Day 83

Once in a blue moon. Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2010 brings you and yours great adventure, happiness and friendship!

Day 82

Nearly all the Christmas candy is gone, which is mostly because we didn't have very much around anyway. And for some reason, nobody ever wants the peppermints, no matter if they are in a candy cane, disk or these little deals.

Day 81

Less than a week after a White Christmas, we get hit again with snow. Is this Texas? Really? It started out as rain, then got fluffier as the temperatures dropped. It's still more icy than snow, which is kinda gross, but at least we don't have to go anywhere. Might make my 10-mile run tomorrow a little dicey, though...

Day 80

A few years ago we spent the week before Christmas on the most hideous cruise ever - bad weather, seasickness, change of itinerary. Probably the best day of the trip besides the beach day at Cozumel was spent at the pyramids near Progreso. We missed seeing the Winter Solstice by one day - it would have been great to be able to be there when the sun lined up perfectly with the keyholes in the windows as they did when they were first constructed.

Day 79

Oranges, tangerines, clementines - all citrus are awesome, (except the yummy clementines are kinda pricey, and we can't keep a bag in the house for more than, oh, about four minutes). And they're pretty, too!

Day 78

Since Christmas was yesterday, the baby Jesus is now in his spot in the manger, awaiting the arrival of the Three Kings. This nativity set was handed down from my mom, who had it when she was first married in the early Sixties, and is one of my favorite things about Christmas.

Day 77

Christmas Day dawned clear and cold, and the snow from yesterday lingered even as the sun was shining brightly. It was a beautiful morning, as is fitting for this day.

Day 76

Merry Christmas, y'all! We're celebrating at the Gaylord Texan this year, and so far, it's been spectacular, including SNOW in North Texas. Hope you and yours are enjoying the season!

Day 75

Ben's been working on growing this at Grandpa's house the last few days. The mouth and nose fell off sometime earlier last week, apparently, but the hair is still keen. Or it was until he took the scissors to it and gave it a crew cut. It should grow back, though!

Day 74

The team held a Dad/Son game tonight instead of practice. It got kinda nuts there toward the end, so I don't think anyone really knows what the score ended up. Also, I don't think we're sure who had a better time out there!

Day 73

Portait of the Artist as a Young Penguin. This was one of Ben's many projects from his art camp this summer. His brush drooped a little before the whole thing dried, but the pallette cracks me up, as do the big ol' eyeballs. Penguins are awesome. Li'l clay penguins made by my boy are even better.

Day 72

So we wrapped up our Louisiana hockey weekend (our boys lost all three games - bah!) with a trip to Prejean's for breakfast. Except we got there at 10:28 so we missed breakfast and had to have lunch. Wahh (not really, lunch was great!). On the way out, I grabbed a praline from the claws of this little guy for the road. No matter how you pronounce it (pray-leen, btw), it was delish.

Day 71

Southern gentility. I can easily see myself sitting on the porch here, sipping lemonade and enjoying the wind blowing through the 100-year-old cypress trees. The Spanish moss is the only thing missing from this scene, I believe.

Day 70

Hard to take a good photo through the window as we were hurtling down the highway at a ridiculous pace (which, depending on whether you are a Texas DPS or Louisiana State Patrol may or may not have exceeded 90 mph, ahem...), but I did capture the "Welcome to Louisiana" sign. Kinda, sorta. Saw lots of great swamps reflecting the sunset and trees and such, yet was not able to get a decent shot while at warp speed. Maybe tomorrow I'll get some gator pics, or some kind of Bigfoot swamp monster. But it will probably be more hockey pics...

Day 69

The boys got these figurines in their stockings a few years ago, and they are now a favorite part of our decor. Even though we scaled back the holiday pomp and circumstance this year, we HAD to put out Snoopy Claus, Charlie Brown and the tree swaddled in Linus' blanket. Merry Christmas!

Day 68

My mother-in-law used to make dozens and dozens of tamales every year at Christmastime - she asked me to help once or twice, but eventually decided I mucked up her finely-tuned assembly process. I was then allowed to sit and watch without actually contributing any effort except taste-testing. It was awesome. We'd sometimes do a little happy dance when we found a lost pack in the back of the freezer in July. Store-bought are going to have to do this year, at least until I figure out how to do them on my own.

Day 67

Someone pointed out today that because I'll be headed toward Louisiana on Friday for a hockey tournament and the gymnastics place will be closed next Tuesday-Friday, I won't see some folks until after Christmas. Wha? Yikes. So, um, Merry Christmas?

Day 66

We'd really rather be skiing (or attempting to ski, in my case) in the Rockies again this Christmas.  Alas, unless the lotto numbers hit this week (and I actually go out and buy a ticket), we won't make it back there this year.  Bah. Daydreaming into this snow globe will have to do for now.

Day 65

Water stop past mile 12 at the White Rock half-marathon in Dallas. Went out to cheer for a couple of friends and ended up standing on a bench yelling at everyone going by for a good two hours. It was awesome - and a little less exhausting than running a half myself! Congrats to Cheyenne, Susan and Cathy on the half, and WTG to Moises on his first full in 4:15!!

Day 64

Crazy-busy day today, including a two-hour drive for a drizzly half-marathon, an afternoon hockey game, and culminating in a great gathering of some of my favorite people for a Dinner Club dessert party. Merry Christmas, all.

Day 63

So we get to Six Flags for the boy's choir concert and as we pull into the parking lot, I turn on the camera (that I circled the block to go back for, by the way) and realize that the memory card is in the card reader, plugged into the computer. HCD! So, you get a fuzzy cell-phone photo of the tower with the big star at the top. I would have taken a photo of the boy on Mine Train, but I was laughing too much at his screams!

Day 62

So I said I wasn't going to decorate this year. And I haven't. Really. I did find my wreath in the closet today while I was looking for something else, though, and decided to put it on the table around a candle. Looks almost Christmas-ey, despite my best intentions.

Day 61

It was crazy cold today, but the air was very clear, and the late afternoon sun came through my window in a way that drew both cats to the office to peer out at the front yard.

Day 60

Seems like winter around here lately, and the tree out front is slowly losing its last leaves, just in case we had any doubts about it.

Day 59

"I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love. "

Our little tabletop tree is about all we can handle this year. We really need a new one, but don't feel much like decorating with all we've been through lately, so we're going minimalist. The only challenge is going to be how long before the cats knock it over and drag it under the couch.

Day 58

Hockey great Brett Hull led a clinic for Sandro's hockey team today, so the kids got to learn how to shoot from an NHL Hall of Famer. Pretty cool experience, and something the kids will remember for a long time.