Outdoors for the Holidays

A visit from my sister is hardly complete without a trip to the local open space preserve. Our dad used to take us out there regularly when we were kids. Back then, no one else really seemed to know about it. This time, we felt lucky to find a parking space in one of the five parking lots they constructed since our childhood. Our dad and my kids' dad joined us. Grandpa rode his bike along with my kids on their little bikes and SPENCER! on a borrowed tricycle. Karen, Daddy and I walked.

The ultimate destination of this bike ride/walk is a city-owned working farm. It's not quite as active as it was when I was a kid, but there are still a bunch of animals out there and it's fun to see who's around each time. I, however, used the opportunity of being outdoors on a beautiful day to experiment with my Christmas present...a lot. Daddy and I met the rest of the crew on their way back from the farm.I had a lot of fun and learned a few things. I think there's a whole lot of room for improvement though!

The Cranky Donkey and Never Squat with Your Spurs On

Knowing that a big storm was headed our way, we made a point of getting out of the house Thursday afternoon. Naturally, we did a little more letterboxing. Our first adventure started nearby, but required a two-mile bike ride to get to the only box we were likely to find. So, we drove to the beginning of the bike trail. The kids set off on their bikes while I probably looked ridiculous on Mam's pink Razor scooter. And I kept hitting myself in the ankle everytime I hopped off and picked the scooter up. Ouch! We took a break to look for a letterbox along the way. It wasn't there. And we took a break to hang out with the donkey in the photo above. The kids were very excited, and a little alarmed, to hear a donkey bray for the first time. It think it'd had enough of small children.

I forgot to mention earlier that each letterbox has a name. This one wasn't far from the donkeys and earned the name "The Cranky Donkey"...and included an Eeyore stamp, of course. What fun! Of course, the two-mile ride back was a lot more painful.








It was late by the time we got back to the car, but we went for yet another box. It sounded like it'd be just off the road and it was nearby, so we headed off in the car and found the landmark we were looking for.


Fortunately, I was right that the letterbox was only about 50 yards up the road. Smunch (and I) found it camouflaged in the branch of a tree. In a new twist, the box (which was really a peanut butter jar) also contained a "hitchhiker" that had somehow made its way to the Never Squat with Your Spurs on Letterbox from its original location in Virginia. I didn't realize the rules governing hitchhikers. I was supposed to take it with me and plant it in a new letterbox, but instead, I left it there. Hopefully, the next person to find it will be a little more clued in!

Christmas 2007

Uh, yeah. It's 2008 already. I don't know how I managed to waste so much time before I got to blogging about our Christmas. Perhaps it's because it was a fairly stereotypical Christmas with two little kids. It was fun and exhausting all at once.

Our Christmas tradition (such as it is), is to have my parents over Christmas Eve. This year, as our formal Christmas Eve dinner, we opted for Take 'n' Bake Pizza. Yummy! When the kids are asleep, we open all the adult presents so the all the focus is on the kids and what they want to do in the morning. So, we did that. I garnered the nice flannel jammies I wanted, a sweater from Old Navy that I'd been coveting, and a piece of sparkly jewelry that was more than I'd expected. We also got a really nice card table and chairs from my parents. Cool.

Daddy got some gizmo that lets you record TV shows onto your computer. Kinda like TiVo, without the subscription. He can set it to record over the internet and using his iPhone. Nifty. He also got a box set of "The War" on DVD. I probably should have been more creative. He'd requested both of these.

In their traditional fashion, the kids slept in on Christmas morning. I have no idea why this happens, but my kids are all backwards. They have yet to get up early and insist we get up. In fact, Smuch got up at 6:30, stumbled down the hall to pee, woke Mam up in the process, and when she came out of her room, I heard him whisper, "Go back to bed, it's too early still." And they both went back to their rooms for the next half hour. Weird. Very weird. But I'm not objecting. Seven o'clock seems like a perfectly civilized time for them to get up and open presents.

Santa brought Smunch his "new red bike without training wheels". He was thrilled, but hardly shocked. I'd convinced him that he needed to learned to ride without training wheels on his old 12" bike before Santa would bring him a new one. So, he took off on this one like a pro. And no, our whole world didn't turn blue on Christmas Day. I just need to remember to change the settings on the camera when I go outside! Smunch also got a cool, shiny blue dragon and some very welcome additions to his Fischer Technik erector set...including a new motor. So, Daddy ended up spending much of the day doing construction in the back room.

Mam got the requested "pony set" from Santa. Apparently, this consisted of a four-plex of My Little Ponies. Gram and Grandpa gave her a chest of princess dress-up clothes. Those went over pretty well too, as did a mosaic kit for princess pictures.














In typical Mam fashion, her very favorite gift was a 12-inch shiny snake that I bought for $4 at the toy store when I was getting her this beautiful, soft little stuffed unicorn. The snake must be in bed with her every night...along with its compadre, the original Snakey. The unicorn, well, sure, it's nice.

Both kids got kiddie cameras for Christmas. Grandpa Ryder bought one for Mam and Gram and Grandpa got one for Smunch. That was unplanned, but worked out perfectly. They love taking photos, even if they're just weird. The biggest drawback is that now if I take my camera somewhere, they both want to take theirs too. In the end, this just results in me leaving my camera behind to avoid the hassle!


We finished off our morning with a giant, totally bad for you breakfast, including an almond pastry, fruit/custard pastry, a homemade cinnamon pull-apart, fruit salad, sausage, bacon and eggs. And then we all found a nice sunny rock to lie on... but no...then we had to keep the kids entertained by taking them to the playground. And then I realized that while I'd focused on making sure I had everything for breakfast, I hadn't really done a lot of shopping lately and I had nothing to eat for dinner. I mean, the choices included freezer enchiladas. I'm not even sure what we ate in the end, but it wasn't the enchiladas and whatever it was came with a side of leftover pizza... Hmmm... better luck next year!

At least the presents were a hit!