This is not the greatest photo, and I was somewhat hesitant to start the December Photo Project with it, but it's funny when you understand what is happening. On Saturday, we took Kate to the aquarium. There is a part in the Albuquerque Aquarium where there is a big walk-through tunnel devoted to the habitat of eels. Big, slimy, creepy eels. I was worried Kate would be freaked out by them. I mean, I am sort of scared of them. All they do is sit there and and open and close their mouths and never ever blink. And she loved them. After watching them for a few minutes, she turned to us and started opening and closing her mouth in perfect imitation of the eels. I managed to get one picture of her with her mouth open, and as you can see, that eel on the left is helpfully opening his (Her? Beats me.) mouth so you can see what Kate was going for.

I am not sure if this is cheating, but I am going to post a couple of other photos of Kate with her new BFFs, the eels. I have a feeling a year-long pass to the aquarium is going to be on her Christmas list.

In preparation for decorating our Christmas tree, I made a big pan of cornbread in my cast-iron skillet and some black-eyed peas, cooked with Rotel and bacon for flavoring. There may be better food in the world than this, but I don't want to know what it is.

Editor Alert: Check your spelling, people, because my former editor, David Stevens, has decided to join the December Photo Project via his blog with the Clovis News Journal, Falling With Style. David has already taken some excellent photos that make me feel all nostalgic for Eastern New Mexico, or maybe just small towns in general. Welcome, David!

Kate loves her bath at night, so much that I suspect she is now intentionally smearing food in her hair during dinner to ensure that I don't decide she is clean enough to skip it for a night. Part of the reason she loves it is because she has made a game out of making me chase her down once I start getting the tub ready. As soon as the water turns on, the game starts. I grab her, usually get one piece of her clothing half-way off, and then she wriggles free and runs away laughing. Then I grab her again and get maybe one sock off her body before she's off again. It's actually really fun, but not the most convenient thing. So I take don't feel so bad about shaping her hair into soapy devil horns and then posting naked baby photos of her on the Internet.

The weather in Albuquerque is cold right now, but sunny, and in the middle of the day, it's really quite nice outside. So Kate and I have been taking walks, and finally visited a little park near our house that I had noticed had baby swings. And wow, we should have done that a long time ago. She loved it. And, even better, was worn out when it was nap time. Thank you, park swings.

In our aquarium here in Albuquerque, they have these ceramic dolphins suspended over a walkway, and because they look like they are flying away, and because I am a nerd, they never fail to remind me of So Long and Thanks for All the Fish from the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. (I tried to link to the song from the movie version of Hitchiker's, but YouTube was being weird. If you've never seen it, do yourself a favor and go find it. Right after you buy the books.)

I also sort of always want to point out to someone in the aquarium administration department that there aren't actually any dolphins in the aquarium, and that by hanging these up on the ceiling, they are just calling attention to the unfortunate lack of dolphins that people would not notice otherwise. But that would probably be a more complicated conversation than anyone at the aquarium wants to have. With me, I mean.

This is the closest thing you are likely to get to a Christmas card from us, and it's all because I lack the Martha Stewart gene. I love getting people's Christmas cards, and I even used to write the Christmas letter for the Rice family. The writing part I could totally get into. But I lack the ability to do the part where you orchestrate a photo in which you are all simultaneously not blinking or talking or just plain looking weird and then take that photo to be printed with a nice Christmas border. Looking back on it from my new vantage point as a parent of just one small child, it strikes me as miraculous that our family of seven was ever able to take a passable Christmas photo. Hats off to my mom for doing it ever year, much less having the energy after the photo shoot to actually mail the darned things. But unless someone can come do all that part for me, the non-writing work part, you'll all just have to read about us here, on the blog, where I spill my guts on a daily basis regardless of the season. Maybe the fact that you get so much more information here can make up for the lack of a physical card. On the other hand, I don't imagine it would work out too well if you tried to hang your laptop on your refrigerator with a magnet alongside the Christmas cards of all the organized people you know. Yeah. I definitely do not advise that.

Photo credit to Erika at My Little Garden, our good friend, Lily's mom, and fellow December Photo Project blogger.

This is a photo I took of Kate in her jammies examining the ornaments on our tree. It's cute, but what I want you to notice is the backpack she's wearing. We bought it at Target the other day, and given her current love of accessorizing, Kate is wearing it around like it's the hottest thing in toddler fashion. But what she doesn't know is that it's not just a backpack. Out of a little pocket in the back comes a reeaaaallly long tail that serves as ... a leash. (Evil parent laugh.) Here's why we went out and bought a leash for our baby: Since the last time we traveled by airplane, Kate has learned to walk, and while she's not up to top speed yet, I have a feeling she's going to be a little hard to keep up with in the multiple airport terminals we will occupy along with everyone else in America and their mamas come December 20. Thus, the leash, so that she can never get more than two feet away from us. I am sure we'll get some weird looks. I don't think walking your kid on a leash gets you onto the cover of any parenting magazines. But I don't care. I am going to have bigger problems. Like keeping Dan from running up and down those giant moving walkways in Denver.

Yesterday I made a big batch of my best chocolate chip cookies to take around the neighborhood for Christmas gifts. I don't really know anyone in my neighborhood. People seem to keep to themselves a pretty good bit here, and we weren't exactly the best about making a point to get to know people either when we first moved in. Then we weren't so new in the neighborhood anymore, and after you've been waving at someone from your driveway for six months, it feels awkward to say "Sorry, what is your name exactly?" Life got busy, what with baby-having and all, and here we are, two years after we moved in and I still don't know my neighbors that much better than I ever have.

So, figuring that Christmas is perhaps the one time of year when you can knock on people's doors without seeming like a vacuum cleaner salesman, and since I am now armed with a totally cute baby who makes a great conversation-starter, I made some cookies, loaded Kate up in her stroller and went around to spread Christmas greetings and chocolate this afternoon. Kate was not happy about the part of the plan where we would give away most of the cookies. Dan, on the other hand, took a bunch to give away at work and then made me swear that by the time he got home they would all be out of our house, because he can't eat one without eating a half-dozen or so. I am not trying to brag, but these are some good cookies.

It's weird to walk around a suburban neighborhood in the middle of the day. Almost no one is home, and the people who do answer the door are clearly very suspicious about why you are there. But I just left the cookies with a little pre-prepared note when no one was home, and the couple of people I did talk to were nice once they realized I was not trying to sell them Amway products or something. In recent weeks, I have met one of our neighbors who was out and about one morning when Kate and I went on a walk. Her name is Donna and she drives a schoolbus and lives a few doors down with two of her sisters. Another sister of theirs lives in the house directly behind them, so apparently it's a close family. And when Donna got my cookies after she came home from work, she came over and we talked about baking and she said she's going to bring us some cake soon. So I think the whole thing was a success. You can't beat exchanging chocolate for more chocolate. Below is the cookie recipe, in case you are looking for a good one.

Haley's Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Makes approximately 60 cookies)

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 and 1/2 cups blended oatmeal (measure it first, then run it through a food processor or blender to a fine powder, a little coarser than flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
12 ounces chocolate chips

Cream butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda, blending together well. Add dry ingredients gradually. Add chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 375. The tricky part about these cookies is that they are actually at their best if they look somewhat underdone when they come out of the oven, because as they cool, they set, but at first, they just seem like a gooey mess. For my oven, the perfect baking time is 10 minutes, but experiment and see what works for you. I generally let them sit for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool, which is where they will set so that they have a good chewy texture. Enjoy!

We went in for Kate's 15-month checkup today. (Vital stats for the grandmothers: She's 30 and 3/4 inches long and now weighs 19.2 pounds, up almost 2 pounds since her last visit.) She showed off her walking skills by refusing to sit on the table while we waited for the doctor. So since she needed to be mostly undressed for the exam, I put her shoes, her big winter coat and her ever-important hairbow on her and let her explore the room. I guess they don't make those little robes that tie in the back in baby sizes. Of course, the whole point of hospital gowns is that most adults don't want to walk around in public semi-nude. This, I am learning, is not a big problem in the toddler community. Or at least not with my toddler.

