Tonight I fed Piper solid food for the first time.
BIG news, I know. (She also has two teeth, but that hasn't made the blog cut...) John took snapshots, per my request, and then he stealthily took video footage.
Naturally, he then made a movie.
Admission's free; just walk to the window and tell the ticketman I sent you.
Just now:
I'm neglecting my children by sewing in the living room as they finish their supper. In response to the constant dancing/jigging/singing by Susannah instead of the unsupervised eating in which she's supposed to be angelically engaged, I yell (not angrily, but loudly), "Susannah! Sit down and eat your supper! You're being a Naughty-Pants!" at the exact moment that I hear a knock on our thin-walled door.
Millie opened the door to a UPS man and took the package while I stood hidden just inside the door, laughing.
Yes, Naughty Pants, I was laughing.
It was a shining moment for my arsenal of parenting vocabulary. What better ones do you have? I'm open to suggestions.
[I bet UPS persons have the funniest and most horrific stories tucked away.]
Blogger photo upload isn't working right now, so I had to break down and use Flickr because I'm sure all ten of you have checked a zillion times today to see if you hit the Polaroid-Doodle Jackpot.
Only one of you gets both.
Susannah's completely honest and unbiased. She plunged her hand into the hat and brought out this piece of paper.
Elizabeth, if you're still living on Auburn, then I'll mail the Polaroid out to you along with the unaddressed Christmas card the mailman returned to me today. And if you also want a print of one of the Christmas doodles, let me know which one. (If you only want the Polaroid, let me know that, too, and I'll give the doodle to another piece of paper.)
Our international winner of a doodle was Susanna! Three cheers! It helped to be the only one who fit the criteria, but, still, you're our lucky winner! Let me know which print you want and email me your address to leftymylou at gmail dot com, and I'll send it your way A.S.A.P.
Thanks for bringing some fun into our morning!
Edit: To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post and reserve emails for Christmas card requests. Thanks!
Edit, again: Ends when we pick winners tomorrow morning! Must I enter you emailers myself?! :)
Three gifts that don't hold a candle to gold, frankincense, and myrrh...
FIRST GIVEAWAY:
A Christmas card. Last night, the eighth night of Christmas, I finally drew a Christmas card. Today I sprinted to the mailbox just as the mailman was ready to pull away and heaved them in through his window. I hope they arrive in time for Epiphany to the lucky recipients, all except for Spike, Ben & Amy, Fred & Elizabeth Brown, and maybe a few other chums. I accidentally had your unaddressed envelopes in the stack I handed to the mailman. I hope they are returned to me, but if they're not, please know that we love you just the same. Just the same.
If you are Michelle M., Sharon P-Widdy, or another friend who has moved and has not given me the new address (for shame!), and you'd like a card, please email your address to me.
AND if you are a shotsnaps reader, any reader, and you'd like a card, please send me your address at leftymylou at gmail dot com, and I'll gladly send you one.
I'm thinking this may be the last year I mail out Christmas cards, so get 'em while you can.
SECOND GIVEAWAY:
A doodle plus a vintage Polaroid camera. The camera comes with an unopened package of film, several flashes, a carrying case, and an odd roll of Kodak 110 film. The only catch is that having not tried it, I don't know if it works. This will be the hero's task.
So, if you live in the continental U.S., and St. Nicholas forgot to stuff a Polaroid in your shoe, just leave a comment on this post to be entered to win. As a bonus (and to cover my back in case the camera doesn't work), I'll also give the winner their choice of a full-size print of any of my last four Christmas doodles-- Wise Men (above), Winter Wren, Mary and the Child, or The Lion and the Root. (Scroll to the bottom of each post to see the doodles.)
THIRD GIVEAWAY:
A doodle. If you live abroad or outside of the continental U.S., and you feel gypped because you can't win the doodle/Polaroid combo, leave a comment here, anyway! I'll mail you your choice of a print of Wise Men (above), Winter Wren, Mary and the Child, or The Lion and the Root.
Winners will be chosen after Epiphany, on the morning of January seventh, through a random drawing from a hat. Enter away!
And Merry Christmas to all!
I wanted to get a picture of all four gussied up together since one was requested, but with the girls under the weather (what does that mean?), it wasn't meant to be.
Here are of few of them gussied up separately.
She's thinking, "Why on earth did you wrap me up like a department store display?!?"
SHE'S just thinking, "Why?!"
They're too busy grinning with every ounce they can muster to bother thinking.
She thinks all the time and rarely grins, just like I did when I was a baby.
After I took this picture, I put her back on top of the Christmas tree where she belongs.
Don't worry. She likes it up there.
This year's Jesse tree didn't exist. At night, we celebrated Advent as a family like usual, and during the day I sporadically read the girls the Jesse tree passages, but we were missing one integral thing.
A tree.
Five days before we left for Long Island for Christmas, John brought home a tree. He'd had to go to Walmart to cash a check and while walking past the trees outside, he noticed their prices were reduced 50%. Being a come-what-may fellow, he stuffed a tree in a shopping cart and went to cash his check at the bank.
So the girls got to turn the green thing growing from our floor into a Christmas tree without having to wait until Christmas Eve. (The fact that we'd be on L.I. for Christmas Eve kind of demanded an early decoration, and none of us complained.)
I'm typing in its friendly glow right now, and I'll be sad to pluck it up when the time comes.
I'm sure some of you have outgrown your childlike belief in elves. Let this solid evidence renew your faith.
I saw it poking its head around my tree last week (reconnaissance mission, no doubt) before it scampered back to the North Pole.
Christmas Eve Day was nutty. I was awake the previous night helping a croupy Susannah breathe after having been up the night before comforting a sick-bellied Nixie, so I had packed nothing for our trip to L.I.
Before John came home from work to stuff us in the van for vacation, the day went something like this. Cookies, truffles, cookies, truffles, peanut butter buckeyes, cookies, (oh, yeah) PACK!!!, butter frosting, (oh, yeah) PRESENTS!!!, pack, pack, pack, scurry like a rat, rat, rat, (oh, yeah) STOCKINGS!!!, and so on.
I found time to take three pictures. (But I forgot the bowl of butter frosting on the counter.)
Annie pretended to pack. which gave me small comfort.
I took a few pictures of stocking-upending. They were awful (the snapshots, not the stockings, and certainly not the children).
And if you need more proof of their existence, here is an elf surprising some little girls.
And here is a very chubby elfling with Sister Sarah.
And here is the very chubby elfling with her grandpa elf.
There's just no use denying it...
John took us to a nature reserve that Dave and April told us about, and we enjoyed a walk together.
There were ducks there.
And girls watching ducks there.
And birds like this falcon that have been injured in the wild and now cannot fly, who live next to drowsy owls and a hyperactive bobcat.
Bright green moss to stroke.
Leaves dripping with finer jewels than rich women wear.
Birdhouses.
Ponds.
Sand to scratch one's mark in.
Me.
And a baby.
Little girls.
And these people, behind whom I couldn't seem to not follow.
