Before I forget...

...I need to record a few things that will just slip out of memory if I don't.

When Evelyn is relieved about something, her version of "whew!" is "Fyewff!"

The girls have a few things they play--ponies, dollhouse, dolls, stuffed animals--but no matter which group of toys is being enjoyed, they play "Oldest to youngest thingy," where they each take the oldest member of their respective families (be it dolls or ponies, etc.), sing, "Next oldest, time to wake up!", have some sort of interaction, and then do the same thing with the next oldest and on down the line.

While they are playing, they call each other "Other Mother." They call me "Grandmother."

They are playing hand jive games incessantly. The most monotonous and droning is called "The Planet Mars" ("where the babies smoke cigars/and the men wear bikinis/and the ladies drink martinis..." Yeah..not our favorite creative outlet, this one.)

They love playing hangman on my phone. Today Evelyn totally schooled me with "cake pop." I think it's due to lack of sleep. That's what I get for blogging after midnight.

Evelyn, born with an internal heater, is often heard gasping dramatically (in our 60 degree house), "I'm BURNING!" "I'm BOILING!" as she strips off layers or refuses to get under the covers at bedtime. We'll see if her thermostat changes with age, or if fashion will ever trump personal comfort (although she has begun to manage having her own definite style while still keeping cool.)

Speaking of fashion, Sunday at church, one of their friends came up to me and said, "I told my mom that it isn't fair that Amelia always gets to wear clothes that don't match."

This trait came in handy on Tuesday night when I totally forgot that it was "crazy sock night" at AWANA. Amelia was already wearing crazy socks--on the outside of her leggings that did not match  the dress. She won a prize.

A Little Snow

This year the girls officially graduated from our tiny, backyard slope to the much longer run in the parking lot across the street from our house. 

What you cannot see in this video is that the bottom of this hill puts you on top of a waist-high wall along the path to the back door of the building on the right. 

While I did stop the video thinking they were going over the wall and I needed to start running down there to pick up the pieces, they stuck their feet out and missed the plummet. Whew.

We've had about three opportunities for sledding this year so far. Better than last year, which was only one. However, our kids made that ONE snowfall really matter.

Picture Perfect Personalities

Pictures don't always capture people the way they actually are. But sometimes they are right on the money.

Amelia:

 Evelyn:

 Alan:

(Obviously I'm still enjoying our Christmas pictures.)

The Good Life

Eating Mint Chocolate Chip right out of the carton. That reminds me of last week when we were enjoying the Ravens' playoff game at my parents' house. My mom came downstairs and said, "Could someone please put that ice cream out of its misery?" That will forever top my list of acts of personal charity--putting ice cream out of its misery. I am very, very, very good at that.

 Books, books, and more books! Nothing says "The Good Life" like curing up with a good book (and doing so while putting ice cream out of its misery is a double goodie!) This stack is almost my entire stack of Christmas gifts. The only one missing is the huge volume of all the collected Sherlock Holmes mysteries that Alan got me. It's got this GREAT cover and binding and will be just as much fun to display as to read.

Can't wait to dive into these--I've already read the Tim Keller, am working my way through the Brene Brown ("Daring Greatly" is on the TOP of my current list of recommended reads!), I can't get enough of Frederick Buechner (got the other 3 of his 4 memoirs), and some sweet, wonderful fiction. Sigh! Dad picked my name this Christmas, and Mom added a few books to my list that I can't wait to read. I love that I come from a long line of readers. :)

More Art!

On a whim I took the girls to the Walters Art Museum one Sunday afternoon. Ah, the pleasures of sitting on sculptures! (This was right after we were chastised for climbing on it. Sitting: good. Climbing: not so good.)

 I think scraps of the girls' art make amazing-looking cards. (No bias here, obviously.) The worst part is that I let the stacks of their art pile up while intending to make them into artistic cards. I have a rather extensive collection of creative and awesome projects I intend to do.

 Again, SITTING on the art at the Walters.