Since we turned Kate's car seat to face forward, she has been enjoying her new ability to see just what I am doing up there in the front seat. This, needless to say, has made life more complicated for me, because she can see and demand all the things she wants, like my i-Pod, my Burt's Bees lip balm (she is obsessed with holding it and pretending that she is putting it on her lips) and, as you can see from this photo, my cell phone. Some times I just go ahead and give her the cell phone. And then some times, as happened right after I took this photo, I get a phone call from my mother saying "Did you call me a minute ago? Because I answered my phone and heard the radio, and Kate saying dadadadada, and then the line went dead."

So if you're in my cell phone contact list and we've baby-dialed you in the last couple of weeks, forgive us. And call back. We probably want to talk to you anyway. Or at least Kate does.

Kate takes a nap in the afternoon, anywhere from an hour-and-a-half to two hours long. That's the time I use to pick up around the house, start getting things ready for dinner, make sure the laundry isn't piling up to the heights of Mount Everest, and housewifely things like that. On short nap days, I'm lucky to get the most critical of those things done, which is OK. But on really good days, the days when Kate tags an extra few minutes on to the end of her nap, I fill that time with black type on white pages, a good cup of tea, and a book. Today was one of those days, and I spent a few minutes in France, following the adventures of a certain sharp-tongued epic hero. It was only ten minutes, but it was so glorious and refreshing. I have always been a reader, but at this point in my life, when so little of my time is my own, reading is like a little pact I have with myself: A promise that given the opportunity, I will still sit and let someone tell me a story.

We are in the process of trying to catch Kate on video doing her version of the Chicken Dance. For whatever reason, she has always loved it when we sing it to her and do the hand motions. (Probably she loves it because of how ridiculous we look doing the Chicken Dance, now that I think about it.) But every time we try to get it on tape, she stops doing it. In the meantime, this picture was taken today while Kate did the clapping part of the dance while sitting in the kitchen having some goldfish crackers for a snack. I realize that I could have just said "Here's a photo of Kate clapping," because she does spend a good bit of time every day clapping for no apparent reason, like she's applauding herself, or the dishwasher, or the Christmas tree. But since there was a point to the clapping this time, I thought I'd mention it in the interest of fairness. She's going to have enough to hold against me one day when she looks back on these posts. On the other hand, I'm not sure it's going to be any less embarrassing for her one day to read about how she used to do a ridiculous novelty party song dance on demand. Sorry, baby.

Tonight we gave Kate her big Christmas gift from us, a miniature digital keyboard. Since we'll be leaving town in a few days and it can't come with us, we thought we'd let her get a few days in playing with it. I make it sound like this was a well-thought-out decision, but actually, the thing wasn't in the house for 10 minutes before we decided amongst ourselves that it would be way more fun to let her open it and watch her play with it than it would be to wait. We're probably going to need to get better at keeping secrets if we're going to survive Christmases as the parents of older children. Still, it was worth it, because I kind of needed some immediate payoff after what I went through to get the thing. Today, friends, I made my first Christmas season trip down the toy aisle at Target, and it really didn't go well. First of all, I started at the whole wrong end of the department and ended up working my way from the older kids toys down to baby toys, which took forever. Rookie mistake. But along the way I got more than an education in what passes for a children's toy these days. For instance is it just me or do Bratz dolls look kind of slutty? Because that was the first word that came to mind, and that aisle was so busy I was afraid I would be assaulted if I so much as set foot in it, not that I wanted to. All in all, I breathed a sigh of relief when I reached toddler and infant toys, where I meant to be all along, and was once again in familiar territory. I think I can safely predict that I will be doing a lot of shopping for Kate online in the future. From some place that sells dolls that come with actual clothes.

The good news is that Kate really likes her keyboard and I really like the volume control button. So everyone is happy.

On a completely different note: Since perhaps some of the people doing this project know a thing or two about photography, I have to say I am really frustrated with my Canon Powershot right now, and I am wondering if anyone has any tips for me. Overall, it's a good camera, but its single greatest weakness in my opinion is that it takes terrible pictures in low light. If you are shooting in anything less than natural daylight and there is even the slightest bit of motion, the whole picture becomes a blur. Meanwhile the flash is so strong that photos look like they were taken in the headlights of an oncoming truck if you use it. Since it's getting dark early now, and the light inside our house isn't the best, I feel like 80 percent of my photos aren't turning out. So do any Powershot owners (or anyone else for that matter) have any tips for me on settings I could adjust to help with this? I know the camera gives me the option of custom setting a lot of its features, but I haven't spent enough time learning what they mean to really make any good decisions for myself. I just want to benefit from your hard-earned knowledge. Isn't the Internet convenient?

Today we got our first real snow of the year, or at least the first snow that stuck in our neighborhood. It started coming down about the time Kate got up from her morning nap, and the whole time I fed her lunch she would turn to one window in our kitchen and point and then turn to the other window and point again. Then as soon as I let her down from her high chair, she scurried off to find Dangles the Monkey, and brought him to the window so he could see, too. Because he's never seen snow either, you know.

I love this picture because it shows Kate holding the monkey's tail ... that is her favorite part to hold onto. When she is going to bed, she moves her hand around until she finds the tail and then she grabs it, wraps her arms around the rest of the monkey, and goes to sleep.

By the time Dan got home, the snow was really starting to stick, and the little tree in our front yard we call the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree was looking very picturesque. We don't get enough snow here for it to be annoying, and coming from a place where it almost never snowed when I was growing up, I still kind of get excited about our first good snow of the year. I'm sure my ability to stay indoors, drink warm beverages and not actually get out and deal with the snow contributes to my warm fuzzy feeling about it. Kate on the other hand seemed most impressed when Dan took her outside and let her touch the snow. I'm sure in a few years I will be experiencing the snow in a more direct way, since I doubt four year olds like to sip warm tea and read a book when it snows.

This photo of Kate sitting quietly on Dan's lap while he surfs the Internet elicits two emotions in me: The first is love. I mean, how cute are they, with their eyebrows furrowed in the same way, like they are really concentrating on the article they are reading? But, I will admit, the second emotion is jealousy, because Kate would never ever ever sit that still in my lap while I tried to get something done on the laptop. When I'm holding her, she hits so many keys that she actually activates keyboard shortcuts I never knew existed. The laptop is constantly shutting down or deleting my work or displaying its options in a foreign language because she's hit just the right combination of buttons to force me to stop what I am doing and give her my full attention. But when daddy's home, it's enough for her just to sit in his lap. It's so unfair. And so sweet at the same time.

Recently, Kate has gotten really interested in learning how to eat with a spoon. This is good, since at least it will come in handy in her life as an adult, unlike some of her other skills, such as the ability to hear a dog bark from a mile away and then go "woof! woof!" But eating by herself does make meals take a lot longer. Part of what is holding her up at this point is her insistence that she be given not one, but two spoons. I guess even that would be fine if she only tried to put one of them in her mouth at a time. Or if she put the right end of that one spoon in her mouth. But, as you can see, that is not what's happening a lot of the time.

At least she is persistent. Here she is trying to eat her goldfish crackers with a spoon.

But tonight when we had spaghetti for dinner, she abandoned her utensils and went for the classic slurp. Much quicker.

She made me chase her down for this picture, too. But at least she shared her sippy cup with me once I caught her.

Today has been all about packing, packing, realizing we would need a bigger suitcase, and going out and buying one so we can do more packing. We leave tomorrow for our two-week Texas and Mississippi Epic Christmas Journey. Kate, as you can see, is stoked.

Tomorrow might be a day without a photo since we're on the road. I promise you two on Sunday to make up for it.

I realize that I promised you all a photo yesterday, but I have a really good excuse: I was stranded in Denver. Remember when I mentioned that we would be leaving on our Epic Christmas Adventure, and how it was supposed to take us to Texas and Mississippi? And remember how I did not say we would be going to Colorado? Well United Airlines did not get that memo. Overall, I think we should be thankful we weren't on this flight, the one that was all over the news and went on its aborted takeoff run shortly before we landed in Denver. We were totally safe. We just missed our connection in Denver because of a flight delay leaving Albuquerque. We would have preferred to stay in our own home in Albuquerque and leave in the morning, but all the flights the next day were full, so off we went to Denver, secure in the knowledge that once we were stuck there, United might be able to get us a flight out the next day and would probably put us up in a hotel for the night, since it was their fault and all. Remember in youth group when you would do that stupid trust exercise thing where you close your eyes and fall backward into the arms of your friend, who catches you? The airline industry works on that same concept, except that about 50 percent of the time, you just sail right past those waiting arms and need ten stitches in the back of your head.

