Santa, While You're Here...

We've had a wonderfully relaxing break so far and had a great Christmas together. Evelyn and Kenneth opened a single gift on Christmas Eve--both chose the nerf dart shooters and fun ensued. In the midst of the play, Evelyn lost one of the darts. She decided it would be a good idea to ask Santa to look around for it when he dropped in.

Kenneth has been doing a lot of drawing lately. He's very diligent about it and pays close attention to detail. We bought him a special binder to hold his artwork. I'll have to look into lessons or something for him, but in the meantime we'll just keep on encouraging him. I've posted a few of his recent drawings. What a joy it is to be part of their lives!

Family Versions of Elf-Yourself

These are too funny. Kenneth couldn't stop laughing. Be sure to turn on the volume.

Erin, Rod, Kenneth, & Evelyn:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1632005144

Caleb, Kyle, & Ann Marie:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1632365522

Nana & Pops:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1632488423

Grandpa Merle & Grandma Linda
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1704221223

Stealth Wal-mart Shoppers

It is possible that Evelyn has helped our family measurably contribute to the bottom line of the companies that make the cartoon-character band-aids. She is quick to apply them and exhaustive in her application. I'm not sure exactly how she got the surface scrapes on her knee in the picture, and to the best of my knowledge, she had no physical injury on her nose.


I pretty much avoid going to Wal-mart. It's not because of any grander concern with unfair practices that may or may not be true. It is because something always happens. Usually the "something" is of the lengthy checkout line nature. Despite the guaranteed but unknown issue, I made a trip to Wal-mart tonight after the kids went to bed to see if I could find a particular CD for a gift that's been tricky to track down. While there, I figured I could get a few grocery items as well. Why not, right? I got my cart, placed my 3 post-it notes of need-to-get-items onto the front seat flap, filled it with a few things, then made my way to the music section to look for the CD. I parked the cart in an unobtrusive place, not blocking any aisles. About 10 minutes later, after unsuccessfully searching for the CD, I returned to the cart and found it in the middle of an aisle, in a really awkward place, and my post-it note arrangement was grouped together and moved to the main part of the basket. I thought a Wal-mart employee had moved it with the thought that someone had abandoned it. When I tried to push it, it felt like something had gotten caught under the wheel; after a few more attempts at pushing it dawned on me. Some FREAK stealth shopper had switched carts with me because they picked a bad cart that was hard to move when they entered the store. I was probably being mocked from a distance by the cart hijackers.

No Caves for Mom

It's the final week before school lets out for a 2-week vacation. The kids are ready for the break, but they're also excited about the classroom parties that will go on this week. Kenneth's class has chosen Mexican food as a theme (what says "Christmas" more than burritos?--hey it's TX). We've been given tortilla chips as the item for which we're responsible. Evelyn's class is a different story, however. The 1st grade has collectively chosen to have a breakfast party. We've been assigned a fruit tray. Sigh. I figure the teachers assign the "responsible" mothers the difficult items. Heck if I'm going to pay HEB for a prepared tray either (they charge mucho $$$$ for those), which means I'll be slicing apples and arranging grapes at 6:30 Thursday morning.

We had the Discover channel on one evening recently...which led to a very amusing comment/observation from Evelyn.

Discovery Narrator: "Caves remain one of the least explored places on earth: at least, by man."
Evelyn: "Yeah, women don't go into caves. At least women like Mom don't."

Rod and I about died laughing. So true though.

Is There Such a Thing as Horse Dander?

We have had a very busy week so far. Kenneth performed in his Bulldog Honor Choir on Friday night for the WinterFest. Songs ranged from traditional carols to Feliz Navidad and Hanukkah songs. Last Saturday, Kenneth and Evelyn were invited to a birthday party at a horse-riding lessons place up in Round Rock. Each child was walked around a fenced-in area for about 20 min. and if they were adapting well, the trainers took them to a trot level. They both had a blast. In fact, all of the kids had a good time. No one cried or was injured, which is an accomplishment at any party, but particularly so when you throw horses in the mix. However, we did find out that we can add horse dander to Kenneth's long list of allergies. Poor guy. He got off the horse with hives all over his face and arms. No more horses for the Wallines.

I've been listening to a bunch of old Christmas records that belonged to my parents; the songs are so much better than some of the painful renditions that you can hear on the radio (a la Mariah Carey). My favorite is this "Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Band" trumpet-based record that insinuates that I should be making a cheese ball and cocktails for imminently-arriving, hip guests.

I can hardly believe Christmas is almost here. My sweeties hammed for the camera in front of the fully, fabulously decorated tree.

