Christmas Present Play-by-Play

Out of the gate at 7 with the opening of stockings, Dad's headlamp starts as a front runner followed closely by the Halloween themed fake glasses from his fashion 5 pack.

Time out for a requested pizza breakfast that we were able to indulge due to leftovers from the night before when our non-napper feel asleep at 6 and missed all Christmas Eve festivities including dinner, a visit from grandparents, and the putting on of pajamas.

Breakfast was followed by the sporadic opening of gifts, most of which were domestically themed leading to the grand finale...

Notice our lovely plywood floors.

Outdoor fun was not neglected as we broke in the rain gear with some providential puddle jumping and hunted (not too hard) for treasure in our new sand table.

Festivities turned to the broader family where his favorite gifts are summarized in the picture below.

So it seems that it is the two dollar glasses for the win!

Christmas Preparations

Hanging of the greens.

Play-doh fireman hat by Grandma.

Parade!

Santa at the zoo with Parker.

Cookies with pals.

Cookies at Meemaw's.

Lights at Saluda Shoals with Kristin.

Playing with some "snow".  At 80 degrees we sure aren't getting a lot here.

ALERT holiday party with these cute colleagues.

Stage Debut

Greeting the fans and cast party.

Book Review

I recently received a hot-off-the-press copy of the new book, Into the Woods.  Let me tell you, this variant of the classic man vs. wild tale did not disappoint!

First I'll mention the binding which was sturdy and elegant.  The simple cover left it up to one's imagination what would be waiting inside.

The story begins with unforeseen obstacles...not one, but two gates bar their entrance.

Daredevilry on a fence and the restraining of dogs.

 There are beautiful moments taking in the splendor of nature,

and scaring it away.

 Brave treks through uncertain waters.

And one who would choose the path less traveled.

Our heroes scale a tree.

There is some language near the end, however I think it is necessary to convey the proper mood.

(s)crap metal...the finding of trash or treasure?

 In the end the boys have taken one step closer to becoming men as shown by the well placed mustache.

The illustrations and narration work together to create a masterful work that will please a variety of audiences as many times as they choose to indulge themselves.  We are up to 12.

Thanks Malachi, Eli, and GiGi!  This made our day!  Silas can't wait to be on the next adventure!

A Cut Above

We had a little out patient surgery on Tuesday.  The communicating hydrocele has been shut down. Nothing left to say, let's hope.  It was a bit disconcerting that all the toys in the pre-op room were labels OPS.  One O short of a problem.  We waited long enough for Silas to let down his guard and think the place wasn't so bad.  Big mistake.  Poor guy got lead off with strangers to get cut into.  We waited in the waiting room named "The Lion's Den".  The mouths remained divinely shut and after about 30 minutes we got the call he was out and everything went well.  He was sad and hurting quite a bit in the anesthesia recovery room and that continued through discharge.  Once we got home he seemed better.  The next day I think the meds kept him down, but once we were off those he was back to himself.  Potentially too much so.  Lets hope we keep the stitches intact and don't find our way back to OPS with an oops.

 

Turkey Hats

And this cute one of my Turkey Trotting family in Missouri.

The Neighborhood Tour

Cool stuff on our block...

              What is this?!?  An alien spaceship doing a bad job of camouflage?

We watched an entire house being demolished.

Friendliest neighbor around.

Cheese

     Thank you, Privetts!