T-Plus two days after Christmas.

It started with a real bang. That's right: massive dog diarrhea! Kerry is constantly guilty, God love him, of giving the dogs things that are guaranteed to cause (1) a mess on the porch (2) diabetes (3) fat beagles (4) massive dog diarrhea and/or vomiting. But I think this time he outdid himself. He decided that because the 24 pound turkey we got was difficult to clean when dinner was over and since we often don't really eat much of the dark meat anyway that he was going to give it ALL to the dogs. ALL meant probably 7 pounds of dark meat turkey and the fat that went along with it. I suppose he thought that a morning serving of Christmas dinner would give them all day to, um, deal with it. Wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong! I was the lucky one who was still in bed when he discovered the gigantic piles of rancid, acidic, burning hot dog poop that were all around on our family room rug. It made him throw up. We still have spots because we are out of enzyme cleaner, and when he was out, he got other things that just don't work all that well. I don't want this kind of crap in my steamer, so I'm going to wait until tomorrow. Meanwhile, despite Resolve and Lysol and soap and water, it still stinks.

My sister in law and brother in law were coming today for "Christmas" with us, so there was much cleaning to do again. It is my yearly tradition to make biscotti at Christmas, usually chocolate chunk walnut biscotti, but since I lost the recipe I had saved in my bookmarks on Firefox last year, I had to find something new. I searched *everywhere* for that recipe or one that almost the same (my original biscotti recipe came from a Baker's Chocolate free recipe book from Kroger and has long since been lost, so I have a history of losing these recipes). In the end, it was baking, Nancy style. I made four or five different biscotti recipes today, searching for that perfect one. Also, Nancy style, I glanced over the first recipe I was going to try, but didn't register that it required a rather complicated type of cereal (Post Cranberry Almond Crunch) that I didn't have. Well, duh. I wouldn't have chosen the recipe if I knew it contained (1) cereal (2) a commercial brand of cereal like htat. But anyway, I got the cereal and made the biscotti, which stuck a bit to the pan and spread out a lot, especially on my bar pan, where the two logs of it 'became one' by the time the baking was over. I was able to separate them for the rebake, but they remained a little short.

My second attempt was with a chocolate biscotti that used unsweetened cocoa powder. It came out pretty well, but wasn't spectacular--I think it should have had white chocolate chunks or cranberries or something to make it a little more exciting. This was with a Master Biscotti Recipe that you could customize.

Third recipe was a walnut and chocolate chunk biscotti that used two tablespoons of milk, and I think milk is an interesting ingredient for a biscotti. The milk was supposed to make it a little softer, which is really not the point with biscotti (the recipe suggested substituting water for a harder product). I made a really big mess with this one because the dough turned out way too sticky and was all over my hands and the baking sheet and was unmoldable. I ended up adding probably a full cup of flour to it, bit by bit by bit, until I could finally get it into the flattened log shape I needed. But you know what? This one turned out to be the best one! Firm, but not brittle, attractive to look at, cut well, and tolerated the baking process without breaking.

My fourth attempt was another chocolate biscotti, and I used the Cuisinart with it because I was tired of cutting Baker's chocolate with a knife. Overall, I'm not sure how it went. At that point, I was really over baking, and I forgot that I had left them in the oven for the second bake. I guess you can't really overbake biscotti, but I just might have. They aren't burned, but they're very firm. I'd suggest dunking these in something to soften them up so they don't break your teeth!

Finally, I think my kitchen is kind of clean and all cookies are appropriately stored. Since Christmas Eve I have made chocolate cut-out cookies, reindeer noses, gumdrop cookies, sugar cookies, Moravian spice cookies, pecan praline muffins (that Pampered Chef non-stick muffin pan definitely needs to be sprayed before the batter is put in!), and dough that is now chilling for Amish sugar cookies (they had a lot of sour cream in them). I also made my second loaf of bread last night--a white bread with non-fat dry milk in it (my first was a dairy-free wheat bread) which turned out quite nice. It's still a little bit heavy, which I'm going to work on, but the loaf was much more attractive than the first one done in the machine, whose top looked like the Andes. This one I put on the dough setting and then baked it in my regular oven.

