This Joy’s Life

Well, we started the Christmas decorating of the house and yard today and Clara has loved every minute of it. As I pulled out my small collection of Nutcrackers one after the other, all she wanted was to hold each and every one. But, no, that’s not allowed. Clara, I have a special one for you. Wait . . . not yet.

Finally! It was love at first sight, as though it were somewhere written that Clara should have a Nutcracker of her very own:

And she played with it and she loved it. And then her naughty little brother, well, cat, Harry, ran in front of her. As he did so, she tripped over her own two feet and she and the Nutcracker went tumbling. Up she scrambled and quickly ran to her fallen Nutcracker. “Uh oh!”

“Is the Nutcracker okay?” I asked from the other room as I continued to unpack Christmas decorations. “No.” So, I went to have a look. I mean, what are the chances? Seriously, what are the chances that she could have broken the Nutcracker she was given only minutes before?

I can only think that it must be written somewhere, the story of a little girl named Clara who receives a beautiful Nutcracker doll, only to have it broken in front of her shortly thereafter.

Thankfully, mom had her very own little Drosselmyer tucked away in the closet. Better known to some as . . . Gorilla Glue.

And so, working it’s magic on the Nutcracker, we’ve now but to wait until he has dried before Clara and her Nutcracker can be reunited once again. And all will be right in the world.

In time for Thanksgiving, I replaced my stolen camera and was excited to try it out on Thanksgiving day over at the in-laws’ house with all the extended family in attendance.

Clara-bell:
Uncle Jim:
His daughter, cousin Traci:
Her hubby, Floyd:
Their son, cousin Ian:
Traci and Clara decided to have some fun playing dress up in Grandma’s old hats:


Hope y’all had as good a Thanksgiving as we did!

This sounds like a really bad joke, but instead it was a very fun Halloween for Clara, Nadia and Jack who really started to get into Halloween and the concept of yelling “Trick or Treat!!” and getting candy.

There was no shortage of ladybug costumes out there this Halloween, but Clara’s was above and beyond the best for being homemade by her grandmother. Too cute. LOL!

We met Nadia and Jack at the U-Village, an open air shopping area for to start off our trick or treating adventure. Clara and Nadia really enjoyed their lollipops. And Jack couldn’t stop looking in his UPS box at all the candy he was getting!

Can you read that? It’s a bar graph that Chad created in his journal on October 31, 1987 and the ripe old age of 12. As he clarifies in his summary paragraph, it is a graph of candy bars. That’s bars, now, not hard candy or m&ms or any other type of candy but candy bars. He really racked up on snickers. They must have been highly discounted in the area that year.

Luckily, he provided the complimentary “Other” bar graph so that we could see how he did on other types of candy like smarties and starburst. Wow! He got enough tootsie rolls to last the remainder of 1987 and maybe even take him into the new year. It’s off the chart!!

If this was not evidence enough for his parents that he was going to grow up to be a CPA, I don’t know what is.

This was the scene tonight in the produce section of the local Publix grocery store:

What a beautiful sight! It’s but one of the reasons this is my favorite month of the year. Another reason – HALLOWEEN!

I can’t define irony, but I know it when I see it. Like in the preaching going on in these bumper stickers. This car was in front of us for about 20 miles as we made our way to Camano Island today for Evan’s first birthday, so I had lots of time to think about it:

In case you can’t read them that well, the first one on the left says, In war there are no unwounded soldiers.:

And on the right, Test your Freedom:

Thank goodness we are a free country so folks can express their opinions and political views on their cars. Wonder how we got that way?

In the famous words of Col. Mustard, I say to the left sticker: You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, every cook will tell you that.

“But look what happened to the cook!” was the response to Col. Mustard. Very true. However, though most eggs have no control over the decision to make the omelet, they are well aware that omelets do get made and proud to make that sacrifice if they must for both their omelet and their cook.

It is not a sacrifice to be taken lightly, so here’s hoping that on this 4th of July, none of us takes our omelet for granted.

Today we celebrated the 4th by joining EvanJenn and family for Evan’s first birthday party on Camano Island. We were at the historic Kristofferson Farm and had a “blast”!

Clara, of course, found the tractor right away:

We enjoyed watching Evan blow out the candle on his cupcake:

He couldn’t wait to get his hands on it, as you can see:

Jack, meanwhile, couldn’t wait to get his hands on Clara’s:

And Carter couldn’t get his mom to give his to him fast enough!

Then we all went on a hayride around the wooded property over to pet the goats. All the kids and grownups alike enjoyed the ride. Here’s Jack with his Nana and Papa:

But Aaron, who was our driver wasn’t having any of our shinanagins and threatened to kick us off the ride if we weren’t careful:

Evan, better listen to your dad when he tells you “no.” He ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie! (wink

Sometimes I like to mix it up a bit.

Brunch at Chinook’s at Fisherman’s Wharf today to celebrate the ‘hood. Fatherhood, that is.

Ganpa, Uncle Ryan, Dad-dee. I can’t beleive it’s not butter either, Ryan.

Ganma and her baby, Dad-dee.

The pilgram . . .
And the dunce. Oh, come on, you know you laughed.

Got milk? “Okay.”

Faster, dad-dee, faster!
Six Flags Over Seattle.
More? All done.

I now know why Clara was so afraid of the Easter Bunny!

Look closely again at the picture we got with him ONLY because I was holding Clara (she would not let go of me when I tried to set her in his lap):

Notice how both of us instinctively lean as far away from him as possible – like we know SOMETHING’S not right. Now, look at Brayden (BFF Nicole’s newbie) with his Easter Bunny:

Now, which one of these bunny’s looks like he could be your fluffier-than-usual grandpa and which one looks like he was raised by a dysfunctional family of IT the clown and Bert from Sesame Street? Bert’s not the only evil children’s character in B-town. I’ll bet my chocolate bunny on that!

Yesterday, Clara, myself, Grandma Fisher, Gwen and Jack ventured out to the local Burien Easter Bunny Breakfast and Hunt. It was awesome. Exactly what you would expect from a small town Easter Parade and I loved it!

Although Clara was, surprisingly, afraid of the Easter Bunny, we did manage to get a picture as long as mommy was holding her. (Looking at the picture, I felt like I could be flipping through my own baby book from the late 70′s.) We got one with Gwen and Jack as well.

Happy Easter One And All!!!