So to make a long and painful story a bit shorter, we flew one hour north to Denver so we could devote the next 18 hours to standing in exceedingly long lines to sort out hotel arrangements, shuttle arrangements, finding our luggage and then riding in the aforementioned shuttle to the aforementioned hotel, where we got a few hours of restless sleep and then got up at the crack of dawn to ride the shuttle back to the airport, and stand in a holiday ticketing line that made the previous night's line look like an inch worm as compared to a python. Because we were rebooked to another airline and therefore technically considered a new ticket as of that morning, we got to do the Extra Special Security Screening Dance, where they pull you aside, shine flashlights up your nose and dig through all your belongings. Then we went to the gate, where we were promptly informed that our flight was delayed. So now to the pictures.

Here is Kate, on her teddy bear leash, trying to unpack Dan's backpack. The thing is that she also tried to unpack the luggage of every one else in the terminal, and take their cell phones and Blackberries and snacks. It's a good thing she makes up for this appalling lack of understanding of personal space by being pretty cute.

As expected, we spent a lot of time walking around the airport. Given our delays, this turned out to mean approximately 8 hours of walking time. Here is Kate pulling the leash taut as she lunges for one of the dozen or so escalators she fell in love with in Denver.

And here is a video of Kate watching Signing Time while we waited for our final plane to arrive at the gate. This photo sums up why my husband is my hero. It was his idea to bring the DVDs, which turned out to be a total lifesaver. More importantly, Dan stood in all the lines, wrangled with all the airline agents, stood in the half-hour line for the shuttle in the freezing cold in Denver while Kate and I waited inside, woke me up with Starbucks coffee from the hotel lobby, got Kate up and dressed and fed her breakfast while I got a much-needed shower, went and got food for several meals we ate in the airport, and just generally handled the whole situation so that I did not have to. I have traveled a lot with Kate by myself, and that is usually fine, but I really think that if this had been one of those times, I would have just sat down on the floor and cried at several points. So a big round of applause for Dan the Man.

Finally, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, more than 24 hours after we left our house in Albuquerque, we arrived in San Antonio, into the welcoming arms of Dan's family. It was a nice moment, totally worth traveling for. Of course, if you have traveled very much at all, you know what we found when we went down to baggage five minutes later: The airline industry, as one last holiday present to me, lost my suitcase. To give them credit, they did return it last night, ringing the doorbell at about 1 in the morning, and waking up the entire household when we set off the security system alarm while fumbling around half asleep to answer the door. I think this is the airline industry's version of Christmas caroling.

All in all, we are very relieved to be in San Antonio in one piece, with all of our luggage, starting out on a fun time with family. And to be out of Denver.

In the last couple of days, Kate has met one of her aunts for the first time, and we've all met the two newest members of our family. It's been exciting. Here are pictures:

Here is Kate chilling with her aunt Dinah, who met Kate for the first time on Sunday. Dinah is quickly moving up Kate's List of Favorite Aunts because of her willingness to give Kate free access to her cell phone and sunglasses. Also, she watched Baby Signing Time with Kate and took her to run errands at the bank and the grocery store this afternoon. So yeah, Aunt Dinah is the coolest. Other aunts be warned.

Today, we met these guys, Chi and Jeremiah, the new sons of Dan's sister Hannah, pictured here, and her husband Josh. Kate is super-excited about having cousins close to her age. And I am now Aunt Haley! I've never been Aunt Haley before! (Chi is on the right; Jeremiah is on the left.)

More baby cuteness with Jeremiah.

And Chi hanging out with his grandad. As you can see, it's busy around here. So I'm off to play with the babies. Hope you're doing something just as fun this evening.

A few images from an afternoon walk we took with the Kate and Chi, who are 15 months and 18 months old, respectively. They bear watching. But they are pretty cute. Here's Kate heading down the sidewalk, chatting on Aunt Dinah's cell phone, chaperoned by her daddy.

Chi does his own walking.

There were a few near-collisions between the cousins.

Chi being swung by Aunt Dinah and Grammy. This was a popular activity during the walk.

Eventually, inevitably, Kate had to be rescued from the street by Dan. See how grateful she looks?

I would give this walk a Chaos Rating of about 5 on a scale of 10. I am expecting tomorrow morning's opening of gifts to be about a 15. Pictures to come. Merry Christmas Eve, y'all!

We'll probably have more pictures to come, but here are two images from our big Christmas celebration today. As predicted, the Chaos Rating was pretty high. But a good time was had by all, and Kate has so much loot we're probably going to have to rent a U-haul to get it all to Mississippi. Where she'll get more loot. Then I don't know what I'll do.

In her stocking, Kate got a pearl bead necklace, which she has been wearing for most of the day. She's well on her way to being high-maintenance.

One of the highlights of spending our first Christmas with a kid who is at least old enough to participate in all the goings-on was getting to observe Kate's style of gift-opening. It involves pulling all of the tissue out of a bag, clapping for herself for accomplishing this feat, and then wandering off to find another bag to unpack without registering the fact that there is a gift at the bottom of all that paper.

The other great thing was that I got to talk to my brother Ryan, who is in Iraq right now. I realized at the end of our talk that it was 1 a.m. where he was when he called. I felt bad about that, but it was so good to hear his voice. We miss him a lot.

So here is the family at the end of a long day of celebrating. Kate still has her necklace on, you'll see. Now she's in bed and Dan and I are probably about 20 minutes away from lapsing into a post-Christmas coma. I hope you all had a wonderful day. Thus ends the December Photo Project. Many thanks to Rebecca for organizing and hosting this. I've had a lot of fun, and I hope you have, too.

The December Photo Project starts tomorrow, and I'm really excited. I should have plugged this earlier, but if any of you enjoyed doing this last year as much as I did, I hope you'll head over to my friend Rebecca's blog, sign yourself up and grab your camera!

Yesterday morning Kate and I attended an abbreviated, kid-oriented performance of The Nutcracker presented by the New Mexico Ballet. We've had tickets for weeks, but I didn't say a word to Kate about it until Monday morning, because I am not stupid, and I knew that if I told her we were going to see ballet dancing with tutus we would have to talk about it non-stop from that moment until it was time to get in the car and go to the performance several weeks later. As it was, when I told her where we were going that morning, her immediate response was "OK! I get tutu!" And ten minutes later she came back wearing this:

The reflective look on her face is because while I was taking the picture I asked her if she thought she might want to wear something else, seeing as how it was 20 degrees outside on Monday morning. Her response was "Hmmm .... nope." At least she thought about it.

I don't imagine it will surprise anyone to hear that she LOVED the performance. Loved. It. That child sat still on my lap for a solid hour, mesmerized by the dancing and the beautiful costumes and the music. Her only complaint was that it was not an audience participation event. She kept turning around to me and saying "Kate dance! Kate dance!" I have no doubt that she would have happily gotten up on stage and run around with the dancers if she had been allowed. She treated Dan to her own version of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy when he got home from work, and she's been talking about pretty dancing with tutus for 24 hours now. I am starting to think there might be some ballet lessons in our future, assuming Kate can overcome every single bit of her genetic makeup and have some physical coordination and grace. Let's just say I never took ballet and the art form is probably better off for it, so she doesn't have history on her side. But stranger things have happened.

I think I may have mentioned before that I am not organized enough to take a family picture, print it up, write a little newsletter to go with it, and then mail it using stamps and actual paper in time for Christmas. That has not changed since last year and it probably never will. But we still end up taking a family picture most years so that my mother-in-law Lorrae can have one to use in her family newsletter. We took a photo for this year recently, and it only struck me as funny after I had sent it to her that we put Dangles the Monkey in the picture without even thinking about it. Of course we did. He's part of the family.