I think it's time for me to stop baking. It's time consuming, makes a big mess, and my kids are eating nothing but sugar. We still have some pork loin and turkey left from our big meal, so I'm going to concentrate on protein for tomorrow. Tonight was our traditional Chinese from the Zheng Garden when Annie and Tim were here--this is our Christmas meal together when they come.

If I wasn't baking, I'd surely be wasting time. And I have a host of new ways to waste outrageous amounts of time lately. The iPod Touch is a rather amazing device. I didn't know just how much I needed one! Of course, I haven't even begun to plumb the depths of what I can usefully do with it yet--the things like making a calendar, keeping lists of things like library books I need, or setting it up to check my email. No--I've been doing intellectual things like popping bubble wrap (you can do this for money!) and catapulting penguins and dive-bombing polar bears and laughing until I cried with a virtual Whoopie Cushion. Last night I spent close to four hours addictively playing Yahtzee, a problem I had before there was an electronic version. When I was pregnant with Rutledge, Kerry and I would play game after game of Yahtzee. Then, when he quit and went to sleep, I would sit and play by myself for several more hours every night. At 12:55, I made a pact with myself that the next time I got a score above 250, I was going to turn the thing off and go to bed. Then it was when I got three scores over 250. Then it was as soon as I finish this game here.... Next thing I knew it was after 1:30....

Frances had a friend sleeping over, and that's always a bit of an adventure. She slept over at this friend's house last Saturday night, and a day and a half later had the stomach flu. So I'm a wee tad nervous. I try not to let my severe emetophobia seep into my children's tender psyches, and I feel like I'm being especially gracious and calm this fall/winter about not limiting activities out of my own (ir?)rational fears.

Merry Christmas!

Whew! What an exciting day!

I'm pleased that our family Christmases don't begin at the ungodly hour that mine did as a child, when I woke up at 4:30 a.m. ready to open gifts. The twins were up around 7:15, and Rutledge and Frances were up a bit before 8, at which time we all headed downstairs (Walter and Ollie had already been there). I'm embarrassed at what a Not Economic Downturn Christmas we had. In fact, yesterday afternoon, when I was out and part of my job was to look for this Cabela's Dangerous Hunts game that Ollie wants, I felt like I was morally decrepit for even contemplating One More Gift. Thankfully, I didn't find it, and I wasn't going on a multi-store adventure looking. But here's what they did get:

Ollie:
Calvin and Hobbes Complete Collection
Nerf Vulcan gun
Call of Duty 4
Wintergreen lift ticket and snow pants
2 fleece jackets

Walter:
Lego Indiana Jones Temple Escape
Lego Cargo Plane
various small lego sets--street sweeper, a police car, etc.
Wintergreen lift ticket
Erector set
Lego Mindstorms books
Fleece jacket
Three stuffed mooses with a note from Santa--his favorite gift, though he was very disturbed by the ceramic "dirty shoe" that one of these mooses was in

Frances:
American Girl: Julie
Charm bracelet
Makeup set
Two Calico Critter families, 3 Little Pigs, and three small accessory sets, including a General Store
Art supplies
Two pairs of pajamas--silk and red and white striped
Fleece jacket
Teddy bear
Mancala

Rutledge:
Imaginext Dinosaur Mountain
Playmobil Police
Playmobil Knights Rock Mountain Tower
Tonka crane
Giant wooden pirate ship and boat dock
Red and white striped pajamas
Some slightly more age-appropriate XBox games (Viva Pinata, Cars)
Star Wars figures
Army transport vehicle that makes lots of sounds

Then there were some family gifts--Blokus, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan

And a large number of things that I'm forgetting now--there were many, many presents under that tree!

Though Kerry and I weren't supposed to exchange gifts because we got a car, I got him some small things (and lost and still haven't found the wallet I got him)--some gym pants, some car care stuff, a keychain that beeps when you whistle so you can find your keys. And he cheated and got me an amazing bread machine (though I probably won't make too much of this dairy-less bread I made tonight when some allergic guests were coming; it was rather dry), two sweaters, two shirts, a skirt that is tight (for some reason I've gained about 5 pounds in the past week!), and some jeans. And the big thing: an iPod touch. I haven't even touched it yet...literally. It's still in the box because I haven't had a second to sit down today. My Dad also gave me us some money and paid for our room at our family reunion at the beach next September.