Santa Pics

These pictures are from the neighborhood party last Sunday. Rod took the kids out yesterday and let them pick out a Christmas tree. Of course, they also came home with candy canes, an 8-pack box of ornaments, a pack of razors, and a Snickers bar. (This is what happens when you send Rod on a singular mission.) This afternoon, I put on the tree lights and let the kids go for it as far as ornament placement. It is pretty funny because only the front of the tree was covered, yet they had overcompensated for their height and clustered everything up higher than would be expected. I rearranged only a little bit because the wonderful part of a Christmas tree is seeing what each child deems important. Evelyn arranged the new pack of ornaments all in a row, so that they're touching each other.

Jury Duty Fun

It's been awhile since I posted any pictures. This is partly my fault, but I can blame Rod a bit too. He has yet to retrieve the Thanksgiving photos (and a few others) off of his computer for me. Don't worry--I am persistent.

We spent some time this weekend getting the Christmas decorations down so that we could slowly start decorating the house. The advent calendar was the critical item, because who wants to start an advent calendar a week late? We have not yet gotten a tree, although we may manage to get one this week. Definitely by this weekend though... The neighborhood association had a little gathering with Santa visits and a small train for the kids on Sunday. The train was a bigger hit than anticipated, even with kids Kenneth's age.

Rod has been busily getting the third issue of his B/CS community newspaper out the door. The first two issues have been received very well by people in the town and there is a bit of a local rock star phenomenon happening for him (and his partner, Chris) when they are seen around town. (Each issue has their picture in the front, as part of the editors' note.) We experienced this as a group when we made a day trip to CS on Saturday and went out to eat with Chris and his family. While Rod was working on a few loose ends on the newspaper, the kids and I visited Elizabeth's family. Caleb and Kyle were so happy to see Kenneth and Evelyn. In fact, Kyle actually ran to me and hugged me (a first..., because he's usually shy with me).

I was summoned for the Travis County jury duty selection process this afternoon. I had to go downtown and pay $15 to park in a garage 8 blocks away because the particular courthouse where the trial was going to occur did not have nearby parking, other than metered street parking (which is 2 hours, max). Of course, I was one of maybe 5 potential jurors that actually obeyed the 'park on your own or take the Dillo' message. (Note: the 'Dillo is a semi-ridiculous name for the free downtown trolley system, short for Armadillo, I guess?? I wouldn't even know where to begin taking a 'Dillo even if I thought it was a good idea.) Everyone else parked next to the courthouse in metered parking and were told that the county would pay for any parking tickets incurred over the course of the five hours that we were there. I'll know better next time. The case turned out to be in a Criminal Court. Since I was not chosen to continue with jury duty I do not know the case details (and, I suppose, couldn't share anyhow if I was selected); however, we were informed that it was a 1st degree felony case that included burglary and some form of aggravated assault (which could have been murder in the worst form). We also knew that the defendant had been previously been convicted on a 1st degree felony. Nice. Figures my first call for jury duty had the potential to be so dramatic. I am glad I wasn't picked. Highlights of the time I was there:

* Each of us was assigned a number, which we had to label on an index card and hold up as we stood in a line for 30 minutes waiting to be invited to sit in the courtroom. There were sixty of us, standing around, not talking.

* Listening to an annoying guy engaging in banter with the corrections officer who was monitoring us. "So, let's say that someone didn't get the first letter." "What if someone didn't reply to the email that asks for the acknowledgement with capitalized first and last name?" "What happens if someone leaves the building on one of the breaks and doesn't come back?" Blah blah blah.

* Fitting 7 people onto a bench that should really only comfortably fit 5. It was worse than a plane, both from a side-by-side personal space perspective, but also because the leg room was tight. And you couldn't speak out of turn, drink a diet coke, or chew gum.

* Listening to 2 people waste valuable time as they explained why they could not possibly pass judgement on another human being due to their religion. Apparently karmic forces take care of all good and bad imbalances. I think they actually knew each other outside of the courtroom because I noticed a granola greeting in the hallway prior to any of the karma-talk. "[Loud Squeal] What are YOU doing here ?!?"

* Hearing a potential juror try to get out of serving because he owns a small business. About four people tried to get out of serving, which required approaching the judge's bench and presenting your case. This guy made sure to explain loudly that his business was a special case because he details planes (a mission critical job indeed). The judge didn't agree & took him to task for not being willing to serve his government.

* Plane detail guy was the most vociferous potential juror present and spent a lot of time debating what "reasonable doubt" was. "Is it 100%? Is it 75% Is it 80% How will I know what reasonable doubt is? How will my opinion of reasonable doubt be comparable to yours, ...or his, ... or hers..." Blah blah blah.

* Assistant District Attorney actually said "My bad" when mistakenly using the wrong term for something.