Getting Ready for Christmas

We put up our Christmas tree the first Monday after Thanksgiving, as is our custom. A lot of the bulbs on our pre-lit tree are out, so I tried buying a magic bulb zapper device that didn't work at all. Very disappointing. 

Sabrina said that she thought Clark was old enough to put the star on the tree this year, and let him do it even though she has always done it in the past. Clark was very excited to have the honor of putting up the star. 

We still have the little tree from when we were first married. We decided to put it up in the back room and let Sabrina put the star on top of that tree. 

We went to a Kristkindl Market in Arlington which did not turn out the way we hoped. We did see Santa (we couldn't take pictures, you had to let them take pictures and pay for them). Maybe even better than Santa, they had pony rides! Sabrina was so excited to ride on a pony and she was just grinning from ear to ear the whole time. 

Clark was much more somber throughout the pony ride, but I did manage to get this picture of him looking a little like a chubby little Marlboro Man. I guess he could be the Marshmallow Man instead.

Tonight we made a gingerbread house. We used a kit, which I think made it more fun. Judging from Sabrina's teeth, I'd say she either was eating some chocolate or has turned British. I'll let you decide. And yes, Clark is just in his underwear. And socks.

Thanksgiving in Ohio

Sabrina's school district had the entire week off for Thanksgiving break. We figured that with such a long break we should go on a family trip somewhere. They say there is no place like home for the holidays, and since we will be visiting my parents for Christmas, we decided to head up to Ohio.

Sabrina helping Opa makes impossible pie. Everybody helped out in the kitchen for Thanksgiving dinner,and it turned out to be a real feast. Or two real feasts if you count all the leftovers we had for dinner the day after Thanksgiving.

My lovely wife is always so happy to see her parents that she just needed to take a selfie with her mom. Maybe it isn't a selfi but an usie?

Clark got to have an extra birthday party with an orange impossible pie.

Clark with his very manly book of threes to celebrate turning three. It included fish caught by his great uncle Gary, big machine gears, small game traps, Marine Gunnery Sergeants, and Ka-bars.

We don't have many trees in our yard at home, so the kids were excited to play in leaf piles at Oma and Opa's. Can you find Sabrina?

Of course the best part of the whole trip was just spending quality time together. Everybody had a great time. 

I should also mention that the kids were very good on the long car trips. We made the trip home in one day: almost 1000 miles and total travel time of just over 16 hours. Fortunately, we had an iPad to help keep the kids entertained. I don't know how people did it back in the olden days.

White Beards

Sabrina and Clark wanted to have "white beards" like I do when I shave. So after I was done shaving, I put some shaving cream on their faces. Then I used the back of a comb to "shave" the cream off. After that I put a drop of aftershave on my finger and rubbed it under their noses so they could smell aftershave without smelling like aftershave. They were very excited about how smooth shaving made their cheeks feel. Sabrina also said the aftershave smelled like a man. I'm relieved that aftershave and not sweaty socks is what smells like a man to her

.

Cold Weather!

Well the cold weather came a little earlier than we were hoping it would this year. The kids are still wearing last year's jackets, though they are a little tight (especially Clark's) because we weren't ready for a freeze. We couldn't even find one of Clark's mittens, so he went out the first day with a sock on his other hand and the next day with a pair of his sister's pink mittens.

 The saddest part about a freeze coming two weeks earlier than I hoped was that I spent Veteran's Day harvesting my peppers and tomatoes. Two more weeks would have made a lot of these really beautiful. This is a fall crop of tomatoes that didn't start fruiting until late September. The cantaloupe Clark is holding also would have gotten more ripe, though it wasn't going to get any bigger. *Update* We ate the cantaloupe this morning and it was delicious. Clark also took a bite out of several green tomatoes and hid the remains by wrapping them in his jacket.

Not as lean, never was mean, still a Marine. We were tempted to eat this whole cake by ourselves, but we took a couple of pieces to other Marines in the neighborhood. 

Happy Birthday to all Marines reading this (probably just Opa).

Clark's 3rd Birthday!

Yogurl and Clark got to have a fun day together for Clark's birthday. Unlike Sabrina who changed her mind frequently about what she wanted for her birthday, Clark had a specific wishlist for months: feed the stingrays at the aquarium, eat a marshmallow cake, get a ninja turtle. 

 Feeding the stingrays at the aquarium. He didn't let them eat out of his hand, but he did put his hand in the water and let go of the food near them.

Marshmallow cake! He blew the candles out like a champion.

 Since Clark wasn't clear on what a marshmallow cake was, he got a s'mores cake. Yummy!

Opening up one of his gifts - a Michelangelo toy. I mean the ninja turtle, not Il Divino.

By the way, the day after his birthday Clark had his annual check-up with the doctor. He is a perfectly healthy little 3 year old. Well, I shouldn't say little. He is 40 inches tall which puts him about at the 95th percentile for height. He is also 46 pounds, which puts him in the 51st percentile for weight ... for a 6 year old boy.

DC and Charlottesville for Halloween

Work required me to go to DC (the mothership) for a few days and my family couldn't stand the thought of being without me, so they came along. Okay, it was actually that they were looking for an excuse to go visit Virginia again. We weren't great about taking photos, but we got a few that you can see here. 

 While I was at work everybody else took a bus tour one day that took them all around the National Mall. They got to see the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Capitol Building, and other stuff like that.

This is in front of the White House. I think that 30 inch tall fence was the Secret Service's idea about how to fix the problem with fence jumpers. 

 In the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. It was so beautiful I almost cried that I became a lawyer instead of a pilot.