Here's my progress on yesterday's list:

* Made 5 different kinds of cookies
* Watched It's a Wonderful Life
* Finished Risk
* Went to Christmas Eve service at church
* Saw award-winning decorated houses in Woodlake and the incredible computer-controlled lights of a house in Charter Colony where the lights change with the beat of the music--they have their own radio station that broadcasts the sound for their display!
* Read to Frances

I also did some last-minute shopping, picked up our Christmas cards from Costco, and did a ton of cleaning.

Today was even busier--the opening of the gifts, then non-stop cleaning and preparation for our dinner this afternoon. I am shocked that I even got a shower. Erased most evidence of the wrapping papers and bows and shards of cardboard boxes that was everywhere from the unwrapping. Shuttled gifts into people's bedrooms so that our living room had some space in it. Set up the dinosaur mountain, only to have it be knocked over into smithereens. Made bread in the new bread machine. Made slice and bake cookies with Ollie. Folded tiny little paper magazines and books for the Calico Critters and put the stickers on their vanity tables and general stores and microscopic tubes of toothpaste. Tracked down batteries for giant guns, fake hamsters, flocked animal nursery lights, and laser tag weapons and targets and fiddled with all those dadburned screws that you have to unscrew to put in batteries these days. Untwisted outrageous numbers of twist ties holding on everything from Mary Poppins and Bert to members of a SWAT team. Served dinner to 8 adults and 10 children. Drank another glass of wine after everyone went upstairs for a few minutes. Cleaned my trashed kitchen and hand-washed about 25 pans and serving pieces so that the queue waiting for the dishwasher didn't appear so ominous.

Injuries today:

* Sliced a big chunk out of my fingertip while trying to knock wax off a candlestick with a knife
* Submarined my index finger and its cuticle in a battery holder of a Nerf weapon
* Stood up and banged my head with the full force of standing up into the underside of a rock countertop
* Burned my finger through an oven mitt that was not properly stuff in some spots while trying to pop some recalcitrant bread out of a pan

Where I am now: waiting for the last cookies to bake and watching Home Alone. Wishing that I lived in Kevin's lovely house in Chicago, where it is no doubt snowing just like it is in the movie. Wondering how I'm going to stay awake for Christmas with the Cranks, which I'm in the mood to see.

Plan for tomorrow: RELAX!!!

I finally got the elusive Christmas card picture on Sunday. They're wearing all those elf hats I knitted since the summer.

It's been a goofy few days.

Sunday we decided to make our Christmas trip down to Norfolk, unannounced. My Dad wants us to visit him, and Kerry's parents and grandmother wanted us to come there, and since these trips are in two different directions, we thought it would be wise to space them out. The pictures were taken at his parents' house in their yard. They live on a mud pit within visual distance of the Lafayette River, so the kids were, of course, in the mud, taking apart the brick retaining rip rap whatever to make stepping stones.


Looking for the raccoons' house with Grandma.

Rutledge is always full of sticks and dirt.



I never have enough pictures of Ollie. We were loading up the digital picture frames we got for our parents and realized that Ollie is way under-represented. Probably because he always looks serious or sullen, if we get a picture of the front of him at all. I was practically chasing him with the camera trying to get a shot of him, but all I saw was the back of his head. I wonder if there's any deeper meaning to that....


Walter's always there, though. I don't have as many pictures of him as I do of Frances and Rutledge, who still spend a lot of time hamming for the camera, but he does stop for a minute to show me things or to make sure that his interests are recorded for all time.


Walter found snails that were just like the ones at Marty and Peter's river house. What's gross is that I think he brought them home in a cup, but I haven't seen them in the house yet, which means they're still in my van. Eww....

