"... and visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.."

More Blinky Hijinx..

Blinky is still up to his old tricks.. over the last couple of nights, he's snapped this picture with the Boss..


.. and made a mess out of Aidan's dresser drawers!

Gifts from Aunt Eileen

The boys received some Christmas gifts from Aunt Eileen today.. some cool play clothes and a couple of vests.. perfect for this mild winter weather we've been having..



and of course, the kittens had a ball playing with the discarded wrapping paper, tissue and boxes..



and then Bryce put on that vest and went all "Han Solo" on us! It was inevitable, really.

Lessons from the Master: baking cookies

Bryce helped Gramma to make some Christmas cookies this morning.. he's learning from the master!

Santa!

Our neighbors threw a great Christmas party this evening. I was only able to attend for the first hour or so, but when I got home later that night, the boys told me that SANTA visited the party!! And they managed to snap these pictures of him-- he gave each of the kids at the party a little present and told them to remember to be good between now and Christmas. Bryce was a little freaked out at first, from what I'm told, but eventually he warmed up to old St. Nick.
I can't believe I missed such a big moment!

Santa!

I love Bryce's expression here..

the kids *love* Santa..

Aidan could barely believe his eyes..

well, some of the kids were a little less impressed with Santa, I guess..

Bryce finally managed to climb into Santa's lap..

Even the neighborhood Mom's got to make a request or two of Santa..

Christmas Baking

The last couple of days, we've been doing some serious cooking around here... getting ready for the holidays..

oh yeah, and..

Blinky brought new Christmas-time bath towels for the boys..

Blinky's baaaaack...

You might remember Blinky from last year. He's an elf from the North Pole who came to join us for a few weeks before Christmas. His stated mission was to keep an eye on the boys and report back to Santa if any last minute changes in plans regarding present delivery needed to be made based on behavior and so forth. But as we saw last year, Blinky seems intent on mischief as anything else while he's here.
When he left us last Christmas Eve, the boys begged us to tell Santa that we'd allow him to come back if he wanted. We made him promise that there would be no more grand theft auto..

So he's back.. and he's back up to his old tricks..

pulling out all the Sale papers..

and he dragged out all the Christmas movies

a few mornings ago, we came downstairs to find that he had spent the night playing with a bunch of the boys' Transformers..

and of course he found the camera and took a cheezeball self-portrait..

and then he toilet-papered the Christmas Tree.. (see him up there near the top?)

I have a bad feeling about this...

White Christmastime...

we got a little snow today in Nashville...

Story Time

The boys get a kick out of reading stories at bed time.. and Aidan really enjoys playing up all the funny bits.

Gridiron Bryce

Playing football with Bryce in Gramma and Grampa's backyard...

The kittens like the tree so much...

The cats clearly really like having the Christmas tree in the house...


I think they like it a little too much...

Fireman Bryce to the rescue..

Bryce is a big helper.. he helped us trim the Christmas tree today.. and then he help to rescue some kitty cats from the tree too!

Sous-chef Bryce

Today we're making some potato chowder.. and Bryce helped me cut up all the potatoes

Happy Thanksgiving!

Helping Grampa make some pancakes...

Trip to Notre Dame

Dad and I went up to Notre Dame to see the Irish take on Syracuse.. should be an easy win, right? haha.



Well anyway, we had a lot of fun driving up to South Bend, despite the big snow storm that struck northen Indiana the day before the game. So it was COLD when we got there... and we had to bundle up for the game, of course. But it was nice to be back on campus after being away for so long. We hadn't been back there since the 2000 Nebraska game.. another close loss. On second thought, maybe *I'm* the bad luck for the Irish..

Famous (embarrassing) Irish Football Losses I've been present for:
1995 Northwestern
1996 Air Force
1996 Ohio State
2000 Nebraska
2006 USC
2008 Syracuse

I should just stop now..

okay, here are some more pictures from the trip..






"Welcome back to Notre Dame, Baby!" The ushers at ND are the best in the world..