December Revisited

Thankfully I married a computer geek and, for that, and many other reasons, I am grateful. The least of which is that he got our last months' photos off our now defunct desktop computer and I have finally learned my lesson: backup to external server... just like Christopher has been telling me. For the last 9 years. At any rate, this is what we were up to in the month of December...

. I found these unbelievably cute aprons for my little elves at my friend Jocelynn's mom's store. We've done a TON of baking this season and they've been put to good use!

We went to the Polar Express at the Ecotarium. It was freezing out that day, but just as cold as IN our house so it was worth it for the change of venue and mostly for the hot chocolate and cookies! The big boys insisted I take their photo with "Rex".

Here's Eamon in his rightful place: behind bars!


Not only did we get to ride the train to the North Pole, we got to see Kenda the Polar Bear there too! Here she is waiting for a fish to fall from the sky.


First snow of the season. The kids tried desperately to make snowballs out of the the dusting we got. Of course, by now we've had more snow than we want, by far, and more predicted today. The boys still love it, but I'm ready for spring. I'm done with mittens, snow boots, tiny frozen fingers and cold feet.

The Ice Storm Cometh.

And leaveth us with much destruction. Including the still-broken chimney that stands firmly between me and feeling my toes again.


Reading The Grinch Who Stole Christmas in five layers by the camp lantern on day 2 or 3 with no power. You know, when we still thought it was remotely fun playing "pioneer family".

so much depends

upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

(Okay, so it's a red wagon and it's covered in ice, but I still have this Willam Carlos Williams poem memorized from 9th grade English with Mr. Beschta.)

The calm and blue skies after the storm.

We waited for an hour and a half in line to see Santa and the boys got some face painting done to pass the time. They loved them, but poor Liam was so tired on the way home that his was gone in a flash flood of tears much too soon.

This was the first year that Colin and Liam really enjoyed talking to Santa and sitting on his lap. As you can tell from the photo, this was Eamon's second exposure to Santa and he wanted NOTHING to do with the jolly man or his lovely wife.

Gingy and Little Gingy.

Three crazies in a winter wonderland.

Our first real "festivity" of the season was the lighting of the big tree in town. Santa made an appearance which was nice, but the kids really enjoyed the popcorn, cookies and hot cider more!

All bundled up. And screaming like a banshee for Santa.

The fuzziness is not for a cozy dream sequence but just because it was so cold out that night that my camera kept fogging up.

After a lunch out with Meghan at the boys' favorite restaurant, Bugaboo Creek.

Eamon being Eamon. He's very big into balancing things on his head. He's training to be Carmen Miranda.