Great weekend!

We had a great weekend with the Bowmans in town! I have no pictures because my camera has a dirt speck on the sensor. This results in a little black speck on all my pictures. NOT GOOD.

Luckily, Amy took pictures! So here's a quick recap of us doing a lot of nothin' !

Charlie LOVED the piano. Here's Michael pouting because he did not get to play first. Even though he rarely ever gets on the piano:

Saturday morning - Charlie and Michael started the day like this:
Too cute. Brian drafted his Fantasy Baseball team extraordinaire. Here's to hoping for a good year!

In the afternoon, we ran over to the Longwood Gardens:
The kids loved the Children's indoor water garden:

After this, B decided we needed to grill steaks for dinner, which was great! Here are Andy and B manning the grill:
They are REALLY happy to have a picture taken of them.

We got our butts reamed by Andy in Carcassonne that evening. He beat us by nearly 100 points. It was his 2nd time playing the game. It's not something competitive people like Brian and I sit on very well. :)

Sunday morning, we went to church. The gals (Amy, SJ, and I) had naps in the afternoon while the boys explored in the woods. They played in the creek, made fire, made smores, and cut down wood. It was a manly day!

Michael and Charlie are definitely friends - but very interesting friends. They fight with each and trash talk with one another but they get along when left in the wilderness.

Here's one fight they had in the car:

Michael: Charlie, quit kicking the back of my dad's seat.

Charlie: Don't tell me what to do. You just worry about yourself.

Michael: I don't need to worry about myself. I'm just fine. Stop kicking the back of my dad's seat.

BRIAN: Charlie, please stop kicking the back of my seat.

Charlie: See, I only listen to adults. I don't have to listen to other kids.

Another morning, they had a back and forth about who was going to beat who on baseball. Both went over their respective strategies and about how one was going to beat the other.

But when you ask them about their weekend:

P: Michael, is Charlie your friend? Do you like him?

Michael: Yes!

P: What was your favorite part about this weekend?

Michael: Charlie's piano concert.

Charlie gave us a mini piano concert. It was SO cute. The video is on Amy Bowman's facebook page.

Charlie told Andy that he liked Michael too and that they were friends.

But they fight like cats and dogs when they are here. It is so funny! Well, when they are confined and have to behave.

When they were in the woods - they had a great time together! And during lunch on Saturday, they played outside and dug in the dirt together while we ate. No fights or anything. It was great!

Us grownups had a fun time catching up, trading stories, and going to bed at early hours.

One thing our house is good for is R&R. Don't come here expecting a jam-packed vacation full of sights and sounds. Come here to play in nature, rest, sleep, and do a whole lotta nothing.

So glad to see our Texas friends on the East Coast. Really sad that they are moving back in June - and us Besancons are back to being alone on this side of the world.

Tokyo

I have really enjoyed this post, written by an American photographer in Tokyo:

http://www.mcpactions.com/blog/2011/03/16/inside-tokyo-one-photographers-view/

Interesting recap of what the city is like after the earthquake.

It's crazy to me to see this, especially since Brian was just in Tokyo 3 weeks ago. It could have been him there, stuck far from us. And I am really glad he's safe at home.

One other thought I'd like to throw out there.

I'm really irritated at Apple's recent introduction of the iPad2. Seriously? The iPad just came out around when we got back from France. So that was less than a year and a half ago.

Do Americans REALLY need another NEW version of this thing? I know it's cool - but honestly?

After living in France - it is SO glaringly apparent how the American society is driven on the "I want it now, " and "Ooo!! New tech toy - I HAVE TO HAVE IT!"

And I find it incredibly embarrassing. When I'm in my French teacher's apartment where they don't own an oven or a bed frame for their mattress. When I'm staring at all those images of people in Tokyo. It's a humbling thing to see.

Am I saying that I am morally better than everyone else in America? Hardly. I am guilty of it too. We have a flat screen TV. I have a mac computer. We own smartphones.

When we got back from France - well, we had a little catching up to do right? We actually needed a TV, reinstated cell phone plans, and a new computer. Anyone who visited us in Paris knew our laptop screen died and we just hooked it up to a borrowed monitor (or the TV) instead of buying a new computer. For 1.5 years.

However, we ARE different because we won't be replacing our gadgets with the newest or "must have" items. We'll have our items until it dies. We'll use our cell phones until they die - not until the next best thing comes out.