It made me realize that it's probably time for me to issue a plea for help with a problem I'm having related to this monkey and his serious maintenance needs. When it became clear that Kate was exceedingly attached to this particular stuffed monkey, we acted on the advice of several friends and bought two identical back-up monkeys so that if we ever lost one our lives would not descend into total chaos and suffering. That proved to be a very wise decision a few months ago, when Dan and Kate returned from an errand-running jaunt without the monkey they had taken with them. And now there are two. Obviously, given the amount of wear and tear this poor toy receives from being the companion for literally every second of Kate's days, I have to wash him pretty frequently. He's perfect for that in most ways, but the one problem that has arisen is that his mouth, which consists of a brown thread stitched across his face, has come loose. At first they were just a little loose but then Kate started pulling on them and at this point they're basically completely undone. I recently took a stab at stitching one back in place, and it didn't go so well because I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but in addition to not being a very good wife in the Christmas card department, I am also a domestic failure in that my ability with a needle and thread ends at being able to replace a button. Badly. And with way too much thread so that it won't even button right. Translate that onto a stuffed animal's face and Dangles is starting to look like Frankenstein's monkey.

So. I am wondering if anyone has ever encountered this kind of problem, and if so, what you did about it? Do I just need to perfect my mouth-sewing technique, or is there someone I can pay or beg to fix these monkeys up for me? Monkey plastic surgeons? Toy fixer uppers? Your input is much appreciated. I have a feeling my job might be on the line. That's how important this monkey is to her.

Kate and I spent the very very cold morning with some good friends recently returned to Albuquerque after a few months away. Katie, Ellie, Clarence, and their husband and father Luke, have been much missed while Luke was in Afghanistan and Katie and the kids were with her family in Massachusetts. Now that they are back, we are looking forward to lots of play dates. Katie had these awesome sticky window decorations for the girls to play with, and I need to find out where I can get some for Kate. I mean, the sliding glass window in our dining room is constantly covered in fingerprints anyway, so it might as well get decorated in the process. More than one photo today, just because the girls were so cute.

And a shot of Ellie's handiwork that also shows off our blustery day. It's not that it's a lot of snow. It's the fact that it was blowing in sideways. My hat is off to all my northern and midwestern friends, because clearly I would never survive a real winter. I thought I was going to cry every time I had to get out of my car.

This is the first year in our seven Christmases as a married couple that we will not be traveling on Christmas. Around October we made the decision that we would stay home. Actually, air fare costs made that decision for us. It's criminal how inflated the ticket prices get during those two weeks of the year, and now that we have to buy a ticket for Kate, we just can't afford to pay the hiked up prices. We'll be spending some time with both sides of the family in January, but for Christmas we'll be at home. In our own house. Not in an airport. I'm not going to lie: I'm pretty excited about that. At first, it was a really emotionally hard thing for me to accept that we wouldn't be able to see family on Christmas. We really do love both sides of our family, and I think it's natural to want to be with those you love on the holidays. But air travel at Christmas is a nightmare that is unparalleled at any other time of year. See the Great Stranded in Denver Adventure of 2008, for instance. So while I wish we could have it both ways, there's a part of me that is relieved to have a break from that after seven straight years of holiday travel.

I've had a long time to get used to the idea that we'll be here for the whole month of December, and once I got over feeling a little sad, I found myself getting excited about making our own traditions. Which leads me to today's photo. This is Kate hanging an ornament on our very first Jesse Tree. I've always wanted to observe Advent in a structured way in our home, but since we're always picking up to leave the state sometime around the middle of the month, the truth is that we usually put up a Christmas tree for a couple of weeks and then work on packing suitcases and buying gifts in time for our departure. Not exactly an intentional, contemplative approach to the celebration of Christ's birth. So starting some kind of Advent observation for us was one of my first priorities this year, and I chose a Jesse Tree. I've always liked the idea of the Jesse Tree, and I like it now because it gives Kate a very tangible way to see both the days ticking off the calendar between now and Christmas and the progression of the story of God's redemption for sinners. I know she's really too young to make all the connections this year, but I hope this is something we can start now and keep doing until it does make sense to her.

I basically made up our Jesse Tree based on information I found online, and it's probably done all wrong, but I figure that makes ours unique. I found a list of all the ornaments we'd need, like an apple to represent the fruit Adam and Eve ate and a wooden star to stand in for the star that shone at Christ's birth. Some of them I was able to find as ready-made ornaments, and those I bought. What I couldn't buy I made using a great template I found online through the Reformed Church in America that allows you to just color and cut and paste the symbols for the different Bible readings. This was no great feat of craftiness, and that's a good thing, because I am not up for that. My crafting ability pretty much ends at cutting and pasting. I think Jesse Trees are really supposed to be leafless trees that simply display the symbols, but we have a short fake Christmas tree left from our apartment days, and I decided that instead of making a special tree, we'd just use that one. The whole thing cost about $13 between Hobby Lobby and Target, and we can use it all again in future years.

We're only a few days into Advent, so there are only a handful of ornaments on our tree so far. Actually, at any given moment, there might not be any ornaments on that tree, since Kate is so in love with them that she takes them off and carries them around the house. Unlike our big Christmas tree, which is located in our office and can be closed off behind double doors along with its multitude of fragile ornaments, we put the Jesse Tree on the floor in the dining room, where Kate can see it any time. None of the ornaments are breakable, and this is, after all, something we're doing to give her a way to touch and see the story of Christmas, so if she wants to cart the story around with her, that's OK with me. Even this early into the process, she gets excited about putting a new ornament on the tree and reading our Bible story every night. Her enthusiasm may have something to do with the fact that she generally gets some kind of post-dinner sweet treat at Jesse Tree time, but I suppose that's alright too. We are celebrating something here, and I want her to feel how special that is. Special and sweet.

Here is a picture of what our tree will look like with all its ornaments, on Christmas Day. Not that all these ornaments will ever stay on the tree at one time. Kate will see to that.

We talked to Dan's Mom and Dad, Grammy and Grandpa, on the webcam tonight. Teaching Kate to use this thing is an exercise in attention deficit disorder. She loves the idea, and tonight she even asked to talk to Grammy on the computer. Once the devices are all synched up and ready to go, she sits and talks briefly and then after a few seconds she hops down off Dan's lap and runs away to do something else. Tonight she was eventually persuaded to come back to the camera when Grammy and Grandpa pretended to eat cookies she "baked" and handed to them through the webcam. Those two must have eaten about three dozen pretend cookies between them. Greedy grandparents.

Dan has this uncontrollable habit of picking up little toys and trinkets for Kate whenever they leave the house together. Actually, I really can't even send him out by himself without running the risk that he'll come back with some new thing for her. His explanation is always something along the lines of "But it only cost 88 cents!" To which I usually respond "Yes, but the storage unit we're going to have to rent for all her junk is going to cost us eighty-eight dollars a month!" It's not that I'm trying to be the Grinch or that I don't think it's sweet that he wants to buy her presents. It's just that I am insane, and part of my crazy is that I hate clutter. I'm constantly trying to find new ways to eliminate and organize the unbelievable clutter that comes with having a child before it takes over the house. Meanwhile Dan is bringing more in through the front door.

Today's photo perfectly illustrates what I'm talking about when I use the word "junk" to describe this stuff. That? In the photo? That's the head of Elmo she's pretending to feed baby food. Why do we have the disembodied head of a Sesame Street character that you can carry around by a convenient handle in our home? Because it was sold in Wal-Mart as a holder for Halloween candy back in October. Now Dan had already bought Kate a traditional jack o' lantern pumpkin before Halloween, but on November 1, he was in Wal-mart and noticed that after the holiday had passed, this little gem was marked down from three dollars to an amazing 88 cents! How could we resist? An Elmo head! Just what we need! (I should note that Dan is standing behind me as I type these words going "No! No! It was 18 cents!" Like that makes it right.)

Kate calls it her "Elmo Ponkin." That is only almost cute enough to make up for the fact that I now have to find a home for the dang thing. And feed it, apparently.

Also, note that once again, my child is shirtless in this photo. We are really trying to put the "T" in "Tacky" around here lately. Please do not report me to the authorities. I promise she sometimes wears clothes.

