Merry Christmas!

Luminaries

Our neighborhood had our annual Luminary Night on Sunday, and as usual, Santa Claus made an appearance! He flew in via helicopter for the event, while the reindeer caught up on their rest at the North Pole. I look forward to this night every year because we get to visit Santa without having to wait in a line a long line. We also have hayrides throughout the neighborhood, which stop at various "host homes" that serve hot chocolate, cookies, etc. As much as I complain about living in suburbia, surrounded by neighbors, I really enjoy our neighborhood, especially on Luminary Night. I didn't see a single house this year that didn't participate...the streets really look so pretty with all the little glowing bags. And the weather was much more pleasant this year than last year, making the whole event much more enjoyable.

Our buddies Ruth Ann and Tripp joined us...



Please ignore the fact that my child is not wearing his boots...



I forgot to mention that there is also a display of public safety vehicles on Luminary Night...this year we had a fire truck, DNR boat and a robot that I think is used by the bomb recovery team (?). The fire truck was a hit, no surprise there.





As you can see from the following pictures, the Santa visit was not a "climb on Santa's lap & smile for the camera" experience. The boys took the opportunity to have a nice chat with the jolly ol' elf. Mason rattled off his standard requests this year for a razor scooter and a headlamp. Roper, hearing Mason's requests so often, also asked for a headlamp as well as a flashlight. And then he threw in a last-minute plea for some candy.





I enjoyed looking at last year's pictures, when Roper was still scared of Santa.

And here are the pictures from 2009 , when both boys were so much smaller!

Roses in November

I know its December now...but when I was going through my Thanksgiving pictures, I came across this picture of a rose that I cut out of my yard the day after Thanksgiving! I'm glad I got a picture, because it's probably the last I'll see of my roses until the spring. The past few days have been so cold, I'm pretty sure it's officially winter!

Tailgating is Exhausting!

Grandaddy and Roper took a break from tailgating for some zzzs on Saturday afternoon...

One More Thing...

...I meant to write about this in my earlier post. Have any of you heard of or read The China Study?



I haven't read the book (yet) but I've been told that it's been known to turn folks into vegetarians. My carnivorous husband is currently reading it. I once prepared a meatless dinner and Graem commented that it "looked like a good appetizer." In his mind its not a meal if it doesn't include meat! This should be interesting!

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted...I've had good intentions but time has gotten away from me! I don't expect that to change any between now and the end of the year! Ready or not, the BUSY holiday season is upon us! I really love it though -- it's the most wonderful time of the year!!

Roper had his surgeries...all three of them...about a week and a half ago. I can't believe I'm going to post a picture of me sans makeup...but give me a break, we had to be at the hospital at 5:45 am which means I was up at a ridiculous hour. Thankfully my mom stayed over the night before to look after Mason while we took Roper to the hospital.



He looked so cute in the hat & scrubs & slippers that the nurse had us dress him in...but they didn't last long...he is not a morning person (wonder where he gets it?) and he was stripped down to just the pants in no time.

The day of the surgery was pretty miserable for him. We had a hard time getting him to take the pain medicine the doctor prescribed for him, which was tylenol with codeine. He spit it out every time...so finally I switched to plain tylenol, thinking it would be better than nothing, and it made a huge difference! 24 hours post op he was back to normal...pretty much...although there is a long list of things he's not supposed to do for 2 weeks, so we're still trying to keep that under control, which is hard since he feels perfectly normal now.

He has about a 2" incision just below his hip from the hydrocele repair, but he only complains about it when he sees it. Out of sight, out of mind! During a diaper change or bath time, he will point to his "big ole boo boo" as he calls it, but he says it doesn't hurt anymore. But he's quick to remind us that the "mean ole doctor" cut him. In addition to the hydrocele repair and another procedure related to that, he also got tubes in his ears. We are so thankful that the doctors coordinated their schedules so that he could get everything done at once!

Mason made it to his third football game this season...



At the end of the game on Saturday, Mason announced that he wants to be a quarterback when he grows up, but he wants to play for the blue team! Sounds good to me -- my grandfather went to the Citadel so it holds a special place in my heart! And I agree with Mason that the blue and white uniforms look pretty good!

Another Mason "funny" that I have to share...he has really been "into" the Bible story lessons from Sunday School each week. He comes home talking about them and asking questions and then most nights he will ask that we read him whichever "story of the week" from our children's Bible. For a while he was stuck on the story of David & Goliath (which, by the way, is hilarious if you ask him to tell you the story). And thanks to David the Shepherd Boy, Mason now has a sling shot on his Christmas list!

The most recent story that he is fixated on is the story of "Joseph and his Very Colorful Coat." Over the weekend Mason told Graem that he thought it would be a good idea to sell Roper to slave traders, just like Joseph's brothers did to him! I was re-counting this to my friend Leslie, who's mother happens to be Mason's SS teacher, and Leslie responded that perhaps Mason should be reminded of how the story ends -- with Mason grovelling at Roper's/Joseph's feet for mercy! HA!

Fox's Farm

A few weeks ago we spent the morning at Fox's Farm with a group of friends. The boys just eat up this type of thing...hayride, animals, searching for pumpkins in a haystack, what more could you ask for??

Please excuse the quality of my pictures...sometimes the thought of toting my big camera around while keeping up with both boys is exhausting, so I have become increasingly dependent on my iPhone camera.





Here is Mason, our chicken-loving boy, being introduced to a Chinese Chicken.




This sweet little donkey got lots of love from the Clark boys.