QUOTE OF THE DAY

The similarities between Chance and I sometimes freak me out.  I remember countless nights as a child being terrified of a robber breaking in to our house, and now I am seeing it with him. 

He asked the other night after a slewth of other questions about robbers, their intents, and could I take down a robber if he was shorter than me.  Pretty much that would be over 75% of all robbers, I am sure.

Nonetheless, I found it funny when he asked me, "mom, if a robber broke in to our house and I killed him, would I have to go to Juvie?"

How in the world does my kid know what Juvie is?

Uh, Where's November and December?

Don't really know.  Somehow they got skipped over and the pictures have just sat in Adobe waiting to be doctored.  Well the doctor was in today, botox and all making us all look younger and more fab.  The pics are being posted by the minute in the right hand column but here's a quick teaser.

November brought weddings (an excuse to remember that yes I still do own make-up)

A package of letters came from Chance's old classmates in Zurich......from every one of them.  I started balling.

Thanksgiving weekend in Austin with family.  Train rides at Zilker Park with Umpa, Lisa and Matthew.

An updated family pic in Drew's backyard

Crazy boys at Thanksgiving

We surprised Mimi with a tree one night after coming in from a date.  And then had a tree decorating party the next day.  Brooks discovered that balls are much cooler off the tree than on the tree.

December rolled in and the ELF appeared, causing daily mischief until he left back for the North Pole on the 24th to report back any wrong doings to Santa.  Brooks is still on the hunt for that elf, asking everyone he sees ON A DAILY BASIS if they have his elf......."UUUUF?  UUUUUUF?"  It is now almost February.

We had a Christmas tree decorating party of our own, where we blasted Christmas music and danced around the tree in a moment of tribal harmony.  Those come few and far between and are so wonderful when they do happen.

Unpacking the Swiss Christmas tree ornaments brought many nostalgic feelings of our adventure there

Umpa and Lisa came to visit the weekend before Christmas bringing lots of goodies for the boys.

Chance turned 7.  And again for another year in a row, I asked myself HOW COULD I POSSIBLY HAVE A 7 YEAR OLD.  He asked his closest friends, neighbors and cousins to jump the afternoon away at Pump It Up bounce house.  And then we topped off the afternoon with a Mario and Luigi cake.....I mean who else?

After many hours of agony over WILL I EVER FINISH THIS THING, I finally did: and the kid got his book on time

No Christmas is complete without a Cookie Decorating Party.  And no Cookie Decorating Party is complete without icing smeared all over your face.

Christmas Eve brought tenderloin indulgence thanks to Jane's tried and true recipe.

And the loooooooong awaited, looooooooong anticipated day finally arrived.  Apparently that elf made a good report, cause come Christmas morning there was goodies awaiting us all.

Brooks didn't know which to ride, his new bike or his new broom.

Santa brought me things I never even knew I wanted: a waterproof handheld HD video camera.

Nanny, Pappy and Beth stopped by later in the day, snapping a rare moment of Ryan out from behind the camera.

Little man was happy as can be, of course

Aunt Beth brought him a piano that he can sumo squat next to like Linus

The Day after Christmas we hosted 19 people at our house, the Baganz side of course, fitting us all around one large table in our dining room.

After dinner we partook in some White Elephant fun

And snuggle time for Brooks and Pappy

It was nice to have a new addition to the festivities, Beth's new beau Steve

And Ryan got to live out his lost childhood fantasy of being a gangster with the hat he won from the white elephant exchange

All in all I gotta say November and December were pretty darn good.