This Joy’s Life

Suzanne turned me on to this little bit of comedic genius. It’s made me smile more than once, and got me in the Christmas spirit, so I’m sharing:

Good stuff! Here is a picture of a yard in our neighborhood:

I think it is safe to say they’ve gone overboard for Jesus.

So thanks, Suzanne. Here are the answers to the questions you’ve been dying to know:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? A little bit of both.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Fake. Why sugar-coat it with the word “artificial?” I haven’t got time for the pain of chopping, watering, sweeping needles, disposing, etc. Maybe one year we’ll get crazy and have a real one, but not this time

3. When do you put up the tree? When I get around to it. This year it was the week after Thanksgiving in preparation for my brother’s visit.

4. When do you take the tree down? Before January 1st. It’s bad luck not to.

5. Do you like eggnog? Nope.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Rainbow Bright Doll. I wanted her soooooo bad. That was about the time I learned that I like the chase, because once I had her, I remember thinking how she wasn’t as much fun to have as I thought she would be.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My husband and parents.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Clara.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? No.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A fireproof box. It might have been a birthday gift and Brett swears I asked for it, but . . .

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Favorite scene is when the attic stairs hit Chevy in the head. I heart that movie!

13. When do you start shopping? December

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cynthia’s little wafer cookies with the yummy pink center and homemade sugar cookies.

16. Lights on the tree? Of course! Red and white.

17. Favorite Christmas song? “Last Christmas” by George Michael.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home, but I’d like to start a Christmas tradition of going to GA the day after and staying until after New Year’s.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s? Yep. There’s Donner and Blitzen, Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. No wait, anger leads to hate and hate leads to anger and Donner leads to the Dark Side? Next question.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither, ribbon or bow.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Open gifts with extended family on Xmas Eve, gift from Santa on Xmas morning, and spend the day at Grandma and Grandpa Fisher’s house, where we open the rest of the gifts.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? I agree with Suzanne: Christmas starting in October!

23. Ornament theme or color? Red and white, but also have numerous ornaments from “back in the day” that don’t fit the theme.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? We do Xmas brunch – french toast!

25. Favorite Christmas tradition? We are making new ones with Clara around, but plan to incorporate baking cookies for Santa and reading “Twas The Night Before Xmas.” Also, when she’s old enough, we’ll go and see The Nutcracker every year.

26. What do you want for Christmas this year? A Macbook.

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.

Well, girl, you made it to the “terrible twos” and it hasn’t been “two” terrible so far Here’s hoping it stays that way. Why be the rule when you can be the exception?

Let’s look back at the big birthday weekend you had: Family BBQ on Friday night and a birthday playdate with all your friends today. Who did we sing Happy Birthday to? “To youuuu!” “Cake? OK.” “More cake? OK.”

Bal-oons! On the run with Dora the Explorer Nadia and Luke at the sand table
Carter: Hmmm, birthdays = presents. Me likey.
Mason just can’t escape his paparazzi Jack and Clara in the ball pool
More ball pool, Luke? Ok. I see you lookin’, Evan.
It’s not a party until someone’s got food on their face! Right, Ava?