Butterfly Baby’s Neighborhood

uncle tommy

What happens when your actor brother from the Big Apple comes in town to celebrate the holidays and readily admits I don't know how to relate to children ???

You round them all up of course.  Shout GROUP PHOTO WITH UNCLE TOMMY!!!  Begin piling them onto the couch beside him.  Shove one onto his lap.  Try to tuck this one up into his armpit.  Quick!  Quick!  Quick! 

I'm not sure who's more freaked.  Uncle Tommy.  Or any one of my three children.  Picture taking is torture, I tell you.  Pure torture.  I'm going to stop threatening with time outs and instead say, Okay ____________, you do that one more time and it's a portrait session for you!!! 

so happy

  Thanks for being a good sport brother of mine.  Safe travels back to NYC.  XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX !!! 

Woke to 99.8 fever. Not much for most, but I typically run 97.6.
Still "off" but I just COULD NOT stay away from the Macy's after christmas sale.
Oh, and I had a gift certificate (like I kept to THAT amount). :-)

Once back I found "just enough" energy to sort my clothes and reorganize my side of the closet and my dresser.
TA DA. Summer stuff stored away. Things that don't fit, or I don't wear - in a bag for goodwill. Now If I can just get BEN to sort through his stuff! Seems "his" cat peed on this clothes on the floor of the closet. Um. Ben. PICK UP YOUR CLOTHES. :-)

Also got shoot some birds (with a great camera). Ben got a new fancy pants camera with HD video capacity and I inherited his prior fancy pants Canon! He's letting me borrow all his amazing lens (until I prove unworthy). He even taught me a bit about HOW to use the camera. I have not downloaded anything - but I did catch at least one cardinal!

We are waiting for snow. It was SUPPOSED to come today, but no snow. Maybe tomorrow. Should be A LOT of snow.
:- ) I have a new friend with a pair of barely used cross country skis I am likely to buy from her. There should be snow to ski on in the parks and in my yard soon.

Can you tell? I am very very happy here. Even if I AM a tad sick.

To pull off this feat, here are the necessary steps.

1.  A year or less before or after your birth your parents decide to tempt fate once again and nine months later successfully have another child. 

2.  You and your sibling make it to adulthood growing up surviving whatever it is your family does for all those years.

3.  Once you and your sibling are out of the house--you both date/fall in love/ find THE ONE with whom you wouldn't mind mixing your gene pools together.

4.  You both decide to live in the same city--a short jaunt from one another's homes.

5.  You both (are legally insane) decide you must have some babies NOW.  And hop to it. 

6.  You both conceive at regular intervals within a few months of each other.  Uhh.  Huh.  I know what you were doing on such and such date.... 

7.  After all is said and done, you still like each other enough, trust each other enough, love each other enough to expose your little wonders to your sibling's little darlings as often as possible. 

Simple, really.  Only 28 years in the making. 

End result: so so so close cousins.

hey alex. let's eat our hands. mmmm.

and now for some synchronized leg kicks

a splishing

and a splashing

rub a dub dub

some cousins in a tub

There be nasty cold in me lungs and voice box. I be coughin and blowin and there be much layin about. arggggh
Thanks be to the sunny skies and calm winds and me scurvy meds. aggggh

The kids had a blast and we, of course, had a blast watching them!

For the first time they had just the right amount of presents. Honestly, typically, we go overboard and they....<sigh> get bored of opening gifts because there are so many.  So not cool. Could you imagine ? Getting so many gifts you get bored of opening them??? I can't even fathom it. Not even a little. lol. Anyway, this year....there was none of that. When they were done, they looked for more under the tree but were not upset to find nothing else. 

Ben got some very cool lego sets, more Bionicals than he can count, play dough and those fusion bead things from Santa, a couple of puzzles....and just lots of other fun stuff.

Jaime got a pottery wheel from Nana, some clay stuff from us,  a FLIP video camera from Auntie Ceci and Uncle JR that she will not put down! (I'll post some videos from it later....along with pics). a music cd she really wanted, a couple of games for her DS, some make up.......and more!

Mom got me a bottle of my perfume, which is a traditional gift and thank God because I've been out forever! LOL She got Zak a drill bit set and he is THRILLED with it, she also got him a little log cabin for the toad and he promptly used one of the bits to  make a hole in the log cabin for Libertoad to get in! LOL  NIki got me a cool year in review type book. I love it!

Ceci gave Zak and I some money for Christmas and I am so psyched. She gave us enough that we are going to be able to put the car on the road..FINALLY. And I got to buy some alcohol, so I can make some real drinks. I am honestly...so sick of beer! ugh!!! lol. I mean, I love my beer...don't get me wrong.....but I like my girly drinks too. 

Zak and I did not get each other anything and we are going to celebrate our Christmas in June. I cannot wait! We're gonna buy a little tree and put it up in our bedroom and everything. LOL Although honestly.....not having gifts, not getting gifts, doesn't bother me....it truly doesn't. Seeing my kids happy and being with family is really gift enough.

All in all....a fantastic and wonderful Christmas!!!

I'll post some video and pictures a little later!

Oh....and guess what I woke up to? Another order in my Etsy shop!!!! YES!!!!! :-)

• 20:39 Avatar is a really good 'anti' american imperialism statement and a helluva movie. #

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Woman knocks down pope at Mass; Christmas celebrations begin