Dec 14, tough guy

On the fourteenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: tasty purple grapes, a frosty white tree, one sly grey cat, a charlie brown ornament, one jaunty snowman, a lone acorn, one golden bell, a festive wreath, one goldfish, batman, a sparkly white snowflake, one delicious looking gingerbread man, a happy bluebird, and one cute disembodied santa head.

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Tough guy in his white tshirt

Tough guy.....crumbles

The real tough guy, who keeps scratching up his face no matter how close I trim his nails

Dec 13; peanut gallery

On the thirteenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: a frosty white tree, one sly grey cat, a charlie brown ornament, one jaunty snowman, a lone acorn, one golden bell, a festive wreath, one goldfish, batman, a sparkly white snowflake, one delicious looking gingerbread man, a happy bluebird, and one cute disembodied santa head.

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the peanut gallery, Dash in the mammaroo and Liam in the bjorn

I roasted a chicken tonight, simplicity incarnate. Dry, salt & pepper it, roast at 450 until done. The boys were nice enough to lounge until I had it in the oven. Then Liam chilled while Dash had a bath, and vice versa. The result: two boys who smelled like creamsicles (thank you, whomever gave me that awesome wash and lotion at my baby shower!) and a crispy chicken ready to be carved. Charlie came home and made a salad using pomegranates from our CSA box. Well, while I'm typing he is still making it. So I have no idea if the chicken is good and no idea if I will spit or chew up the pomegranate seeds. He told me this morning that the seeds are one of the main roughage sources for Persians. Will I adopt their traditions? Who knows!

Dec 12 & rainy

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: one sly grey cat, a charlie brown ornament, one jaunty snowman, a lone acorn, one golden bell, a festive wreath, one goldfish, batman, a sparkly white snowflake, one delicious looking gingerbread man, a happy bluebird, and one cute disembodied santa head.

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While my sister has been enjoying holiday snowfall (well, enough for several holidays really) in Minneapolis, it's been raining here. Really really raining. The best part is that the weather system is referred to as a "pineapple express." I love pineapple. The worst thing is that there's flooding all over the place, and I am constantly watching the drainage on our property to make sure we don't all slide down the hill. The chickens are crabby because their coop gets wet (there's really no way to keep the rain from blowing in) and I don't let them out because our entire property is saturated and I don't want them digging around in the mud too much.

One of the natural drainage results is our seasonal stream. It runs along the side of the house nestled in the trees. During the summer lush ferns grow, so now there's a roaring creek running through and over prehistoric-sized enormous ferns. It sounds lovely.



For scale, the moss-covered tree trunk at the end of the video is too large for me to wrap my arms around.

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farmer Liam in his cute denim overalls

Dec 11

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: a charlie brown ornament, one jaunty snowman, a lone acorn, one golden bell, a festive wreath, one goldfish, batman, a sparkly white snowflake, one delicious looking gingerbread man, a happy bluebird, and one cute disembodied santa head.

Dec 10

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: one jaunty snowman, a lone acorn, one golden bell, a festive wreath, one goldfish, batman, a sparkly white snowflake, one delicious looking gingerbread man, a happy bluebird, and one cute disembodied santa head.

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Last night was another mediocre dinner made by me, followed by delicious looking cooking shows. The boys weren't giving much ground on their crankiness, so I strapped them both on while cooking. Liam relaxed for the most part, but Dash was pleased as punch to observe all of the action.

kitchen helpers

You can't see it in the picture, but Dash kept kneading Liam's head. Liam didn't seem to care.

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The boys had another adventure today.....I took them to meet Santa. Since so many of you that are on my christmas card list read the blog, that's one picture you'll have to wait till the holiday letter to see! There has to be some mystery after all. :)

Dec 9

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: a lone acorn, one golden bell, a festive wreath, one goldfish, batman, a sparkly white snowflake, one delicious looking gingerbread man, a happy bluebird, and one cute disembodied santa head.

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I didn't realize that my post didn't work yesterday until mom called this afternoon, asking me if everything was ok. Yes! :) I typed everything up, hit post, and then ran off to tend babies. Oops!

Dec 8, things 1&2, and cheeseburgers

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: one golden bell, a festive wreath, one goldfish, batman, a sparkly white snowflake, one delicious looking gingerbread man, a happy bluebird, and one cute disembodied santa head.

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My favored way of dressing the twins is a lot like my mom's quilt design: similar but different. If they're wearing exactly the same outfit it actually makes me a little uncomfortable, like I'm trying to get them to be the same person. Now, we did get a lot of two-some outfits as gifts and I think that's super because it just means I have to wash them less frequently. :) But for the most part my favorite style is to have them, for instance, both wearing white undershirts and white socks and different colored pants and sweaters. Then they look like brothers. Similar but different.

pancakes improved everyone's mood

Today was an exception because these onesies have made me laugh for as long as I can remember. I bought them at a consignment sale and it's a good thing I decided to put them on for our wednesday pancake lunch today because I practically had to shoehorn the boys into them. The boys didn't exactly cooperate with pictures but trust me they were super cute. I decided to let Dash have 1 because he was the firstborn.

Liam ate, then slept through everything

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Last night Charlie was working late, and the boys were being pills so I put a log on the fire and we all settled down to read some Calvin & Hobbes. It was loads of fun, but was a bit loud at times. Everyone was fed, dry, warm, didn't want to dance, didn't even want to be held, was just possessed of an overwhelming cranky. Damn can those boys cry!

looks peaceful, doesn't it?

trust me, he's just inhaling for more screaming

Just in case you thought things were ever quiet around here. I'm just very good at tolerating the volume.

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And why yes, I did have a glorious cheeseburger for dinner last night. And I ate it on my christmas china.