...when your children beg and plead, "Mommy, mommy, can we PLEASE read Shakespeare today? PLEEEEEEEEEASE???"
(Of course, I can't really take too much credit for this, since it's not really me, it's their books they love so much.) (But I still claim it as a moral victory.)
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
In Which the Last Shall Be First (so it's Biblical, right?)
I decided to start at the end, and show you the LAST of our Christmas season pictures. Just because I want to. (And because I want to get rid of certain little papers that have been lying around my counter for the last couple weeks and which shall be explained presently.)
So here we have pictures from the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the very tippy end of the liturgical Christmas season. We still have some decorations up -- we're going to be diehards and keep up the Nativity sets and some lights until Candlemas. (We bid our tree farewell last week.)
I had purchased some English Christmas crackers from World Market, to be used on Christmas/New Year's/Epiphany/this is our last chance so let's use them now! (Note to self: just because they are on top of the china cabinet in the dining room does not necessarily mean that one will remember they are there on the intended feast day(s) for which they were purchased.) Ahem. So I finally remembered them and pulled them out. They fulfilled satisfactorily all the Christmas cracker traditions -- impossible-to-pull crackers, cheapy toys that break within minutes (although Miriam became very attached to her fortune-telling fish), lame jokes that insist on becoming part of your family joke repertoire, and cheesy paper crowns.
What's Christmas without paper crowns?
Joseph demonstrates proper donning of a paper crown -- upside-down, and preferably pulled down to one's chin. Also taped together, after one has ripped it in half in one's first attempt to mash it upon one's head.
He wouldn't let us take one of him in his crown, but he was more than happy to mug for the camera.
All hail, their majesties!
For those of you who were not fortunate enough to celebrate the holiday season with such traditional delights as Christmas crackers, here are a sampling of the jokes from ours.
Q. What do you call a multi storey pig pen?
A. A styscraper!
Q. What is black and white and noisy?
A. A zebra with a drum kit!
Q. What is wet and slippery and likes Latin American music?
A. A conga eel!
Q. What sort of vegetables do plumbers fix?
A. Leeks!
Q. What do vampires sing on New Year's Eve?
A. Auld Fang Syne!
Q. What kind of jokes does a foot doctor like?
A. Corny jokes!
Just sharin' the love. You can thank me later, after your diaphragms recover.
So here we have pictures from the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the very tippy end of the liturgical Christmas season. We still have some decorations up -- we're going to be diehards and keep up the Nativity sets and some lights until Candlemas. (We bid our tree farewell last week.)
I had purchased some English Christmas crackers from World Market, to be used on Christmas/New Year's/Epiphany/this is our last chance so let's use them now! (Note to self: just because they are on top of the china cabinet in the dining room does not necessarily mean that one will remember they are there on the intended feast day(s) for which they were purchased.) Ahem. So I finally remembered them and pulled them out. They fulfilled satisfactorily all the Christmas cracker traditions -- impossible-to-pull crackers, cheapy toys that break within minutes (although Miriam became very attached to her fortune-telling fish), lame jokes that insist on becoming part of your family joke repertoire, and cheesy paper crowns.
What's Christmas without paper crowns?
Joseph demonstrates proper donning of a paper crown -- upside-down, and preferably pulled down to one's chin. Also taped together, after one has ripped it in half in one's first attempt to mash it upon one's head.
He wouldn't let us take one of him in his crown, but he was more than happy to mug for the camera.
All hail, their majesties!For those of you who were not fortunate enough to celebrate the holiday season with such traditional delights as Christmas crackers, here are a sampling of the jokes from ours.
Q. What do you call a multi storey pig pen?
A. A styscraper!
Q. What is black and white and noisy?
A. A zebra with a drum kit!
Q. What is wet and slippery and likes Latin American music?
A. A conga eel!
Q. What sort of vegetables do plumbers fix?
A. Leeks!
Q. What do vampires sing on New Year's Eve?
A. Auld Fang Syne!
Q. What kind of jokes does a foot doctor like?
A. Corny jokes!
Just sharin' the love. You can thank me later, after your diaphragms recover.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Back to our Regularly Scheduled Procrastinating
Finally uploaded all our most recent pictures from the camera. Since almost a month has passed since Christmas, I figured it's about time to start thinking about a Christmas post, according to the current posting schedule. :) Until then, enjoy the last of the photos from our big Snowstorm '09.