Sorry, I had to rant and rave a bit. It just seems to me - to read in the headlines about the debut of ipad2 alongside the devastation in Japan - that something just didn't line up for me.

Mommy Memory

To be engraved in my Mommy Memory:

Friday night, Michael and I were sitting on the couch after dinner. Me, with my apfel schoerla. I have no idea how to spell that by the way. It's just German for a drink that's half apple juice and half bubbly water. I love it.

Michael, with his warm apple juice in a gluhwein mug that Brian bought in the '90s when he lived in Dresden.

And he climbed up not quite next to me on the couch. He sat about 2 feet away from me. And he said,

"Mommy, will you tell me a story?"

So I told him 2 pretty silly, off the cuff stories. We do it Mad Libs style where I'll start it and let him interject things like a name for the main character or what color he was, etc. Michael decided he wanted a story about a microwave named Dora. So I told him about Dora the Microwave and how she didn't like to heat the food. She would just eat it. Until one day, someone put a Thomas the Tank engine in there and she burned it up.

I never said my stories were super awesome.

My second story was about Luigi and how he kept falling into huge vats of food (lasagna, then spaghetti, and then a bowl of soup). He had to eat himself out of these vats of things. Mario helped him with the lasagna. Toad give him a twizzler and pulled him out of the spaghetti. And he saved himself out of the soup by finding a cheerio and using it as a floatie. He laughed and laughed when Mario was too busy to help Luigi get out of the spaghetti because he had to poop.

Boys love the word poop for some reason.

I will always remember Michael curled up on the couch, with his apple juice in his lap, just staring at me with his big eyes, laughing and chuckling until the juice spilled from his cup all over his Mater t-shirt. We did this for about an hour.

And Brian cleaned up our whole kitchen - did the dishes, swept the floor, wiped the counters down, and the table.

It was a great Friday night.

Actions on the Pity Party

While I am one to have pity parties as seen in my previous post, I do actually DO things about it.

I decided on the fabric for my cornice in the piano room:

It's a bit squatty looking in this picture, but it's not this squatty in real life. The beige-ish part of the design matches my wall color. And the grey is a nice compliment (without being matchy) to my framed prints which have a navy blue mat.

PLUS - I found it at The Interior Alternative, which is a huge fabric warehouse with aisles and aisles of bolts of fabric (think HGTV). AND their regular prices are usually cheaper than Joann's 60% off sales. AND they have lots of different fabrics that are fancy.

What sealed the deal? I got the end of the bolt discount so I got 50% off their already discounted price. AND a worker had purchased a 3.5 yd remnant that she didn't end up using so I got that for 50% off too.

DONE.

Just need some ready made light grey linen curtains to be my side panels.

Once that chest gets in that room, I'll be getting this lamp from Target that has a glass base with a navy blue lamp shade with cream accent ribbon. And a mother of pearl mirror to go above it. Both of which I cannot find pictures of on the web.

As far as Brian's jet lag, I've been making him stay up to talk to me and play games - which tires him out enough to sleep through the night. CHECK.

Last night, we showed up to our neighbor's Mardi Gras party with Michael - only to find out it was an adult's only party. Oops. Luckily, our other neighbors who Michael plays with were home and so we sent him there to play with their 12, 9, and 7 year old. They played Wii and watched TV and we had a totally impromptu date.

It was a neighborhood party and we met a lot of our neighbors for the first time so it was really neat. We'll be planning a Texas BBQ party in the summer and hanging our HUGE TX flag over our garage for that WHOOP.

Today, it's raining. And I will be organizing said laundry room and cleaning a bit. We have house guests in 2 weeks and then 3 weeks! YEA! We love house guests.

Love,

P

One day

One day, I will post again on this blog.

One day, I will actually finish organizing my laundry room - I can't live with my supply of toilet paper and paper towels in my kitchen for much longer

One day, I will finish designing all my brochures for my business.

One day, I will make some final decisions on the curtains in my piano room.

One day, I will purchase this chest for my piano room that I have been coveting - for I don't know - 10 months:

One day, I am going to actually watch TV. Like sit down and watch it. And not feel guilty.

One day, Brian's going to not be awake from 1am-4am due to jet lag. I'd like my non-grouchy/non-sleepy husband back please.

One day, it will stop being cold up here. ANY DAY PLEASE.

One day, my house might magically appear perfectly decorated the way I would like for free and with minimal effort from me.

This is not a pity party. I swear.

Let it Snow

Yea, I'm pretty late about blogging lately!

