Holidaze

This is from our November trip to Texas. These are Jim's nieces Elyssa and Lainey. We had to run around behind Elyssa to get this picture -- she would not come sit with us. We basically tricked her. She's about 25 months here I think. Lainey is about 5 days and very sweet.


This is from last week in Arizona. Elyssa was trumpeting randomly and I said "oh you have a Doot Dee Doot!" I took one and trumpeted "Doot Dee Doot". She took it up immediately, so I told her to go show her uncle Jim. 30 seconds later I heard Jim say "oh you have a Doot Dee Doot!". I looked at Jim's brother and said "I know what Jim likes." (I'm holding Angel, see more below.)



"**yawn** it's three in the morning, why are you taking my picture?"

These people know how to party. They go to Christmas Eve Midnight Mass (some of us napped instead) and then open presents, and then eat. We sat down at the table at 3:10 am.

Then the real "party" is Christmas night when a hundred or so people wander through. I got to do a Lot of baby wrangling as mom and dad were busy. Angel didn't like that hat much. She's Jim's brother's brother-in-law's baby. Or something. Anyway this is her house and these are *her* toys and we had a good time. That's Elyssa (Jim's niece) again, and a 5 year old visitor who was very interested in the baby.



Later that night we've lost the hat. If you look really closely you can see me falling over sideways under Angel. I'm not really sitting on top of Elyssa, although eventually Angel starting body surfing.


"Okay, you kept us up until 4am the other night and now you're taking us hundreds of miles to sit us in the snow. What is up with you people?" This is Angel's dad Johan. He and I spent a lot of time bonding over Angel. He's a very nice guy and doing a great hands-on-Dad job.


I really didn't think I'd ever see Jim in snow. Oh yeah and that's the Grand Canyon in the background.

Speaking of cold and snow, we are both sick. Back to the couch with me. Happy New Year!