Pictures from Christmas, Halloween, and the Blizzard of 2009

and the geese in the field behind the house...

Shorty's New Scout Troop

The same troop we visited invited Shorty to a lock-in this last Friday night. He stayed up all night playing video games, eating pizza, running around, and generally acting like a kid. He had a great time. He said the boys were all very nice to him.

Shorty, of his own volition, removed all the troop number patches from all his shirts over the last couple of weeks. He says it was to make room for this troop's patches. He and The Daddy are on their way back now from a regular meeting, which also happened to be a Court of Honor. The boy had a great time, and came back with his recharter paperwork. Looks like this is it.

It's a good thing I waited.

The creative writing bug bit my daughter. She wrote 3 more stories today...I'm glad I didn't turn it into an assignment. I'd probably have killed the urge. She's amazing.

The Frost Dragon

The Princess, with very little in the way of prompting, wrote a story for her little brothers today. It's a beautiful story about a fearful country, a dragon everyone thinks will eat them, and a little boy who comes to the rescue. She wrote it on the computer, but is not ready to share it with anyone else yet. I think tomorrow I may sit down with her and carefully suggest some self-editing. Once she says it's ready I'll ask for some illustrations and then print and bind it. It's truly a worthy story.

Scouting for a new troop

Our Boy Scout troop visit today went very well. We arrived just in time for their opening flag ceremony. There were only about eight scouts present, as most of the boys were with their families for Thanksgiving week, but two of them were Eagles.

The adults went out of their way to welcome us, to answer all our questions, and to invite us to join in. The boys just folded Shorty into their activities.

This is a very boy-led, boy-run group, and I think our family would fit in well there.

I don't know if Daddy wants to join, but Shorty was enthusiastic. I convinced him to join them in one of their activities and another regular meeting before we decide, though.

More on Thanksgiving

Apparently, she has a doctor's appointment Tuesday, so she's spending the holiday there at his aunt's house.

No idea yet whether Mom will actually be off or not, so...whatever.

Thanksgiving is cancelled, or something.

My sister got married last year, and I haven't seen her since. Last year, she spent both Thanksgiving and Christmas with her new husband and his family. This year, she was planning to come here for Thanksgiving and spend Christmas with his family, but now she's not. No reasonable explanation, other than our mother (maybe) having to work that day.

I understand that she may not want to come if we can't all be here, but I miss my sister. I haven't seen her in over a year. She's definitely not coming for Christmas, and I'm reverting to my 3 year old self whining about how unfair it is.

In light of this, I've advised Mom and Dad that if, indeed, Mom has to work on Thanksgiving, we're postponing our celebration until Sunday. If that does not work out, we'll just have our own celebration. It might be nice to cook a 10 lb turkey instead of a monster for a change.