I have had real clients for my business so I've been pretty wrapped up in that! Exciting times - but anxious times as I pray often that I can deliver a quality product to my clients and exceed their expectations as a photographer and as a business owner!

But anyways - this blog is about our family life - so back to the subject at hand.

As you all know, we had a pretty big snow. Brian's hairy chest pictures were not the only ones we took!

Abby came over one Saturday (probably 2 Saturdays ago) and played with Brian/Michael in the snow!

I love this picture of them:

They spent some time attacking Brian:
And doing multiple sled runs in many different combinations:
Here's a shot of them whizzing by:
Brian - proud of his built-in snow seat. It's the only kind of "built-in" we have in our home that's falling off our hill (we are seeing cracks in our crown molding. YIKES.)
And here are just some snowy winter pictures:



Yes, that snow accumulated SIDEWAYS (parallel to the ground) from our railing of our deck.
Brian had to go in to work all those days. He would shovel at midnight and shovel again in the AM. Pretty hard work for him! I was no help because I was battling extreme fatigue - REALLY extreme. I'd get a headache when I woke up and just wanted to take a nap all day. Useless. Glad that's mostly passed! I still have to pay attention to getting rest - and can't believe I'm getting OLDER.

WAH.

I digress. Up next, posts about Boston! I didn't take many pictures of Michael or us - I tend to forget with new subjects (Team Besancon Boston - soon-to-be Texas) to photograph! Can't wait to show those pictures! Some are really cute.

Love to all,

P

I'd like to nominate Phuong for best wife in the world. I leave for Japan tomorrow on business at 6:15am and I was loathing coming home and having to iron my shirts and pack everything. But I walked in the door and there was my bag with the shirts already ironed and folded and ready to go! What a wonderful woman to whom I am so lucky to be married!

Before I forget

Michael and I had the following exchange at bedtime about a week ago:

P: I thank God every day that I get to be your Mommy.

M: I thank God every day that I get to be your kid.

*melt*

Mother Nature

This is what Mother Nature thought of my Let it Snow garden flag:

And our mailboxes

Courtesy of Frenchie Alburtis:

SNOW - Again

When I bought this flag at Pier1 for 50% off - I just bought it for the color. Who knew it would be an omen:

We got 6"-8" of snow on Tuesday night. Which is normally quite exciting. But I decided to go to a movie that night with Michael (Tangled - it was great!) - and drove home - in the pitch black - on snow - down a huge hill - in the middle of a snow storm - did I mention pitch black?

It.Was.The.Scariest.Thing.I.Have.Ever.Done.

You can assume correctly, that I am not a huge risk taker to begin with.

Here's our little buddy - with his 360 ear muffs that he stole from Dad - ready to play in the snow:
The view of our trees in the backyard:
Michael trying to figure out his sled. He asked me for help. I told him a resounding no.
Fine, he'll play in the snow then. I am blessed to have a son who understands his mom is a wimp and will be ok to find something else to do:
And my grownup guy:
He asked me to make him a snowman, but I'm extraordinarily bad at that! The snow was really powdery and would not compact. I'm sure it was my technique.

And I leave you with this last picture of Michael, running around, looking at his footprints behind him:

11 Months of Michael

My friend, Brandi, had a great idea for a blog post - she posted one picture of her son from every month this year. It is great because as a mom, you don't see the changes in your kids, physically - you see them everyday! This is a great way to document that change, all in one place.

Michael is a bit older, so I don't see as drastic a change in him - but I'm going to do it anyways because I love the idea. Michael's personality has changed a lot in the last year - it is a joy to see who he is becoming - we can't help but love the kind boy he is.

Well, not everyday, but we all aren't at OUR best everyday are we?

SO here we go. 11 months because for some reason, in April - we only took pictures of the snake in our yard.

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

May 2010

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

Last night, Michael ate ALL his food on his plate and asked for seconds.

JAW-DROP

Those of you who know Michael, know this is unheard of. My Picky Eater Extraordinaire. Who only feasts on gourmet food, my mom's cooking, and mac 'n cheese/ramen noodles/hotdogs/frozen peas.

Then, he turned to me, and said,

"Excuse me Mommy, thank you for my delicious dinner. It was so good. I ate it all up."

And gave me a very big hug.

Then asked for dessert.

Somewhere in there, I hit "REC" in my mind's eye.

