1) How great is it that "The Princess Bride" is on VH1 tonight? Inconceivable!
2) Our (four-foot-tall fake) Christmas tree is up and glowing beautifully in our little living room. I love Christmas.
3) We are going to send out a Christmas letter this year. I'm not sure if you're supposed to wait until you have photos of your cherubic children to send with the letter, but we're still going to send the letter. If you want a copy, let me know. Dan is going to be in charge of printing up address labels, which is also going to help us by providing an address database of all those addresses I collected when we were sending out wedding invitations. Much more convenient than the "Maybe-that-one-is-written-on-this-paper-napkin system we currently have going.
4) The new U2 album totally rocks. Very God-laced, very thought-provoking, very good. Run out and buy it, folks.
5) We bought tickets today to see Sarah McLachlan in concert in April. I am so excited. I know I am a nerd, but I just don't care. I love living in a city that occasionally attracts concerts from people I would like to see perform.

What's making y'all happy?

I meant to put this picture up before now, but here is my new car. After Molly the Malibu suffered serious hail damage in October, I got a nice check from the insurance company and we put it towards a new car that starts on a more frequent basis. She's a 2003 Nissan Sentra, but I haven't settled on a name yet. So, please vote for either Sally or Sylvia as a name. Or, make your own nomination based on what she looks like:

Just now, during a commercial break for ESPN Sportscenter (who do y'all think was in charge of the remote?) a commercial for a hair removal product came on. I wasn't really listening until this sentence: "What a perfect way for a woman to keep the man in her life perfectly-groomed!" This, accompanied by a scene of a woman smiling while she uses this device to rip out the unibrow of a smiling handsome man. This raises many questions for me, the main one being "What makes the people making this product think that any man would sit still while the woman in his life did that to him?" I know for a fact that Dan would take up residence in his car if I even suggested such a thing. I think it's pretty apparent that women have the corner on the hair-removal product market, and probably the commercials for these items should still be directed to the women. Thank you.

At the paper, we ask for parents to send in their childrens' letters to Santa and we run them in the paper. Some of them are pretty funny. Today, we got the all-time winner from a kid who has obviously been reading some Harry Potter. I want to put it on the front page. Enjoy this excerpt:

"Dear Santa: This year, I would like a Time Machine, a pair of sneakers that can take me anywhere, a remote control that will control everything besides TV, a cap that would help me breathe underwater, a sweater that can make me read thoughts and understand other people's languages, a magic stone that can make me fly, and chopsticks that can give me magic powers so that I can turn into any size and other things when I touch them.

Plus, I want peace on earth and on the sun and on the moon and on the other planets. I also want a flame thrower.

P.S. When you get to my house, wake me up so I can have a friendly conversation with you and show you around. And tell Jesus Happy Birthday and bring him a gift, too."

How's that for covering all your bases?

I don't have my digital camera cables with me on this trip to Mississippi, so I can't show y'all a photo of this, but try to envision it. This year, our family went and got a Christmas tree on Monday, the 20th of December. That's right. Five days until Christmas. On Tuesday, I was alone at the house, because every body else had errands to run, so before Dan and my brother, Ryan had to leave the house, I got them to put up the tree so that I could decorate it. I had a good time doing it, except for the part where I got about 100 little scratches on my hands from the branches, and it looked good. But the next morning, we could all sort of tell that the tree was, ummm, leaning. So last night, Dan and my dad straightened it back up, and we thought that would be that. Unfortunately, today, on this hallowed Christmas Eve, the tree is once again pitching towards our kitchen. At this point, I think the general attitude is "Whatever. It's almost Christmas anyway." But if we're going to keep up our proud Rice Family tradition of leaving the tree up until late January, it's going to require a few chiropractic treatments. However, the lights and the ornaments are beautiful, and very well-spaced, if I do say so myself.
On that note, I wish you all a very merry Christmas. Goodnight.

So the dial-up connection here at my parents' house in Mississippi is too slow to upload pictures, but please stay tuned for some amazing Christmas photos taken by yours truly. Let's just say we all smell like fireworks smoke right now. Something to look forward to. May you be as happy as we are right now.
Love,
Haley

Blowing things up is a time-honored holiday tradition in Mississippi. This is my brother, Ryan, shooting fire from his hands. But not really. This was taken on Christmas night on the pier overlooking the lake on my parents' property at home. Ryan posed himself and lit several mortar style fireworks before I finally got the photo we wanted. Don't try this at home. We're thinking of marketing the video footage as a safety video demonstrating what NOT to do with fireworks. Enjoy:

A shot of the man who started all the pyromania in the family, my dad, at his happiest:

My dad and brothers. Three highly intelligent men.

Surprisingly, no one got hurt. And it was fun. Continue reading for more photos from our trip home.

Christmas morning with the family. Or, we should say, Christmas afternoon. We don't like to do anything on a deadline around our house, so it was around 1 p.m. before we opened gifts.

Kelly and I model the giant ribbons that came on the art prints my mom gave us both for Christmas. High fashion:

My dad and sisters:

Random photo of the newlyweds. Aaron has figured out the best way to transport his new wife. Very caveman.

The semi-annual poker game came down to Dan and Ryan on Monday night. Dan finally prevailed, but Ryan (and his super-cool sunglasses) held out for a long time.

My brother, Ryan, is headed for Marine Corps boot camp on January 2. In preparation for his transformation into a military man, my brother Aaron, already a Marine and deploying to Iraq in March, did the honors for Ryan's hair. Ryan has a bad habit of failing to get a haircut until the absolute last possible moment, and by the time he got the Ultimate Haircut, he had a good four inches of hair curling all over the place. We all gathered around on the porch to watch Aaron shave it off. Because we're supportive like that. And also it looked really, really funny. Here is how it all unfolded.

Let the haircut begin:

Halfway through, Aaron had to switch off his clippers and start taking the hair off in layers with his scissors. The result was that Ryan had a kind of Bozo the Clown look going.

And the final verdict is that he's probably stylish enough for the Marines. Good luck at basic training, Ryan.

From left: Audrey Rice, Hannah Rice, Aaron Rice, Kelly Rice, Ryan Rice, Haley Rice Wachdorf and Dan Wachdorf. In front, Avalanche the American Bulldog. Looking at this photo, you would never dream of all the trouble this group caused over Christmas. Keep reading if you dare.