Behold, Spicy Corn Soup topped with bacon. The weather in Albuquerque has gotten very, very cold, and this makes me want to cook soup. I really enjoy cooking, and lately I have been feeling creative and trying out lots of new recipes. This one I tried for the first time a few weeks ago when my mom was in town, and we love it. The poblano chile and red pepper add just the right amount of heat to balance the rich creamy texture. Here is the recipe with a few notes from me now that I've made it a couple of times. My main recommendation is that you cook a good bit more bacon to put on top of the soup than the three pieces suggested. The involvement of bacon is really the only way I was able to sell Dan on a soup based otherwise on vegetables, so I can't skimp on that. This soup is great served with corn bread!

Spicy Corn Soup

Bacon (3 slices, chopped. Or, you know, 6 or 7 pieces. More is also good.)

One small yellow onion, chopped

Celery, one stalk, chopped

Poblano chile, one, seeded and finely chopped (I don't use the whole chile if they are large. Mr. Bacon is also not a big fan of overly spicy food, and poblanos are no joke. If you don't like much heat, about a half of one of these will probably be fine. Also, do yourself a big favor and wear gloves when you chop this thing, because it is lethally hot and if you were to accidentally touch your eyes after handling one, you would pretty much need an eyeball transplant.)

Garlic, two cloves, minced

Milk, four cups

Heavy cream, one cup

Boiling potatoes, two, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces. The first time I made this, Dan said he thought it would be improved by more potatoes, so the second time around I used three boiling potatoes, slightly larger than my fist, and he liked that better.

Corn kernels, 3 cups frozen

Red pepper flakes,1/2 teaspoon

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the bacon in a large saucepan over medium heat. Transfer bacon to paper towels when done and reserve some drippings in pan. Add the onion, celery, chile and garlic to the bacon drippings and saute over medium heat until lightly browned, about six minutes.

Raise the heat to medium-high, add the milk, cream and potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in the corn and red pepper flakes and simmer until the corn is tender, about five minutes. (While you're waiting, start adding salt and pepper and testing to see when you get the right amount.)

Transfer about 2 cups of the solids to a blender or food processor and process to a smooth puree. Return to the pan and reheat to a serving temperature. Ladle into bowls, garnish with the bacon, and serve.

Kate in the gift shop of the Albuquerque Aquarium.

Kate and I spent the morning at the aquarium. We have an annual pass to the Rio Grande Zoo and Botanical Gardens and in nice weather we probably go to the zoo or the aquarium once a week. Since it's gotten cold we've been venturing out less, and I didn't realize Kate had noticed until Monday, when we were driving home from Target. Out of the blue she starts talking about how she wants to go see fishies. Now. Right now. Fishies. The problem with this was that it was time to go home for lunch and a nap, and she did not take that news especially well. "I go see fiiiiiiiiishies! Fiiiiiiiiishies!" she wailed from the back seat. So to get her to calm down I told her we could go see the fishies on Wednesday. It's a good thing I really meant that because she woke up this morning talking about going to the "fishy house."

Last night after Kate went to bed, Dan and I put together her big Christmas present, a play kitchen. Rather, I should say that Dan put it together while I sat on our guest bed, drank hot chocolate, and read him three chapters of Harry Potter. It was a much better deal for me. Here is Dan surrounded by all the parts for this thing and still pulling more out of the box.

When we did the research and picked out this kitchen, which is a gift from Dan's parents, I read a lot of online reviews where people said they loved the play set, but it took them days to put it together. So I warned Dan we should get started early. But it really took less than two hours for my brilliant husband, and the end product is unbelievably cute. It's all set up and hidden in our guest room, covered by a quilt, and the only problem now is that I desperately want to show it to Kate, but I have to wait two whole weeks until Christmas! Gah! It's killing me. Still, it feels good to have it done, and I feel like we have passed some kind of parenting milestone by putting together a Christmas gift. And by "we" I mean "Dan." Good work, honey.

Last night's Christmas pageant at our church was so much fun. The kids were amazingly poised, some of them while reciting lengthy passages of Scripture or singing solos, neither of which I would have had the composure to do at their age. Many thanks to the intrepid Mrs. J and Ms. Margaret for leading all the work that went into this. I'd say it was a beautiful success. The only problem is that Kate is now under the impression that when we go back to church tomorrow morning, she's going to get to put on her sparkly angel costume and sing "Go Tell It On the Mountain" again, complete with hand motions. I keep trying to tell her that costume changes are not really a big part of the Presbyterian experience week in and week out, but I'm not sure I'm getting through. Here are a few images from the evening.

Most of the cast before the costumes were put on.

Our real live baby Elsa playing Baby Jesus. Elsa was also remarkably well-behaved, especially considering that she's technically about seven months old and capable of crawling away.

And, because I know the grandmas cannot get enough pictures of Kate dressed as an angel, here is some more of that.

It's been a long, busy Sunday and I'm barely slipping this one in before I put myself to bed. Not to mention I am cheating, since I actually took this photo a couple of days ago. But Kate had the funniest case of bedhead when she got up the other day that I couldn't resist a photo or two. If Johnson & Johnson Leave-In Conditioner and Detangler is looking for a new poster child, I believe I may be able to help them. That product is the only reason this child ever looks like she's been groomed.

Tonight, Dan is working late. Really late. Knowing this, I decided in advance that I would deploy my super amazing strategy for surviving a long post-nap afternoon and evening with Kate on my own. It's a very complex strategy with three points. Those points are as follows:

1. Get out of the house.
2. It doesn't matter where you go.
3. Seriously, just get in the car.

I know it's complicated, but it really makes the time go by faster once you get the hang of it. On days like this, I find myself so very thankful for the giant corporation that is Barnes & Noble Booksellers. I have a great affection for any place filled with thousands of books, but at this point in my life, I am particularly fond of Barnes & Noble for their childrens' section, complete with a train set for the kids to play with and a conveniently located Starbucks on the ground floor for me. I can sit in peace and drink some (yes, pregnancy police) decaffeinated coffee and maybe even glance through a couple of books, and Kate is happy. Lately she has even started looking at books with me, which I like. Books are good.

Once she was done with that, she started working on climbing the giant tree-shaped pillars in the atrium. While I was taking this photo, she was hollering "Kate climb a tree, mommy! I do it!" She totally thought she was about to get to the top.

This is Kate about five minutes before I put her down for her nap.

She looks about like I felt. Today we had one of those mornings. I tell myself everyone has days like this, but I'm not really sure it's true, so just to make sure we're on the same page, let me tell you about it. Before 9 a.m., Kate had several emotional meltdowns over nothing as far as I could tell. Everything was a conflict, everything was drama. Even though we had to be somewhere by 9:30 a.m. I stupidly didn't get up and get dressed before she woke up, so my entire morning was spent trying to get things stabilized enough that I could actually go get a shower.Inevitably every time I would get close, the phone would ring or Kate would ask for something else. As I was leaving the living room for my fifth attempt at this, Kate, who was running around in circles in the living room, ran herself straight into the front of our entertainment center. Much screaming and kissing of boo-boos ensued. She wasn't seriously hurt, but it took a strawberry sucker to calm her down. I actually got in the shower at about 8:55 a.m. Somehow, we got to our 9:30 a.m. commitment, survived it and returned to the house around 11 a.m., hungry and cranky all around. When I started listing lunch options to Kate, another inexplicable meltdown started. I completely lost my patience and went on a rant I'm not proud of, but in the process of counting to ten to try to regain my composure I remembered something that has worked in the past and asked her if she wanted to go take a break in her room for a few minutes while I fixed lunch. To my shock, she readily agreed, so I took her to her room, helped her climb into her crib, and at her request, shut the door behind me. Honestly, I think we were just stressing each other out. She spent a few minutes in there alone while I got lunch ready. When she called for me, I went and got her and gave her a big hug. She ate lunch, got out of her high chair and promptly laid down on the floor a few feet in front of the chair to watch some Sesame Street in the minutes remaining before nap time. I put a blanket over her, laid down on the floor too, and took this photo. I find it kind of sad and comical at the same time that she's lying there looking so completely exhausted while wearing a fairy princess dress up outfit complete with wings on the back. Dangles the Monkey makes a good pillow in these situations.