And if you are wondering what I made, this is it:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roast-Chicken-with-Herb-Butter-Onions-and-Garlic-104597

It's not for the faint of heart. But it's amazing. I don't ever buy that storebought chicken anymore.

Side dishes: Sweet potatoes with cinnamon/brown sugar/nutmeg, steamed broccoli

If this isn't worth blogging about, I don't know what is.

Oh yes, up next - answers to the questions from my tartiflette post.

Household Chores List

Hi All!

MoneySavingMom has a couple of great forms out for those who want to check it out:

http://moneysavingmom.com/downloads/household-management-forms

There, you'll find a customizable template for:

• Household chores for kids
• Daily/Weekly cleaning chores
• Her "Daily Docket" where she keeps track of her "to do" lists.

I printed out the household chores list for Michael and he's super excited about doing it. He gets a checkmark for each item he completes daily, and if he does them all week long (M-F), he gets a sticker for each row. If he gets stickers for each row (indicating he has done all his chores all week), he gets a treat on the weekend like ice cream or sukihana or whatever!

Love that's free, customizable, and printable!

P

Tartiflette

With the snow - the cold weather - the snow...it's a tartiflette kind of night.

Especially since we have been ransacking as many cheese shops on the East coast that we can for reblochon cheese...

Tartiflette is a fattening concoction native to the Savoie region in France, which is known for its snow/skiing/etc. It consists of potatoes, cheese, white wine, sour cream, bacon, and caramelized onions.

If you are interested in making this artery clogging item - click here for picture instructions:
http://www.meilleurduchef.com/cgi/mdc/l/fr/recettes/tartiflette_ill.html

With the pictures, it's pretty easy to follow, I think. If you would like any translations, e-mail me. (I don't expect anyone to be doing this - but in case any one wanted to).

Culinary Goals for the year:

1. P: Get much better at making a pot of pho.
2. P: Attempt cassoulet - I'm hoping it's good the first time.
3. P: Cook more Asian dishes - especially since I have a rice cooker now.
4. B: Perfect baguette recipe to get the right flavor
5. B: Learn how to make pate from scratch.

Off to boil potatoes, caramelize onions, and saute bacon...

Week

I did a lot of cleaning this week. Having people come over forces me to clean my house. Because, honestly, I'm not going to clean it just for *my family and I* to live in right? ;o)

Now that it's clean - I just have to maintain that - which I can do. So this is all good.

Anyways, Friday we had a fun day so I am going to blog really quickly. MOPS playdate in the morning - fun times with the kids running around screaming. Some kids made it upstairs and told me that I was "REALLY messy." I said, yes, and now that the secret is out - I can breathe a sigh of relief.

The moms were great and left my house cleaner than when they came. THAT is a blessing after a playdate!

Then, Michael and I had lunch, played games, did workbooks, had a reading and math lesson - then off to run errands/buy gifts after it stopped snowing around 2pm.

Swim class with his favorite teacher after that. He informed me that he floated all by himself, front and back. I informed him that it was not true and that he needed to work on his front float. But his back float was looking much better. I keep it real, sorry.

Came home for dinner of guacamole and turkey burgers for the A&M game - yum...it was healthy and good for us - until I made some bacon and fried my turkey burgers in the rendered fat. YUMMMM...IN CAPITAL letters.

Now, Michael is playing in the snow with B. What a life. What are you guys doing this weekend?
P

Reading Program

I know I talk a lot about Money Saving Mom! There's a reason! There is a free teaching reading program to download:

http://moneysavingmom.com/2011/01/educational-freebie-free-funnix-downloadable-childrens-reading-program-249-value.html

I don't know if it is internationally renowned or particularly effective - but it's normally $250 and they are giving it away for free. SO I figure I can download it, check it out, and if I don't like it, I'll just delete it off my HD. Nothing gained, nothing lost! But if it IS good - I hope it is something ELSE I can do with Michael toward his reading goal!

Love,

P

Merry Christmas et Bonne Annee!

Did we have a White Christmas? Almost - does the day after count?

Our happy little gnome was excited about the whole affair:
Our snow covered house:
Well, even an inch of snow warrants breaking in one of our Christmas presents - the "vehicle of death". I kid. I meant - the sled.

Here's father and son at the top of our hill. Yep, this is a part of our land and they are up by the road:
You have to enlarge this picture - the expressions are priceless:
I love this picture of my love:
We spent a very quiet and relaxing Christmas at home. It was small, calm, and very nice! We played tons of games, did lots of puzzles, watched movies - stayed warm, cozy, and well-fed. It was great!