This was Sunday morning, a couple hours after the snow finally stopped coming down. The sunrise was gorgeous.
Our street. Some neighbors didn't even bother trying to clear their sidewalks. A few days afterwards, as the snow had an opportunity to melt and re-freeze several times, there were a number of ice mountains that you had to climb over to walk down the sidewalk. Late Sunday night I heard one neighbor with a snowblower -- I wish he'd done the whole sidewalk!
Real Live Icicles! They kept leaning farther in towards the house, as the snow on the roof slumped lower. All day we had snow falling off the roof. I was reminded of signs I saw nailed on boards leaning against the walls in Austria in winter, warning people with lots of Achtungs! not to stand right next to the walls, lest they get buried in an avalanche of snow!
This snow stayed for a looooong time -- we don't get any sun in our back yard in winter time. Look at that grill! You wouldn't know I had cleared it off the day before. Other things you can't see, besides the pool, are Katie's tricycle and Joseph's scooter. (Our pool is now filled with a solid block of ice -- great for ice skating, the girls think!) :)
Mr. Pickles valiantly digging the noble Pickles chariot out. Luckily we had the extra parking spot which we could use for extra snow. The neighbors across the street had to use a laundry basket to haul their extra snow to the corner. It took them HOURS. That was actually the funnest thing about all this -- everyone was outside together, talking, commiserating, loaning shovels (ours got a lot of extra work!). One family that looks like they're from some Middle Eastern country was holding up a webcam at their door, presumably to show relatives all the snow. The wife seemed just as delighted as our kids -- I didn't ask her if this was her first snow, but I wouldn't have been surprised if it were.
Our front yard was about 2 ft. higher than usual for DAYS afterward. Katie spent lots of time scaling Mt. Everest. Even thought the majority of the snow is gone, there are still random piles of what is now ice scattered throughout the neighborhood. The girls still put on their snowboots to go for walks, which always turn into climbs.
We all keep hoping for more snow this winter, although we know there won't be nearly as much as this. But even an inch or two is better than having to look at dead grass for 2 more months!
This was Sunday morning, a couple hours after the snow finally stopped coming down. The sunrise was gorgeous.
Our street. Some neighbors didn't even bother trying to clear their sidewalks. A few days afterwards, as the snow had an opportunity to melt and re-freeze several times, there were a number of ice mountains that you had to climb over to walk down the sidewalk. Late Sunday night I heard one neighbor with a snowblower -- I wish he'd done the whole sidewalk!
Real Live Icicles! They kept leaning farther in towards the house, as the snow on the roof slumped lower. All day we had snow falling off the roof. I was reminded of signs I saw nailed on boards leaning against the walls in Austria in winter, warning people with lots of Achtungs! not to stand right next to the walls, lest they get buried in an avalanche of snow!
This snow stayed for a looooong time -- we don't get any sun in our back yard in winter time. Look at that grill! You wouldn't know I had cleared it off the day before. Other things you can't see, besides the pool, are Katie's tricycle and Joseph's scooter. (Our pool is now filled with a solid block of ice -- great for ice skating, the girls think!) :)
Mr. Pickles valiantly digging the noble Pickles chariot out. Luckily we had the extra parking spot which we could use for extra snow. The neighbors across the street had to use a laundry basket to haul their extra snow to the corner. It took them HOURS. That was actually the funnest thing about all this -- everyone was outside together, talking, commiserating, loaning shovels (ours got a lot of extra work!). One family that looks like they're from some Middle Eastern country was holding up a webcam at their door, presumably to show relatives all the snow. The wife seemed just as delighted as our kids -- I didn't ask her if this was her first snow, but I wouldn't have been surprised if it were.Our front yard was about 2 ft. higher than usual for DAYS afterward. Katie spent lots of time scaling Mt. Everest. Even thought the majority of the snow is gone, there are still random piles of what is now ice scattered throughout the neighborhood. The girls still put on their snowboots to go for walks, which always turn into climbs.
We all keep hoping for more snow this winter, although we know there won't be nearly as much as this. But even an inch or two is better than having to look at dead grass for 2 more months!
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