There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly...

We spent this past week giving thanks with all our family over food. A lot of food. It's gross! In fact, we still have more food than the fridge can hold... and we've had company over since the big meal to help with the leftovers. Sigh! I enjoy hosting the events for my family. We can send the kids outside despite the inclement weather. Bennett and his cousin Micah spent several hours out in the "rain" which really didn't count as rain since "it's only dripping" and they weren't cold. Which as we all know doesn't cause illness anyway! My Mom came up a few days early to help prepare the food and entertain the kids. We so wish she would just give in to our whines and get Dad to move up here to the mountains. So far, it's not working. I blame Dad's stubbornness! She baked pies while I supervised. We played a few hands of cards. We put together a couple puzzles (with the kids' help, of course). We drank coffee and tea. We visited. We shopped. Oh yeah... I must tell you all that read this (both of you). Do NOT leave your Mother unsupervised in Ingles with your children!! We came home with a computer game and two packs of panties. Panties at Ingles! Who knew?!! It made her happy to have Princess panties. But we did have to give her a pretty hard time about the whole thing.

During one of our card games (don't read this paragraph if you have a weak stomach... seriously!)... we were drinking coffee and chatting. As I was sipping on the last of my mug I had something foreign enter my mouth. Now, none of the kids were sharing my mug, and I wasn't eating, so there was no chance of it being part of a cookie or other food item. So, I ever so gently returned the coffee to my mug (and table) and then watched a lovely sweet little fly join in the puddle. He was floundering around trying to get away. ICK! Serious ICK! I had to wash my mouth out several times and we both shuddered in remembrance for many minutes. Nasty, I tell ya! So, as the title goes... I'm not so old and I didn't really swallow him.

Ok, it's safe here again. Mom also brought along Flat Stanley, the 1st grade project of Jackson, her cousin in California. We took Stanley on a few trips and wrote in Jackson's journal. It was fun to help out with his project. We may do it ourselves and send it to you. :) Saturday my bothers and their families came up and we ate like pigs all day. It was drizzly most of the day but that didn't stop the boys from playing outside. The big boys took out the guns and made themselves feel better by wasting several rounds of ammo they say will be difficult to acquire after January 22nd. Makes sense to me to go out and waste it in the woods!







The little boys played in the rain... which didn't really count as rain since "it's only dripping" and they weren't cold. The girls played dress-up most of the day and presented themselves to the parents quite fancifully many times. Here's Mom "snuggling" with Lydia. You can see that she is actually pinching her little hiney. In the next photo... you can see Grandma's discerning look over Lydia's response. Wonder why Grandma gets that kind of reaction?? Hmmmmm.







Sunday night we had our friends come join us in the leftover overtaking... but I don't think we made a dent in anything more than Leslie's super salad. I still have 5 pounds of stuffing and I had to toss the CROCK-POT full of gravy that Mom made. Today we had snow ALL day. It was too warm to stick to anything, mainly the road, so the kids still went to school. But it was very nice to watch out the window. When the two bigger ones got off the bus it was sticking to the decking and leaves. They enjoyed making snowballs by scooping up and scraping leaves. Bennett has pretty good aim when he's chasing his momma! I have a few token pictures of our first snow of the season. I know it doesn't compare to Aunt Lara's Pennsylvania snow, but it's still snow. :)






Here's a short video too... nothing funny or super, just the snow. Well, if your sound is up loud enough you can hear Bennett's description of snow and what he considers as "the dangerous" kind.

Tuesday update... apparently while I was at work today Curtis and the kids put lights on the tree outside... and the bushes. It was very pretty when I drove up at 8:30 tonight.