 More card art. I made the girls' teachers sets of cards...I intended to make them as Christmas presents. They were New Year presents. 

 The light fixtures at Vaccarro's in Little Italy, where we got dessert on a whim one night. Definitely artistic. (Seems we're good at whims, too.)

 And this evening we were graced with an artistic covering of SNOW! It's a good thing, too, because Alan and I had joked that we wouldn't take down the Christmas tree until we had our first REAL snow.   We know how to give a tree a good run.

Farewell, Christmas tree 2012!

The Arts Flourish Here

Can it be called "abstract" if it LOOKS abstract but the artist has very concrete ideas of what it is? Take for instance Amelia's four-sheets-taped-together creation below, titled, "Pictures and Fun." 

In it you will find (and I quote): Dragons, Starts ("What are starts?" I asked. Her frank reply, as if I was playing dumb, "You know, Starts. STARTS!" Oh...), Lawnmowers ("to keep the dragons healthy," I don't know how lawnmowers keep dragons healthy, but perhaps our lackluster use of one is the reason we have no fire-breathing creatures in our back yard), and a Princess in her castle. ("See, her eyeballs pop out, and then she poops!")

Amelia drew this next one during Choice Time in school. Because, really, what's not to love??

And Evelyn has been quite the artistic dresser lately. I've started joking that she's magnetically drawn to animal prints. She snatched up the $9 coat (on sale for $4.50) and the $6 boots (on sale for $3) at our favorite thrift store. And then she put together this awesome ensemble for a recent family trip to Vaccarro's in Little Italy for dessert. Bellissimo!

Christmas...even out of order, makes me SMILE!

Sisters hugging.

 Getting what they'd wanted: Amelia & her hotwheels, Evelyn & her color-it-yourself purse. In the midst of the morning we Skyped Grandma and Grandpa Blackman, who enjoyed getting in on some gift-opening and the Christmas-morning buzz.

 "Look, Mama! It's snowing on Christmas Eve!!" (Alan played a lovely Christmas Eve service. Prior to that we'd watched the Rick Steves European Christmas Special and delivered sweet treats to neighbors. How simply delightful is that?!?)

 Look how beautifully she colored that purse!! It looks even more wonderful completely finished.

 On our Christmas Day hike in the woods: so cute I could scream!

 The man in our lives--naturally drawn to water, looking out over the reservoir. So glad we started the tradition of hiking on Christmas and Thanksgiving!!

 I do believe this is the first snowman we've ever made on a Christmas Day hike. He's got broken glass for eyes--a sort of beauty from ashes story! (Just don't cut yourselves!)

 Wandering the woods. Wonderful.

 Playing with the pony train--another wished-for item.

 "It's snowing on me on Christmas Eve, too!!"

 Somewhere along the line she donned the Santa hat and wore it through the hike.

 The doll bunk bed and the dolls. Alan and I were so proud of ourselves for putting it together.

Gathering with the cousins at Grandma and Opa's house! The gift-opening was grand, along with dinner, the addition of the Kennedy-Caballeros, and a rousing round of White Elephant. Amelia LOVED being able to "steal" the photo album from Alan, who ended up with a small fondue pot. I think I scored a rather nice, scented candle.

 More ponies on the train track.

Merry, merry! It really was merry. Christmas was cheery, sweet, full of family, fun, and fresh air.

An i-Pod Touch-ing Story

(As usual, I am slow to upload pics. Christmas photos should arrive--hopefully--sometime this month!)

Evelyn had a friend over last Saturday. They played dolls, games, and in general had a really sweet time together. While feeding them a snack, I was asking the friend some questions. I knew she had an older sister, so I asked if she and her older sister liked to play together.

"Well," she said with a sigh, "We used to. A lot. But she got an i-Pod Touch for Christmas." She looked at me with a forlorn face and said with utter sincerity,"Since then it's never been the same."

Hopefully I nodded and smiled sympathetically and gave no indication of the uproarious inner guffawing I was experiencing as she bared her little heart at our kitchen counter.