We ate at Cracker Barrel on the way home. I have to say, there's something that restaurant is doing right. My kids all love to go there and it has become our tradition whenever we are on a car trip anywhere. The store is what makes the experience. They used their Christmas money from Grandma to get some very exciting things: a kind of scary looking monkey with a flocked face; a light-up sword that makes clinking noises; an Elvis CD; a bell like you find to 'ring for service.' They have the best ornaments there, too--you always know you can find that perfect Elvis ornament there!

The bad news this week is that the next day, Frances woke up and threw up on my bed. And then numerous more times on a towel in front of her because she was too sick to move. Words can't really describe how much fear this strikes into my heart, especially at Christmas. We are supposed to have three other families over for dinner on Christmas day, and I don't want us to have to cancel. Nor do I want to have one of "those" Christmases that we've all heard about--the ones where Santa can't come because everyone is too sick to move from the bed or the children are too delirious with fevers and nausea to even care what day it is. Thankfully, Frances recovered very quickly and was back riding her bike and eating doughnuts today. And my house is very disinfected!

I'm so excited about Christmas, and for once, I'm feeling relatively prepared. I think Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year. I love it even more than Christmas. Here is my list of what I'd like to do tomorrow:

* Watch "It's a Wonderful Life."
* Watch "Scrooged"
* Watch "Miracle on 34th Street"
* Finish our Risk game
* Go bowling with friends
* Bake biscotti
* Bake cookies
* Repair our gingerbread houses
* Play a game that I think my kids are going to open as their Christmas Eve gift
* See some of the lights in our neighborhood, especially the award winners
* Go to the Christmas Eve service at church
* Finish the beaded snowman ornament Frances started three weeks ago
* Make the photo ornaments we didn't get to at our co-op
* Read to Frances

I had all of these great plans for what we could do today with all of this time to relax. So what did we do? Well, I slept late, which was good. Then I took Frances to her gymnastics party, where the vexing question of whether I should just cough up the rest of that $250 that I didn't fundraise (like many others didn't, it seems...) loomed very large. It all has me wondering whether we should be moving toward sending her back to her previous gym, which was further away.

And just as when you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk to go with it, when you ask about going back to Olympiad, you're probably going to start thinking that you need to move. So after the party, we all piled into the car for our family's favorite activity: looking at houses. Year after year, every year since we've lived here, we've been looking for somewhere else to go. We've never quite made it out of our house, but if we thought it was at all possible to sell our house, we'd probably have been gone long ago. Now there's the whole economic bust thing going, two houses already for sale in our little neighborhood and another one going on in about two weeks. We have no possibility of competing with the state of our house and the craziness of our schedule and family! Nor do we really have any business buying something new, given that we're as prone to the economic disasters that are happening all around us as anyone else is. So I'm hoping that this time the urge to move on will pass as quickly as it came.

We've decided that perhaps Salisbury is our desired location. The areas we looked at today included Queensmill (perhaps too locked in and not quite on main roads; slightly more difficult for getting to work); some areas in Bon Air (most houses too small); other areas off Robious (absolutely no houses for sale at all--a good sign, but not when you want to buy something). I don't want to be house poor, especially if one of the primary reasons we would be moving would be to be closer to children's activities. With as much attending open houses as we've done and as much driving around as we've done in the past, the activity now ceases to thrill me with the possibilities and just makes me feel very, very tense.

I picked up a few more very small things for Kerry (no surround-sound speaker systems!) and a few other little gifts after everyone else was dropped at home. I bought crickets for the frog. But then we did a decent job of just enjoying a day with no obligations. Frances is sleeping over at a friend's house. The boys and I played Monopoly and Ollie won the first game. He is not very much fun to play with because he cheats so often and so subtly that it is hard to trust anything he does or any situation on the board where something good happens to him. But I strongly believe that one key to improving his character and making him into a future friend-worthy person is to teach him through games how his behavior affects people and how to lose gracefully and still enjoy the time with others. Kerry played in the second Monopoly game, and I kept the bank far from Ollie and we had two adults scrutinizing his moves and rolls. He came extremely close to winning. Kerry went out earlier, but Ollie and I battled on with lots of hotels and large amounts of money going back and forth and back and forth for probably 45 minutes longer. I am proud to say that I finally have won a game! And I won it fairly and squarely!

