Christmas show at the preschool

Isabelle and Lorelei's first Christmas show was tonight...and boy, do we have cute kids!
Isabelle's class sang "All I Want for Christmas is my two Front Teeth" and Lorelei's class sang "Twinkle Twinkle Christmas Star". Footage of the event is available on DVD, VHS and Beta.

Isabelle's first hand-made ornament

Isabelle has made her first Christmas ornament. She made it at school today..it's a star made out of popsicle sticks with glitter glued onto it. She hung it on the tree and she is so proud. What makes my breath catch is that 30 years from now, she will take it out of her box of ornaments, in her own house, with her own children and husband, and sigh and say, "Wow...my mom saved this for me." At least, I HOPE she says that. I look at my ornaments and they really take me back.
Thank you, Mom, for taking care of my little masterpieces so that now I can look at them and say, "Wow, my mom saved this for me."

O Tannenbaum....(You pain in the ass)

A Christmas tree sure looks nice when it's up and lit and all that, but let me just tell you of my tree woes...
Geoff and I bought a fake tree the first year we were married, and it was okay for the first few years, but it is starting to show that you get what you pay for.
As we were preparing to put it up this year, we realized that we couldn't find the tree stand. This is weird, because the only thing I am anal about is my Christmas stuff.
So, Geoff went out and bought a very nice tree stand. It only had 2 screws, instead of the usual 4. But we tried it anyway. I put on the lights (I hate doing that) and all the ornaments. Well, it fell over....and over again....and over again.
So....we said we would take it back later and we went and bought another kind of stand. Well....that one is for LIVE trees and after putting our tree in this new tree stand, the tree fell over. After spending the day helping my mom put up HER tree, and seeing OUR tree laying on the floor with the ornaments all over the place, I said THAT'S IT and went out and bought a PRE-LIT, fake tree with it's OWN tree stand that is very stable and it's now up and I am Christmased out already.

Advertising my interests

(Juvenile Cooper's Hawk)


I have two new bumper stickers, and they are being noticed.
One says "For The Birds" and the other one says "I brake for Charismatic Megafauna".
I can read people's lips as they read the second one....and then they turn to the people in their car and say "What the heck is charismatic megafauna?".
(It means big cute animals.)
I had someone honk at me the other day, and I looked around and saw a middle-aged couple waving and smiling at me. I smiled back, a little cautiously, and as the light turned green, I realized that they must be birders. (They had that look about them)
Now I wish I had looked more friendly.

Also, some of my "winter" birds are back...I saw 14 dark-eyed juncos yesterday. Hooray!

Jeez...we're full! Let's watch Oobi!
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A full (of fun) Thanksgiving

We had alot of fun this Thanksgiving. Geoff, me and the girls went to Jim and Rita's on Thursday. We have a new cousin, Logan, who is just adorable and fun to hold...he's about 4 months old now and cute as a button.
The girls weren't too interested in turkey and stuffing, but they really got into the pumpkin pie and the birthday cake for Jim.
Mom spent the day at Uncle Gerry's (Dad's brother) and his family. We've got dibs on her for next year!

It's beginning to look alot like...Thanksgiving?
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