Pretend this is an actual Christmas card

You might also want to pretend the tops of our heads.

And a partridge

We got the book Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey at the library yesterday and we've already read it multiple times. There are partridges in it.

The husband went to Lowe's for lightbulbs this morning and came home with this:

in a pear tree

Another day skipped, another opportunity for December Blog Challenge almost perfect attendance squandered. I do have a new computer. The same kind, hopefully slightly longer lived. Well, I did rake the leaves the other day. I had just finished the raking and was starting the stuffing into bags process, with Harper's help. We had bagged 6 bags worth and still had about 10 big piles to go when I realized that the raking is actually the easy part. Just then, a neighbor came down with his wheelbarrow and asked if he could have the rest of the unbagged leaves to use as mulch in his flower beds. Why, yes sir! you certainly may. So, no more bagging for us, a decaying leaf blanket for his roses--wins all around. I was actually pretty inspired by his backyard vegetable garden. He was growing loofahs on his fence! And he had a huge okra harvest this year, apparently. Plus sweet potatoes, tomatoes, habenera peppers, spinach, strawberries--it was impressive. I would like to try tomatoes this year. We'll definitely need to build some sort of contraption to keep out the wildlife. Some neighbors a couple of houses down have an orange? clementine? tree that is currently bursting with fruit. We have been eating so many clementines this month, bought from the grocery store, not stolen from the neighbors' tree. Harper and Hudson actually call them clementiMes, which I think is very cute, so I don't correct them. Did you know Winston Churchill's wife was named Clementine? I have been very disappointed by all but a couple of pears I have bought this year. I don't know of anyone named Pear. Or Bartlett, or D'Anjou. Here's my leaf raking helper, who, at this particular moment was helping by sitting in the midst of a pile of leaves with her duck.

Something I would like to note, because it is something of a Christmas miracle, Harper and Hudson played outside in the backyard for probably an hour and a half this morning, by themselves, without conflict. AND, when Hudson sustained a minor head bump, Harper, unsolicited AND not knowing I was watching from the window, tended to him very tenderly, even giving him a hug to make it better. !!!!!

And Helena stood up by herself today. And tried avocado. NOT a fan.

how still we see thee

So, my computer, perhaps in some sort of technological protest against all of the daily blogging, has died. The husband has been trying to resurrect it all evening to no avail. It's like a little Lech Walesa has taken over my motherboard and is whispering 'solidarity!" to the little silicon thingies and they are obeying him because Polish is a really forceful sounding language. Only I guess I'm Communism in this little metaphor and I think with all the God talk and Ayn Rand reading that clearly isn't applicable.

So, I think tomorrow the husband is going to leave his computer at home so I can do an actual post, though pictures are doubtful. I have been troubled by my pronounced technology withdrawal symptoms. I used to go days without opening the computer, but I was getting a little edgy today not being able to check the weather or my email. The Luddites will want me to turn in my membership card, no doubt. But (and please picture Scarlet O'Hara if you will) I will NEVER have a Blackberry. Nope. You can't make me.

with royal beauty bright

Well, there went my perfect attendance record. As I was going to bed last night I had this feeling that something had been left undone.

We went to the Museum of Natural Science today and spent most of our time in the Hall of Gems and Minerals. There is a 75 carat sapphire pendant that Harper decided she would like for her birthday. I laughed and told her probably not this year. "Maybe when I'm seven," she decided.

I'm contemplating going out in the front yard and raking some leaves. Our yard is covered and everyone else on our street pays guys to come blow theirs away with noisy machines.

I just had leftover potato soup for lunch. The husband made a huge batch on Sunday. He is a really good cook. I also ate an inappropriate number of M&Ms from a large bag that is now only half full.

Perhaps this is why I did not blog yesterday. Not much to say. Here's Hudson hitting piles of leaves with a big stick.

The Holly and the Ivy

The little kids sang this carol at church today and it was really sweet. I especially liked the motions that went along with "the running of the deer."

The rest of this post will have nothing to do with the title.

I did a little math all by myself today because I couldn't find the calculator (the apocalyptic scenario that your math teacher always warned you about). Houston has a new mayor and only around 160,000 people voted in the election. That's about 6% of the 2.2 million people who live here. The winner of the election got 53% of those 160,000 votes, which means the lady newly in charge of running the city got there even though just 3.6% of Houstonians bothered to vote for her. That should be national news, don't you think? But that's not the detail of this election that got the coverage.

We got our sweet neighbor to come over and take a family picture of us today with the hope that I might actually get a decent one that I could put on some sort of Christmas card that I might actually send out at some point. I look tired and pale and generally grotesque in every single shot. Hudson has a runny nose. Harper chose pink sparkly shoes that in no way matched her red tights. Helena insisted on eating her shoes. Maybe we'll try again, or maybe we won't. I actually kind of like the picture I took of our porch swing about 10 minutes before the photo shoot commenced. I was trying to see if there was going to be enough light for my point and shoot camera to focus without a flash. I think the shadow of the lattice is kind of pretty. Inanimate objects are so much more cooperative. Of course the sun had disappeared by the time we got everyone situated. Here's one the husband took after the family shoot fell apart. Hudson was busy smashing up a big pile of leaves with a long stick. Because that is what little boys do.

no crib for a bed

The husband was not familiar with the Josh Groban "Little Drummer Boy" and maybe you aren't either. If so, the Hudson clip wasn't as funny as it might have been. Suffice it to say that Mr. Groban does some of his trademark show-boaty vocals all over a couple of the verses, and that is what Hudson was apparently attempting to emulate. Something else you might have noticed is that Hudson is still sleeping in a pack-and-play. Yes, that is his actual "bed." He has slept in it every single night of his almost 3 years. It fit perfectly into our small walk-in closet that was his room for the first 16 months or so of his life. Then when we moved we got a bed for Harper and intended to move him into the real crib. Then I found out I was pregnant with Helena so we thought we'd just skip the crib and move him into a real bed. Only I was afraid it would mess up his wondrous sleep habits. And so, here we are. Maybe for his birthday he'll get a bed. Or maybe not.

Six years ago this week I went to see the film "Bonhoeffer" at the Angelika theatre in Dallas with some friends. One of the fellows in the group offered me his coat during the movie because I was cold. A week later we had our first date. Six months later we had a wedding. Six years later we two have become five. Isn't that something?