We are hosting our now annual Waywards, Waifs, and Wastrels holiday dinner. I'm not sure how many are coming, and I blush to say that I hope that it is a manageable number because we have not yet begun to prepare. As of now, we have two families from across the street coming, each with two children. They came over last year, and it was tons of fun. I'm just really excited that we are going to be able to spend some time with other people so that Christmas day feels special. I miss the holidays we had when I was little, when my grandparents were staying with us and there was just a warm, enclosed feeling about our house. My kids haven't had that same extended family holiday experience, so finding other people who are also without extended families during Christmas has been a great way to get some of that warm, fuzzy holiday spirit back.

I think we're going to try to go to Norfolk tomorrow. I should be happy and energized about it, but right now, I just want to sit down and hole up at home! I want to finish cleaning up the boxes that are lying around after decorating the house. I want to do some last-minute shopping for some friends. I want to watch Christmas movies and play board games. I want to go out and look at other people's Christmas lights. I want to wrap presents. Maybe we would be better to wait until after Christmas for this. I guess we'll see where the day takes us tomorrow.

Today was our annual homeschool group Christmas party, and it was a very fun time. Like most of these parties, it went by way too fast, and then there was the crazy cleanup. We made the most adorable angel ornaments out of oyster shells, some of the kids made snowflakes from coffee filters, the older kids had a gingerbread house decorating contest, and many kids were engaged in the dreidel game. There's nothing quite like gambling to keep everyone interested, and it was nice that the game can accommodate any number of people and being who slip in and out.

I think we're kind of on a break now, though what that means when you're always reading and making things and coming up with projects isn't really clear. I'm excited about hopefully being able to play some games, read some good books, and spend some time at home. We'll see how that works out!

One week

One week until Christmas. This fact and the number 7 were blowing my kids' minds all day long. I have everything pretty much done--just a few small things for people other than my children to do now. Now I have to bake some serious biscotti this weekend, take Frances to her gymnastics party (my kind of party--nothing to bring, no gifts to buy, etc.).

We're a bit annoyed by her gym right now. Part of our yearly contract (signed, notarized with a raised seal, etc.) is that we must work bingo every 7 weeks. Bingo is up in Mechanicsville and involves an entire evening--leaving at 4 and getting home around 10:30 p.m. The bingo-goers can be a very cantankerous bunch. A game with a name like "Everybody Wins!" is more than enough to set off some tempers. The trouble is that bingo receipts are down. So the booster club sent out a letter to everyone saying that now we absolutely must all sell one full page of advertisements for our meet programs at $250-300 a page, depending on whether it is color or black and white. That's a pretty big chunk of change, especially in this economy, especially when we don't know but so many people with their own businesses and we aren't great at cold calling or soliciting. This command came out of the blue, and we weren't the only people who didn't get a full page (we bought a half page for Kerry's consulting business). So the punishment now is going to be the club not paying for the meet fees or coache's fees, as it usually does. Entry fees range from $55-105 per meet, and there can easily be 6-8 meets per season, so this is a significant burden now being shifted to the parents. Given that we're already paying $50 a month more here than we were at her previous gym, this is really pushing the cost up way beyond what we had expected when we signed the contract. I suspect there will be a lot of people raising hell, but I haven't been around to hear the scuttlebutt lately. So now we're seriously having to consider whether we should move her back where she was. The trouble is that Frances doesn't want to go back--she's much happier here. But you have to wonder, why are we out working bingo every month if we're getting nothing in return? I think it would be much more effective to give people options: some straight talk that funds are short, rather than arm-twisting about selling ads, choices about fundraising so that people can do what works best for them, whether that's selling items, soliciting businesses to place ads, or just buying out our fundraising obligations.

