the break we have to work on Kenneth's Science Fair project. I have to admit that I hated Science Fair while in school, but Ken had a great idea so this one should be pretty fun--it's a take on 'Will it Float?'.

Evelyn lost her 2nd tooth tonight. She is quite excited. Nana was here to witness it!

The 3rd Grade Holiday Concert

Kenneth was in a 3rd grade Holiday Concert this evening. The picture is pretty bad, but it was the best I could do, given the seating and lighting circumstances. He was great! He had a speaking part (brief as it was) and sounded very natural, unlike many of the other kids. (Bragging Mom moment--sorry.) We heard songs about Christmas, Hannukah, Kwaanza, and threw in a Feliz Navidad. The kids were really great and were clearly enthusiastic.

After the 3rd grade portion, the music instructor told the audience that we would be treated to a 5-song set by the 5th grade honor choir after a short break (What does 'honor choir' mean anyhow at the elementary level?) This was a surprise to me and the other adults around me (after a quick verbal poll). I think they were trying to force a performance on an already captive audience. Love to watch my kids (or kids of friends) perform, but I'm not too interested in watching a random performance. Given that we were about to be stuck for 30 more minutes, we bolted as soon as Kenneth came back to where we were seated. You know there were some other parents thinking what a poor example we were setting. I call it taking advantage of an easy exit.

More 5-Year Old Conversations

Elena was at our house again today. While they were coloring, they had a conversation about stealing and it was so funny I wrote it down as they were talking so I could type it out later.

Elena: "I used to steal, but now I don't."

Evelyn: "Stealing is bad. You know what happens when you steal?"

Elena: "Jail. Jail, Jail, Jail."

Evelyn: "You don't get to see anyone in your family for three whole days."

Elena: "I'm not allowed to steal anymore."

Evelyn: "Can I have the red crayon?"

I Saw Santa, No I Saw Santa

Evelyn and Elena (our neighbor) spent time debating on the reality of Santa while coloring at my kitchen table today. Kenneth knows the real deal and is keeping up the charade until Evelyn is ready to understand. The conversation went something like this:

Elena: "My grandma told me there is no Santa." (I have separate thoughts on grandmas breaking that kind of news.)

Evelyn: "Santa IS real. I saw him flying to our house last year. And I heard his jingles."

Elena: "Maybe you're right. Sometimes my grandma lies. Dad says so."

Evelyn: "Lying is not good behavior."

I was snickering when I heard that last part.