I don't know what the moral of that story is except that you know it's one of those days when you're both laid out on the floor in a heap by 12:45. Now I'm just praying she gets a good nap in and we can start over. Maybe I'll take a nap too.

Let the holiday reading begin. Every year in December, I read the same two or three books. It's a weird little personal ritual, but I love it. Those books are The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and if I get all the reading time I dream of, All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. I am a re-reader, so if I really enjoy a book there's a good chance I'll pick it up again in the future. I also read plenty of new stuff in a year, most of it fiction, most of it from the 20th century, and probably half of it pretty forgettable. I don't view that as wasted time. Every book can't change your life. But this time of year is about celebration, and in my little world of reading, I celebrate by breaking out books that age like fine wine, that get better every time I read them, and that never fail to remind me that a great story, well told, is truly a beautiful thing.

Today I was enjoying the incredible luxury of having breakfast by myself at one of my favorite places and reading the first few chapters of The Great Gatsby. Kate was at Mom's Morning Out at our church (Oh how thankful I am for Mom's Morning Out) and after a checkup with my midwife for the baby, I had some time to myself. The hostess seated me next to a table of three middle-aged gentlemen in suits who were having some sort of high-powered business discussion. As they got up to leave, the last one to leave the table stopped in front of me and said "Oh, that's such a great book.I saw that you were reading it and I just had to say something, because I love that book."
"It really is so good, isn't it?" was about all the response I managed in my surprise. But I swear I thought that man was going to come around the table and hug me, one reader to another. I probably would have hugged him back. We book people have to stick together.

As this pregnancy progresses, a lot of people ask me how much I think Kate understands about the impending arrival of her new sibling. The truthful answer is not much. Dan and I talk about the baby a lot, and she'll even bring him up from time to time, but most of the time I am not under the impression that she really understands what is going on or even thinks about it very often. Then occasionally she'll do little things that make me think she might be paying more attention than I think she is. This is one of them: Recently, Dan and Kate came to an appointment at my midwife's office, and we all got to hear the baby's heartbeat. That was several weeks ago and she really hasn't brought it up since except to refer to the "bebe docta" a few times. But this morning, out of nowhere, she walked up to me with her little pink pretend doctor's kit, all business, and told me she was going to "check a hot," which means "check your heart." This is a pretty common game for her, but this time, she she was done checking my heart, she put her little pink stethoscope on my stomach and said "I check a bebe hot." (I check the baby's heart.) She listened for a really long time, and she was very serious about it. Here she is making her best bebe docta face. Of course, right after this, she decided the bebe needed a shot, so it wasn't the most accurate game. This poor baby is going to get a lot of plastic shots, I think.

Live from my kitchen at 3:30 p.m., here's what we have going on this afternoon.

Cookies: Baked dozens of these for neighbor gifts and to take to a baby shower tomorrow. Recipe here, posted last year during the DPP. They are good cookies if I do say so myself.

Clementimes. Those are the orange citrus fruit in that other blue dish. I'm pretty sure I've eaten about two pounds of these unaided in the last week, and I went to the grocery store and bought another ginormous bag today because we were getting perilously low, like maybe down to eight or nine left. If we ran out, I would have to cry. So we can't have that.

Crazy kid: She paused momentarily from recreating The Nutcracker's Waltz of the Flowers, which was playing on the stereo system at the moment. Her choreography for this selection involves running around the table in circles. We always clap.

Ten minutes before I took this picture, Kate had on a real outfit, one I had picked out for her and convinced her to wear, which is no small feat. Then she appeared in the kitchen like this. But she was so proud of herself because she put these boots on all by herself that I took the picture anyway. What are you going to do?

I am blogging early today and posting a cheater photo that was taken a couple of days ago because today, the Saturday before Christmas, is filled with various activities and happenings and we are not going to be pausing for breath much. It's that time of year. But Dan has been telling me that I really need to blog about something Kate said the other day, and for some reason, this photo seems to go along with it, so before I go, let me tell you a story.

The first thing you need to know to understand this story is that last Saturday, Dan very graciously loaded Kate up with him and went to run some Christmas errands so that I could get some shopping done without her assistance. Before he went, we had a conversation about stocking stuffer ideas for each other. We're not an exciting bunch, so when Dan and I talk about stocking stuffers, there's a pretty good chance we're mostly talking about picking up the kinds of things one might buy in an average trip to Wal-Mart -- I like certain kinds of pens, for instance, and Dan likes these little chewy Lifesaver candies. We also tend to give each other socks and underwear because you have to replace that stuff, or at least women have to replace it. I have realized in almost seven years of marriage that when a man's wife buys him new underwear, he doesn't think that's any reason to throw out the old ones. Men, or at least my man, will keep underwear until it just disintegrates into thin air and ceases to exist. That's how it leaves the house. But that is another subject. All you need to know for today's story is that we had a conversation about underwear before Dan left to go run top secret Christmas errands.

Fast forward a couple of days. The night that Dan worked late this week, I blogged about how Kate and I went to kill some time at Barnes and Noble. The bookstore is adjacent to one of our large shopping malls, so to get there, you pull into the mall parking lot. Kate was in a pretty chatty mood, and since more and more stores have Christmas lights up, there was a lot to talk about, at least from the perspective of someone who just this year started noticing Christmas lights and thinks they are a-mazing. I was only about halfway listening to her little monologue from the backseat. But when we pulled into the mall parking lot, the one-sided conversation took the following interesting turn. I will translate the toddler jargon for you:

Kate: "OH!!! Pannies for Mama!" (Panties for Mama.) "It a secwet Kisses supise (secret Christmas surprise)."

Me: "Haha, did you buy underwear here? And it's a surprise for Christmas? Wow!"

Kate:"Yeah. Not tell Mama!! Shhhhh!"

Later I told Dan that Kate had not only remembered what errand she was on last time she was at the mall, but had promptly ratted him out, and we laughed. Dan said the remarkable thing is that she basically repeated verbatim what he told her when they were making the purchase, which was. "This is a secret Christmas surprise for Mama, so we don't tell her about it, OK?" I think the lesson for all the dads of two-year-olds out there is that maybe you want to leave the human tape recorder at home when you shop for your wife this holiday season.

All in all, it's not like Kate really ruined any earth-shattering secret, and I might still be in for a bit of a surprise when I open my stocking on Christmas morning. Dan mentioned that Kate helped him with color selection in the umm, underwear store. She is really into hot pink these days. So this could be interesting.

The ladies from our church spent a fun Saturday morning at the home of Mrs. J celebrating the upcoming arrival of Baby Owen at a shower for my sweet friend Erika this weekend. Erika and Cody's daughter Lily is about five months older than Kate, and Owen will be three months older than our little guy, so this is the second time we've been pregnant at the same time. It works out really well for me because Erika is always a few months ahead of me on the new-kid process and she gives me all this great advice. I'm like "First kid? You go first, Erika. Time to have a little boy? OK, but only if you do it too." I should probably ask her how many kids we're planning on having.

In the first photo, Erika is holding a quilt handmade for Owen by his grandmother Linno, our pastor's wife, who makes beautiful quilts for all the new babies in our church. And look at this diaper centerpiece our friend Cora made for the shower. No, she didn't buy it. She made it. How are people this talented? I have no idea.

I promise this isn't going to become a blog where we routinely discuss the underwear needs of everyone in our family. It's really just a coincidence that today's topic, like the day before yesterday's, happens to concern undies. That's the only piece of good news I have for you, since from now we'll be discussing the exciting world of potty training.

Today, for the first time ever, Kate randomly announced that she wanted to use the training potty I got her, oh, six months ago, and then she did it. Before now, her comprehension of what we expected her to do with that thing has been less than stellar. It's not something we've made a big deal out of. I'm not too wound up about her getting potty trained and it really just seemed like something she wasn't ready to do. Still, Dan and I had agreed that the first time she actually sat down and used the potty we would make a big deal out of it in hopes of raising her interest in the whole process. So this morning we loaded up and went to Target to buy big girl panties (Kate picked out Hello Kitty themed undies. Hot pink.) and Gummi Bears to be used as bribes. I am all about bribery in this arena. I've gathered from talking to plenty of moms about this that potty training is more of a process than an event, so I'm prepared for this to take a while. But she was really into it today, and actually stayed dry all day, which was a great start. She is super proud of her new undergarments too, and if you see her soon, there's a good chance she's going to introduce you to Hello Kitty in person.