My class at the homeschool enrichment center is done now. It was a lot of fun, and I wish that I had more students in my class, since today was another example of how when one person is gone in a 4 person class, everyone feels the loss. Four weeks in a row we've been down a person, and today that person was Frances, who was in Mt. Airy performing in Legend of the Poinsettia, whcih seems to have been a huge success. Today we read _The Snowy Day_ several times, watched a puppet version on Youtube, ate snow-day inspired snacks: gingerbread, cupcakes, and clementines, and I brought out the ever-popular Insta-Snow. This time, instead of getting the big expensive can, I picked up the small test tube. I thought it was going to make more than it did--it claims to expand to 100 times its original size, and this didn't seem 100 times bigger. But it is always a huge hit. I spread a tablecloth on the floor to catch the worst of the mess (this stuff loves to smear into carpeting, and kids are constitutionally unable to keep from getting the snow all over their clothes, on the bottoms of their shoes, and in their hair). Then we put the snow in a bowl and played with animals, Santa, Mrs. Claus, a plastic Fisher-Price chimney, and the always fun test tubes. It was heavenly! As a parting finale, we did our best and loudest rendition of "Going On A Bear Hunt." I had so much fun, but I'm glad that it's done, too. It takes a fair amount of preparation and energy, especially on the day of the class, and I have a lot going on right now. The other issue is that the boys are begging to not take Latin next session. I'm inclined to oblige them. I need to find some other Latin solution--perhaps look for a class or a cooperative situation elsewhere--because I don't intend to drop it. The weekly class goes some distance in "keeping me honest" about keeping some pace going, but we really need to be moving at our own pace. If I'm teaching, then I probably need to keep the boys in their class, and since I didn't have huge turnout for my class and winter is going to be going full force with all its illnesses in the coming months, I'd prefer not to have to worry about substitutes and extra lesson plans. It feels a bit funny to be taking a break, though; we've been taking something or I've been teaching something continuously since the place opened.

Tonight was Walter's trumpet concert, and he was so sweet and cute! He has come such a long way in the past year and a half. His biggest challenge will continue to be keeping steady timing, but he has made enormous strides in that area. He has moved up to the Intermediate Band now, and they'd like him to practice with them on Wednesdays. I think he really needs to be moving that direction and needs to be spending time playing with other people, but the timing is not good for me. It would mean leaving park day early each week, which I'm not sure I'm willing to do. And it would probably mean driving out to Powhatan, then driving back in to drop Frances off at gymnastics, then back out to Powhatan to pick him up. That's a lot of driving. I can't count on Kerry to be able to cover things in the mid afternoon. So I'm not sure what the plan is now. He might be able to go with the group half time--every other week or so, so that the rest of us aren't always missing park day, but I just don't know. Sounds complicated.

Ollie now says he wants to start playing the flute. And Frances wants to do piano. In my perfect scheme of things, they would each be doing a sport, playing an instrument, and doing one other enrichment thing, like art or dance. But the budget doesn't let all that stuff happen with this many kids. I'm going to make it a priority in the new year, though, to somehow work in an instrument for Frances and Ollie. I can sort of teach piano, but honestly, I have no business doing that. I can't play all that well myself any more, I never played superbly in the first place, and I don't know the first thing about teaching music to other people. There is a very inexpensive piano teacher in our neighborhood, so I need to revisit people's reviews of her to determine whether it is worth our while to do this (because the alternative is probably nothing if it's going to cost $25-30 a week).

Tomorrow is our last day of "school" before the holiday. I say that really loosely because we aren't going to stop learning or reading fascinating things over the holidays. But it's the last day we're going to do math and Wordly Wise and grammar for a while. I didn't realize that Ollie's edition of Saxon 5/4 has 22 fewer lessons than Walter had, so he is going to be done in about 14 days. I need to make my final decision about whether he is going to continue with 6/5 or spend some time with fractions and decimals in Math-U-See. He claims that he's like to go back to Singapore, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. That program skips around a lot and doesn't have continued practice on concepts, and repetition has been good for everyone. I'm in the groove of Saxon now, and for once, I feel very confident that they can do well on their standardized test without me needing to cram with them or without me holding their breath wondering if they will know what to do with a question they have never seen before. So decisions loom in the future with that.