By Wednesday, Dec. 29 we we drove to Washington DC for a bit of "big city" life! While we love it in the country - we also love being so close to 3 major cities. Since I am a city girl at heart, I find myself twitching if I don't get somewhere I can eat good Asian food!

We went to visit our good friend from grad school, Devina Pillay! She was an amazing hostess and Michael LOVED her mac and cheese! We stayed up until 2am both nights we were there playing Rock Band - an obsession was born! Sadly, we didn't get any pictures with her! But rest-assured - we loved seeing our friend.

We got there Wednesday afternoon and hung out around her neighborhood in Alexandria, VA. We took Michael to a nearby park, Brian taught him how to roll down a hill (super popular), and feasted on a delicious Mexican dinner.

Rock Band until 2am.

Back to being parents at 8am - WHEW. COFFEE please! On Thursday morning, we took the metro over to the Smithsonian area and went ice skating at the Sculpture gardens of the National Museum of Art. Here's the rink in front of the National Archives:
It was awesome. We love DC. SO very much. And I am so excited to get to see so much more of it at different times during the year. It's a pretty special place to me for a variety of reasons.

And our little guy? He did pretty well. After only 45 minutes, the kid was letting go and going on his own:

Finally got a picture of them with the National Archives in the background and Brian takes a cue from John Besancon on how to be in a picture! ;-)
I turned around while waiting in line to get ice skates with the boys and find this thing. WHAT a throwback for me. 2 years ago, we were ice-skating at Hotel de Ville, a 10 minute walk from a metro stop that looked just like this, Cite:
I made them go sit over there and snapped away:
I guess I only got that one shot.

After this, we had lunch and Michael fell asleep in the stroller. He woke up just in time to see Dinosaurs 3D at the IMAX and loved it (us, not so much!). We ran around the museum a bit, saw the Hope diamond, looked at dinosaur bones, and insects. Michael loved it!

After this, we met Devina at King Street metro stop and walked down Olde Town Alexandria a bit, since it is about a 15 minute walk from her place. She then took us to Honey Pig restaurant in Annondale (sp?!).

O.M.G.

I am no expert when it comes to bulgogi/etc - but it was really incredible. The place was PACKED with lots of Koreans - we waited for 30 minutes - but it was SO worth the wait. Michael gobbled it all up.

Rock Band again until 2am.

This time, Brian got up at 8am with Michael. We spent Friday morning hanging around Olde Town Alexandria and peeking into coffee stores, furniture stores, etc. Really loved it there! Had pizza at a delicious place there called Pizza Paradiso - there was a pizza there with a sweet sauce, duck, manchego cheese - drool...

And then we were out after a visit to Cheesetique in Del Ray - Brian got some great stuff that will make us fall off our diet bandwagon pretty early in the year!

And then, we were off. Glad to see our friend - who showed us a great time. Glad to spend some time in the big city. Glad to eat so well! But most of all, glad to have made some great memories as a family.

Hope your new year brings you all these great things in 2011! Bonne Annee et sante!

Love,

P

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years Everyone!

A quick re-cap of our new year - 1st goal - we stayed up until midnight. CHECK. That's a tough one. Glad we got that one covered.

Last night, Brian and I played a game we got for Christmas from Brian's mom called Carcassone, which is named after a medieval walled city in France that we visited 2 years ago. I hate to admit that I really enjoy the game because there is a fair amount of strategery and thinking (a little like Risk, but less complicated) - and I do not care for games that make my brain REALLY think. But this one is pretty cool.

About halfway through the game, we hear some pretty loud popping and banging. We immediately ran upstairs to check on Michael - then ran outside because we thought our chimney was blowing up since we have a wood-burning fireplace (AWESOME BY THE WAY).

Brian comes inside and says, "The House looks ok."

I look at the clock - it's after midnight. The new year has come and went and we were freaking out over the fireworks noise because we were so not aware.

Welcome to our life as old geezers. Carcassonne is THAT good.

Here's to hoping YOUR new years was much more exciting than ours!

Here's some New Years Resolutions for ya, because I was in the mood this year. Normally, I never make these resolutions because I am not disciplined enough to follow through...but this year - I am turning over a new leaf of self improvement.