Now that I think about it, maybe I should have a little chat with her about that before our church Christmas Eve communion service.

Because of this dog, who was patiently waiting for his owner in the parking lot outside the bank we visited today, Kate is now convinced that dogs can drive cars. I don't know. This dog was big enough to drive a car. He had great posture. Maybe she's right.

Back to Barnes & Noble this morning for Story Time, which featured books about snowmen, a snowman craft, and actual snow that started falling outside the windows of the children's section while we were there. It's still coming down and it's nice to be in our house all warm and cozy.

They let Kate have her very own glue stick, which was brave. She was ecstatic, and there is a lot of glue on that snowman. I don't really have any photos of that part of the project because I was busy trying to keep her from gluing herself to the table.

Tonight we went to our church for a Christmas Eve communion service. We sat next to the Steeles. Here are Kate and Lily before the service got started. There were pictures of lit candles on the front of the bulletins for the evening, and they were blowing on them to blow the candles out.

Unfortunately, that was about the last time Kate actually sat still for the whole evening. The service started at the time Kate normally goes to bed at night, and she cycled through all of the Toddler Stages of Grief and Exhaustion before the night was over: Antsy, Crying, Squabbling and finally, Running Around in Circles in the Foyer During Communion. During that last stage, we had totally given up on keeping her in the sanctuary and Kate was alternating between dancing to the closing hymn and screaming "Christmas! Christmas!"

We did get all dressed up for the evening and managed to get a photo as proof. Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

It's about 2 p.m., Kate is down for a much-needed nap, and we her parents may take one too if we get a chance. It has really been such a fun day. Here are some pictures and video of the highlights.

We started the morning off with Monkey Muffins, a variation on Monkey Bread ala The Pioneer Woman. I heart the Pioneer Woman. I'm cooking another recipe of hers for dinner. But more about that in a minute. Kate was thrilled with the name of the muffins, and wanted to wear her monkey pajamas and eat breakfast off her monkey plate. And it's Christmas, so she got her way.

Then we read the Christmas story and prayed and headed into the office. Bless those locking double doors that close our office off from the living room, because they allowed us to hide the tree and all its presents until we were ready to open them. I mean, we were already up at 7 a.m., and being able to get some coffee and have a little time to wake up made the whole thing much more humane.

It was such a funny experience to open gifts with a two year old. Every time she opened one, she just wanted to stop and play with it for a while, so we'd hang out and do that and exchange our own gifts until she was able to move on to a new gift. I thought we were never going to get past the fact that there were Hello Kitty stickers in her stocking, which was the very first thing she opened. Stickers! Can you believe her good fortune? It was hard not to laugh, knowing that she had so much bigger gifts waiting, but it's still adorable.

Her two big gifts were given by grandparents. Gam and Geez, my mom and dad, sent her a totally frilly ribbon and tulle extravaganza of a ballet outfit, which she promptly put on and wore until I persuaded her that it would not be very comfortable to nap in. Here is video of her opening that and the dancing that ensued:

And from her Grammy and Grandpa Wachdorf, she got a play kitchen. I love the video we got of her seeing this for the first time because of her reaction: "Awesome!" I think I say that more than I realize, but it does pretty much sum up how she feels about the kitchen. Kate also got about 6,000 pieces of play food to go with the kitchen, and she has been cooking us elaborate meals since then.

The morning was so exciting she needed a sit-on-the-couch break by about 10 a.m. because she was getting so tired. So we watched some "Annie," and then it was time for more dancing and cooking.

As for me, I got the Pioneer Woman's cookbook, which I have been longing to buy since it came out in October. I am going to have so much fun cooking from this thing. I love the fact that the cookbook is set up like the Web site, with a lot of photos of each step of the recipe process. It makes things turn out well even that first time you cook them, which for me at least is usually the time when I make mistakes and take notes for next time around. Anyway, I am loving cooking these days, and now that I'm armed with this book, you really want to get invited to my house for dinner sometime soon, because I've never cooked a Pioneer Woman recipe that wasn't fabulous. I'm just saying.

And my big gift from my sweet husband was this:

A Bissell ProHeat steam cleaner for the carpet! Now I realize there are women who might not appreciate this gift, who might even be offended to receive a housework tool for Christmas, but I am ecstatic. If I had realized before we had a child how much damage kids do to carpet, I would have ripped every square inch of carpet in our house up before Kate was born. There is not enough Resolve carpet spot cleaner in the world to keep up with it, and I am just obsessive enough that it drives me crazy to vacuum and spot clean and still have carpet that constantly looks dirty. On the other hand, it's not like you want to have a hard tile floor when you've got babies crawling and learning to walk and such. So my husband comes to my rescue, because he knows me and accepts that I'm crazy, and that the filthy carpet is making me crazier. If this thing does a good job, I might end up doing a commercial for Bissell. I mean, if it cleans my carpet, it must be good. I'll let you know after the epic day of carpet cleaning I have planned soon. Seriously, I can't even tell you how excited I am about that. Many thanks to Mike and Susan, who helped Dan pull off this surprise by hiding my gift at their house and then smuggling it to church last night. Sneaky people.

Dan is currently playing the new Super Mario Bros. for Wii game to his heart's content, playing with his I-phone, which was not a Christmas present, but is a whole other story in itself, and has a pretty sharp new Minnesota Vikings jacket to wear thanks to my awesome wifely gift-buying skillz. Since I confessed my blog crush on the Pioneer Woman earlier, have I mentioned that my lifelong and largely dejected Vikings fan husband is probably just a few more wins away from leaving Brett Favre a love note next time we're staying at my parents' house and drive past the Favre estate? (The Favres live in Hattiesburg, where my family lives. I once served Brett Favre a sandwich at McAlistar's Deli, where I had a summer job, and did not recognize him. The male kitchen staff nearly had a collective aneurysm when they asked if Brett liked his sandwich and I was like "Brett who?") But seriously, I think I might have to compete with Brett for my husband's affection pretty soon now that he's gone to Minnesota and made my husband's football dreams come true. Good thing I have that cookbook.

Stuff aside, it's really just been such a lovely thing to spend a day at home together and be thankful for our health and our growing family and the blessings God has poured into our lives this year and every year. I hope your celebrations have been filled with the deep joy of the salvation we celebrate today.

"For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying 'Glory to God and on earth peace, good will to men.'" Luke 2:11-14

Would it be OK if I admitted that I am totally not in the Christmas spirit this year? Around the second week in November, as the truck containing all our boxes arrived at our new house and life was at its absolute craziest, family conversations about Christmas gift arrangements and plans started coming up and it was all I could do not to say festive things like "Oh my gosh, do we really have to do this right now?"

Such a good attitude to have about the season celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior.

Obviously, it would be an understatement to say that I could use some concrete ways to connect with the celebratory spirit of the month. One proactive step I've taken is that on the first Sunday of Advent, I braved the wilderness of boxes in our garage long enough to find the little Christmas tree and ornaments I made last year to serve as our Jesse Tree. A little part of me was hoping that if I got out the little tree I wouldn't have to get out the big tree, but as soon as Kate saw the Jesse Tree, she was all "Where is our BIG tree, mommy? I want our BIG tree to come out!" So this week I will be getting out the BIG tree.

All of this is why I'm glad my awesome friend Rebecca Tredway is once again hosting the December Photo Project. I think this will be my third year to do the project and I always find that it is a fun way to challenge myself to shoot more photos and really pay attention to the little visual stories that happen around me every day. I could really use that structure this year -- did I mention how I didn't blog for SEVEN WEEKS?

So while I am somewhat skeptical of my own ability to post one photo every day from tomorrow until Christmas, I'm going to try with certain disclaimers:

1) During the course of the move I did actually take a lot of photos. I will probably use some of those photos for days when I have not managed to take anything new. This is probably the only way I'm going to get around to showing people photos of, say, our new house. And our cardboard box mountain, which was one of the seven wonders of the world.

