This time of year gets so crazy for me (and probably for all of you as well) that I find it hard to keep up blogging even the most important events in our family. Without further ado...
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My grandfather (who was almost 95!) recently passed away, so Fritter and I flew back to Wyoming for his funeral. This has been one of those tough years for my family. It wasn't long ago that we lost my grandmother too. So this was a melancholy trip, though it's always nice to see family (see happy below).
Flying back to Wyoming actually means flying into Denver and then driving a couple hours home. So this was a welcome sight (and a pretty sign!):
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| As a kid (we traveled a lot!) I always knew I was close to home when I saw the buffalo on the hill. This time was no different! And I find the prairie so pretty. |
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Seeing family is always a happy experience. The day of my (maternal) grandfather's funeral was also my other (paternal) grandmother's birthday. It was very nice to see her, though she had trouble remembering me. *sigh* We could call this happy and melancholy.
Fritter and I were able to spare a little bit of time to visit with an old college friend and his new baby. This particular friend held Fritter when he was just a baby. This time I got to hold his first born.
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| The happy family! |
In other news we had another birthday! Ladybug turned six (6!) the day before Thanksgiving. My little girl is growing up. *sob*
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| And she got her first big girl doll! |
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| She asked for a strawberry cake. We compromised on a chocolate cake with strawberry frosting. And butterflies! |
Because my grandfather's funeral was on the feast of St. Nicholas, and we would be in Wyoming, we celebrated here a little early. (St. Nicholas is good like that!)
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Dan: The Brothers Karamazov
CMerie: Lucia, Child of Light
Fritter: The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
& The Miracle of St. Nicholas
Ladybug: The Very First Christmas
& A Small Miracle
Sunflower (and Froggy): The Night of Las Posadas
And of course chocolate coins!
{funny}
Here in Arizona, we experience Autumn just as everyone else in the country is having fun with winter. :) So I sent Fritter out to rake up the leaves in the front yard, and Ladybug followed him out. Before I knew it, they were running from the end of the block and diving in the pile of leaves. It looked like such fun the rest of us had to join in.
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| And then they got crazy and decided to throw the leaves everywhere. By the time our fun was over, it was dinner time and bath time. So Fritter had to rake the leaves again the next day. And he did. Without complaint! |
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We finally pulled our Christmas tree out on Wednesday with the plan to set it up and watch Elf together as a family. But when we plugged in the lights on the tree, only part of the strand lit up. After going through the unlit sections, light by light, we found at least 20 dead bulbs. Of course we didn't have that many spare bulbs of this sort to replace them, but plenty of various other bulbs. (Why, oh why do they not standardize the bulb ends?!) So I patiently (ha!) swapped out the wrong ends for the right ends on new bulbs and then we put them back into the strand of lights.
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| The pile of dead lights with tips taken off. |
It worked and the tree is lit, but it was only after all the hard work was done that I realized it probably would have been easier (and faster!) to pay $4 for a new strand of lights. Remind me of that next Christmas, please?
So we didn't get to watch Elf that night, since by the time we were done, it was past the kids' bedtimes. We made up for it last night with pizza in front of the movie.
Go visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more contentment!