1. Standard weight loss - Brian and both need to lose weight. I am about 20 lbs overweight. Brian is about 30 lbs overweight. Plan of action: Zero calorie soup already cooking. Egg white vegetable sandwiches for breakfast. Following Vietnamese cooking items and my parents' diet as of now. Sweets are being taken to Brian's work to be given away. Eliminate butter. Walk 5x a week. I got a hill that is pretty good.
2. Make a plan for my week during the weekend prior to it. This includes a blogging plan (outline 2 entries per week per blog). Menu plan (which also reduces my grocery bill, another goal). Items for my business plan. Chore plan for the house. Lesson plan for Michael. Craft plan for Michael. Helps me to be more efficient. I have already created my loose daily schedules for every day of the week depending on our activities (school/bible study/swim lessons)
3. In bed by 11:00 pm every night. This one is a bit tough. But I want to try as it makes me more efficient during the day.
4. Help get the Litrugy of the Word for Kids off the ground at my church. It would be something that Michael really enjoys - I need to be more proactive with the coordinator to make this happen as she is having trouble finding volunteers.
5. Spend more on others than ourselves at Christmas. We did this this year - we had a really small Christmas and easily spent twice as much on our extended family/charities than we did on our nuclear family. And it felt really nice. We may continue this for a while until we feel like we would like to splurge for a year! But seriously - we like to simplify at Christmas time and this really does it.
6. Reduce non-value added spending by 50%. At least. I have been really spoiled the last decade and did not have to budget. Now, it is time - being a one income family on the East coast and all. No more trips to Costco (eliminated my membership). No more trips to Marshalls until the end of the month after I have looked at savings/etc. No more spending on frivolous things. This one is going to be hard. And if I make it until next January - I will probably throw a party.

So now, it is in writing. And I'm off to post something similar on my La Lumiere Blog as I have resolutions/goals for my business too. It's easy to be lazy and not accomplish anything if you don't have goals. It's time to get back in the business of doing that!

This week, expect to see posts on:

1) Sledding with our fake snow storm.

2) Ice skating in DC and our visit with Devina Pillay! And an I-N-C-R-E-D-i-B-L-E Korean recommendation.

Off to tackle my hill after eating half a bowl of zero calorie soup. It's REALLY good with chili garlic (uoc) from the Asian store. That soup is not so pleasant without it. And then I'll be making vegetable stir fry to be eaten with my deliciously cooked rice from my rice cooker (THANK YOU MOMMY!)

Love,

P

Kaput

This morning, Michael found out he could wear the santa hat that has been sitting on our fireplace tools set. Of course, he wanted a picture:
Then, he wanted to take a picture of me doing the same, but with my little point and shoot. That does not have a wrist strap. Which never was an issue until today.

Michael was very excited about his picture of me. So excited he dropped my camera. And Brian says, "Oh Michael - it's ok. The camera will be ok."

This must be what "OK" is:

Hmm...when you turn it on, it just has a black screen and says "E18." I'm sure that is equivalent to being "Sad Mac'ed." - wonder who's going to get that joke. If you can identify what I am talking about, the first person will get a $5 gift card to Starbucks sent via snail-mail. Post in comments and I will verify! For reals!

Guess I'll be asking for a new point and shoot in my near future. As you know, it is 5 years old anyways - so it is time to upgrade my 5MP camera. NICE!

And my mother-in-law never asks us for anything - and she is so very generous to us all the time. So when she does ask us for something - we are happy to oblige. Except for the fact, that it's always a doozie:

Pictures of all of us in our unisex "Christmas Robes." For some reason, Brian found it necessary to take all his clothes off to wear the robe first.

Next post will recap Christmas - and summarize some traditions we'd like to keep, some we'd like to shed, and some we'd like to have. I will love to welcome you to share some of YOUR favorite Christmas traditions on that post too - so stay tuned!

Merry Christmas to all...and to all a GOODNIGHT!

Love,

P

Butter and Santa

Michael and I have been discussing, in great depth, Santa and his arrival. It went like this:

M: Mommy, how does Santa get in the house?

P: Through the fireplace.

M: But how does he get in the fireplace?

P: Down the chimney.

M: What is a chimney?

P: It is a hole at the top of the house that goes all the way down into the fireplace. Santa goes in the hole at the top of the house and goes down into the fireplace.

M: But how does he do that?

P: He slathers himself with butter. This makes him slippery. And then he jumps straight down the chimney. The butter helps him to slide and then he lands on our fireplace.

M: Oh.

It is all very interesting to me because it has been a long time since I believed in Santa. Michael HONESTLY believes Santa is real and is coming. It is fascinating to watch.