2) The other pictures I take are probably not going to be very good, especially if I try to take pictures of my kids who will not sit still.

So with that out of the way, bring on the DPP. If you want to join me, head on over and sign up!

Because what's cuter than a baby in a hat? Nothing.

This picture doesn't show it very well, but Isaac is wearing his special camouflage hat given to him before his birth by my good friend Autumn who correctly noted that no grandson of my dad's is properly equipped unless he has some camouflage in his wardrobe. It is a particularly timely photo in that my dad and brothers just returned from their annual man-trip to deer hunt in West Texas. All my memories of my dad and brothers hunting together when the boys were little involve Aaron and Ryan talking so much that if you stood on the porch of our cabin in Duck Hill, Mississippi, you could hear their voices echoing through the trees while the sun came up in the early-morning cold. Somehow this stealthiness failed to snag them even a single deer in what I would estimate was a decade of childhood hunting trips. The fact that dad kept getting up at 4 a.m. and taking them out anyway tells you a lot about my dad.

Apparently, his patience has paid off, as I gather that the boys are much better hunters than they used to be. Last year, Ryan got a big buck, and Aaron's son Clark is the only baby I know who has the taxidermied and mounted head of a prize buck on the wall of his beautifully-decorated nursery. (No really. Kelly wrote about it here in what is quite possibly my favorite blog post in the entire history of her blog except all the ones with pictures of Clark.) This year after the first day of the hunting trip my sisters and I received an ecstatic Facebook message from Aaron recounting how he got a monster buck, the kind people would pay big money on a professional hunt to find. (I am just quoting directly here. It is beyond me why anyone would do any of this, much less pay to do it, but I think that may be about gender.) I am sure Kelly is still hearing about it.

The guys better enjoy their hunting awesomeness while it lasts. I have a feeling that when Isaac and Clark start joining them on hunts, their kill number is going to drop right back down to zero for a while. But the boys have that coming. And they will get to hunt with the cutest deer hunters the world has ever known, so that makes up for a lot.

Kate shows off her big girl tennis shoes and back pack before preschool this morning. When I picked her up a few hours later, her teacher said that Kate had informed her that she did not need to use the bathroom at school because "I already went potty at my new house." Alrighty then.

Lately every time I look at pictures of her I think she looks like such a big girl. Don't you think?

Today Kate, Isaac and I made our first trip to the San Antonio Zoo with some folks from a church we are visiting. It was a balmy 74 degrees out and it could have been pretty laid back except for all the stress I went through trying to make sure Kate didn't wander off. We used to go to the zoo in Albuquerque all the time, and maybe that has given Kate a false sense of confidence about her ability to navigate other zoos. Whatever the reason, it seemed like every 30 seconds I would look up from a conversation and realize that Kate had once again charged off on her own. And there is nothing that makes you look more like a good mother to people you've just met than sprinting away to retrieve your child from the gorilla exhibit.

In between chasing her down and telling her for the 30th time that I didn't know where the giraffes were, I managed to take a picture of her. You'd never know she was up to so much mischief from this sweet picture, would you?

When I took that photo I thought we were just in some kind of really large fish-related exhibit. So I felt pretty dumb when I realized that what we were actually there to look at was hippos. This isn't a great photo, but see if you can find the two GIANT hippos I was missing.

Self portrait with the i-Phone while putting Isaac to bed. Any day now he's going to crawl and then he'll spend all his time trying to get out of my arms and go. But for now he is content to snuggle, and I love that.

Posted late, a photo of my dessert from a Christmas party we attended last night on the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio. This was a fancy s'more -- a rich chocolate mousse on a graham cracker crust topped with a fluffy marshmallow meringue. I looked like a dork taking pictures of my food, but such is my dedication to dessert.

This is what my kitchen looked like today. At one p.m. After Isaac reached out from his perch on my hip and grabbed a glass of apple juice off the counter and it shattered all over the floor. I took this photo before I began the hour-long process of cleaning up glass shards and apple juice spray. Yes, that is glass on my floor. I'm just trying to keep it real, lest you think all we do around here is gab around to fabulous parties.

I took a few photos today, but none of them are as entertaining as this video Dan shot tonight of Kate dancing at my in-law's house. They went over there to pick something up and Kate used the opportunity to bust out a keyboard and put on a show for Grammy and Grandpa. Before you watch this video I want you to understand that my child does not view MTV or any other television channel that could possibly have taught her to dance like this. She just makes this stuff up. Recently we were at a restaurant and Kate was doing a dance routine very similar to this. An older gentleman walked by and commented that "someone is getting dance lessons for Christmas." I think he was right. I just hope she won't be bored in dance class.

Bonus round: When we were posting this video, YouTube pulled up our video history and we watched this video of Kate getting a tutu from my mom and dad just one year ago and we both almost cried looking at how much she looks and sounds like a baby. One year!

One of the things we did over the weekend with Aunt Audrey was visit a children's museum near where we live. It has all of these separate play areas including a kid-sized grocery store, farmhouse, camping ground, rocket ship and even a newspaper office. (Not sure how that made the list of dream destinations for children, but it was cute.)

Kate was especially enthralled with the grocery store, which had miniature carts, money and cash registers with conveyor belts that actually moved the groceries along. She kept insisting on paying me twenty dollar bills for boxes of mac and cheese, so maybe we need to work on that.

And here we are camping. I am hoping that if we spend enough time in this museum, I can get out of ever having to actually take Kate camping. That is how I feel about camping.

Self portrait in the shadow box:

Audrey. We've had so much fun with her here!

Kate wrapped up the day by playing in the yard with Aunt Audrey and giving detailed instructions about the family portrait she wanted drawn in sidewalk chalk on the patio. Audrey delivered.

Today before Audrey got on her plane to go back to Mississippi, we went to Kate's preschool Christmas program. It was very low-key. The kids just sang a few songs and then there were cookies. But they did make some great crowns to wear. Here's Kate.

Isaac and Audrey waiting for the kids to take the stage. They got very snuggly over the course of the weekend.

Afterwards there were cookies. Audrey wanted me to take a photo of her with both kids, and I think it's hilarious how it turned out. Kate is totally fixated on her cookie; Isaac is making a play to swipe her cookie. Audrey is really the only person who is working on being in the photo.

We're sorry Audrey had to go home. But we'll see her again in a week when we drive to Mississippi. More on that in my post tomorrow.

As of this week, Isaac is mobile. Like my sister-in-law Kelly wisely chose to do, I seriously considered not putting up a tree this year, but decided that since Isaac couldn't crawl yet I should go for it. Well, the tree has been up for less than a week, and apparently it was the last little bit of motivation Isaac needed to make a breakthrough on his army crawling skills. Now he can crawl to the tree, the DVD cabinet, and he can get his own toys when he wants them. Moreover he can get to Kate's toys without her permission! She is not going to be pleased, but look how happy he is.

Kate was watching Sesame Street, blissfully unaware that this was happening, or you would have heard the shrieking all the way from Texas.

This one is blurry and shot with the I-Phone, but here he is going straight for the tree. I might as well have dangled a giant baby snack in front of him. I have to go now. It's time to cover the electrical outlets.

While I was writing my opus about the car, I got behind on the December Photo Project. Here are the catch up photos. They were both taken today, the 17th, but let's pretend they are for the 16th and 17th, OK?

Kate and I played with Play-Doh this morning. She would only play with the blue Play-Doh, but she gave me elaborate instructions on how to make things for her with the other colors.

In the days -- only days, mind you -- since Isaac got his army crawl perfected, he has built up a lot of speed. He puts that speed to good use, like making it halfway under Kate's bed and then making me drag him out by his fat little cankles. Life just got a lot more complicated to say the least.

Apparently I have decided that the December Photo Project is an every-other-day kind of deal for me this year. But I have some cute baby photos to make it up to you.

When I watch Isaac scoot himself across the hard tile floors I am so sure he must be cold and miserable.

But then he makes faces like this and I think he must be OK.

And our cousin Mercy came by today to show Isaac how to do the real thing crawling-wise. She is an expert. And she also likes to get under tables.