 Okay, here is the real reason we went to Charlottesville. Ace Biscuit and Barbeque. So delicious.

 This picture is sitting on the steps of Monticello. We visited both Mount Vernon and Monticello on our trip, but our camera was dead when we got to Mount Vernon! Oops. This is when people with smart phones can chime in and say how if we had smart phones this wouldn't have been a problem. Personally, I prefer never to take pictures because I'd rather enjoy just being where I am, but I know our adoring fans just gotta have some photos.

 In the kitchen below the house at Monticello. 

 Since Clark was feeling fussy this morning, I stayed outside with Clark while the ladies went in for a tour. Clark played on this tree stump happily for about 10 minutes before playing on another, larger tree stump for about 10 more minutes. He then said of a third tree stump "I love this tree stump!" Who needs dead presidents' houses when you have got their tree stumps? He also had fun touring the garden with me.

 There was a kid's area at the Monticello visitor's center where Sabrina got to put on a gown thing and see what being a little slave girl would be like. I think she had way more fun than most slave children, so I'm not sure what the point of this area was.

 Out trick or treating in Crozet. Clark is a furry little monster and Sabrina is "Just a ballerina princess fairy."

 We stayed with our friends from Charlottesville, the Marshalls, for a few days. We were so glad to see them again and so grateful for their hospitality.

 Most of the Marshall children and our children. They played very well together. Not sure who the photo bomber in the window is.

 Taking a hay ride through the hills on a crisp autumn day. The colors of the trees were so beautiful. Not so striking as the Northeast in the fall, but still very beautiful.

 After we got home, we found out that a nearby church where we buy pumpkins had finished selling its pumpkins, and said anybody could come take as many as they wanted. So we went and got a whole trunk load. Why? Because I love free stuff?

So Much Excitement

 We went to a swimming beach at a lake not too far from us for Labor Day Weekend. We put our umbrella up near a little wall so that it was nice and shady. The kids enjoyed playing in the water, building a sand castle, and getting buried in sand. The sand was really nice - clearly brought in from a real beach.

The teachers from Sabrina's elementary school had a softball game against the teachers from the neighboring elementary school. The place was packed! We sat on the ground behind left field's fence since the bleachers and all around them were totally full. Sabrina really wanted to go, until we got there. Then she just wanted to run around on the track with her friends. Her school crushed the other school in case you were wondering.

 Clark in front of the High School Football Field where one day crowds of fans will cheer his name and scouts will line up to get a peek at him. Yes I anticipate scholarship offers from schools such as Richland College, North Lake College, and hopefully the prestigious Antelope Valley College. Assuming his mom will let her little boy play football. Since the alternative is to be ostracized, she might be persuaded.

 Sabrina went to bed with little buns in her hair and woke up with some BIG hair. No she did not go to school with it like that.

 The Dallas Arboretum has a fall pumpkin display/festival every year. There are so many pumpkins and other squash that one wonders where they all come from. The answer appears to be Floydada, Texas, which calls itself the pumpkin capital of the world. Apparently Morton, Illinois, disagrees with that title, though.

 Here is our little Sabrina Scarecrow.

This is a fun little play area for the kids with four giant toads spewing (or spitting or gleeking?) streams of water onto a big sphere (not pictured) in the center of the play area.

Things with No Pictures

Car Accident

Yogurl got hit from the rear on the driver's side while stopped at a red light. The damage was not serious and both she and Clark appear to be fine. We are also relieved that the other driver had Geico and not some crummy insurance company who would jerk us around. The car is being repaired and Geico is paying for our rental car while our car is in the shop. We are all so happy that nobody appears to have been injured (I apologize for my equivocating language about the condition of the passengers of the aforementioned vehicle, but one should not be overly optimistic or conclusory in his assessment of as of yet unexamined victims of a vehicular assault).

Promotion

I finished my first year at work! Since I am officially off my probationary period, I got a promotion and a raise. It is an automatic promotion and raise that comes at the end of the first year, so it isn't as special as really earning one, but I'll take it.

Lawsuit

I filed my first lawsuit in Dallas District Court. I am bringing a suit against the Dallas Central Appraisal District for violating my rights under Article 8 Section 1 of the Texas Constitution. No, that isn't a clause which states the supremacy of the Texas Constitution over the US Constitution, though such a clause might exist (it doesn't. I was joking. And by the way, nothing I ever say to any of you constitutes legal advice). I will keep you posted as the lawsuit progresses. And yes, in case any of you were thinking it, it is true that they say an attorney who brings a case pro se has a fool for a client. Frankly, I'm more worried that I have a fool for an attorney.

The Princess of Color Starts School!

Our little Sabrina went to real school for the first time today! She loved dressing up in her school uniform. She had no problem being dropped off at school and was so excited to get down to some learning and meeting new people. We all handled it pretty well, too. Clark wanted to stay at school with her, and he had a bit of a rough morning afterwards, but he is doing fine now.

I wanted this picture to look like she was walking down the stairs, but instead it kind of looks like she just has one leg. They are both still there, I assure you.

There they go, on the long walk to school. If I had taken the picture from the other side of the street you would see the school. The playground for the school is just 3 houses away from us. Hooray for short walks to school! By the way I am not going with them because I have hand foot and mouth disease. I thought that spreading it around the elementary school might be a bad idea. 

When she isn't being forced to wear a school uniform, this is how "The Princess of Color" prefers to dress. That was what she was calling herself on this particular day, anyway. 

Her brother was not as into being dressed up like this as she was.