I feel like I should get another something for Kerry for Christmas. I got him one (previously 2, but I gave one away in a White Elephant exchange) small gift, but I should be doing more, but without spending money that now needs to go to the car, which is the unexpected big gift. I'm just out of ideas. We always are not sure we're going to give gifts to adults, so things often get down to the wire, like this feels.

Today's reads: _The Stories Julian Tells_, which is a delightful short novel. The writing is halfway decent, and it is right on the level of what Frances can relate to and process. Ann Cameron has just the right balance of serious and fun in a very satisfying length. Ollie and I started a book called, _Someone Called Eva_, which is about a Czech girl who is captured by the Nazis and taken to a prison camp where blond haired, blue eyed girls are trained to be good Aryan wives and mothers. It is intense. I'm glad we're reading it aloud so that we can talk about what is going on. Walter read _The Shoemaker_, part of a series recommended by Hilary. He really liked it, since it talked about a craft from the past, and the length was again rather satisfying--just enough detail, plenty of pictures, and doable in an hour or less. Ollie is about halfway through _The Wigmaker_, also from that series.

Where's the Snow?

Didn't the Farmer's Almanac kind of promise me a real winter this year? I'm seeing right now that it snowed several inches in Vegas, but here I'm sitting in a dreary 40ish land without any flakes in sight. We've had a few little flurries here and there, which is often more than we can say here in central Virginia in December, but I'm geared up, both literally and figuratively, for some real accumulation. Bring it on!

It was a lovely, lovely morning. I got to sleep until 9:30 without any small people kicking me, having a fight about TV show choice, or urging me to listen to their stomach growl. Schoolwork was done rather promptly, and in Walter's case, before I even woke up. He's one motivated guy these days. Ollie, not so much.

It was a provocative reading day. We finished _The Higher Power of Lucky_, and talk about a conversation-provoking read for a book club. Beyond the infamous use of the word "scrotum" beginning in paragraph 2, here's a book for 9-12 year olds about, surprise surprise, a girl whose mother has died (have we read any books this year where the mother wasn't dead? It's not just for fairy tales anymore...) in a rather horrific way, whose father has abandoned her, and who is left to be reared by a quirky Guardian. We get to hear all about her mother's remains--pieces of bone--and AA and Gambler's Anonymous and Smoker's Anonymous. There is a 5 year old who discovers his mother is in jail on drug charges. Hey, what's not to talk about with this middle grade novel?!

We also read a picture book about a Catholic schoolgirl who is harrassed on her way to school in Belfast. This is precisely the kind of book up Ollie's alley.

Played Johnny Money again and ended with $40 million in business value at the end.

Went to Inflation Nation for a few hours. What an amazing concept--adults can sit down for pretty much the whole time and the kids make themselves scarce. At one point, I looked into the giant inflatable 18 wheeler and Ollie and a friend were saying something about taking hostages. I just love boys.

Walter practiced with the rest of the band for his concert tomorrow night. I think they had to axe one song from their lineup, which is unfortunate.

Wrapped 14 gifts tonight. I'm in love with the Scotch pop-up tape thingy that you put on the back of your hand. Alas, I ran out of little tape strips, so my wrapping party came to a quick halt (yeah, I could have used normal tape, but where's the fun in that?).

The van was officially pronounced totaled today. We're only getting $1750 for it, but I guess that's better than nothing. And think of all the good we got out of this--thousands upon thousands in debt! Seriously, I do love driving the Prius and appreciate its current cleanliness. Kerry reached his goal of 50 mpg yesterday. I prefer to actually look at the road.

I'm wondering what Wintergreen is like right now. Ollie's annual predictable gift is a lift ticket, and we usually go sometime in February, but this year it might be nicer to go sooner rather than later. I think Kerry is going to go this time, and I'm a bit jealous. I haven't seen the 2-packs of tickets from Costco this year yet, and I haven't been organized enough to check into whether there are any special offers from Wintergreen itself, especially ones that might permit us all to go together and sleep there. Unfortunately, my strongest memories now of these ski trips are of the throbbing headache I inevitably get every time I go. There's so very much something wrong with me!

The outrageous time on my clock right now reminds me that I need to go and prepare for my class tomorrow morning. Ooops.