Better Left Untaken

Let me set this up: Six kids-less parents livin' the life in Victoria. We took a trip to visit Butchart Gardens where they have these cool totem poles. The idea was to create our own totem pole and get a photo with the real one in the background. And then everyone who saw our photo would say, "aren't those the funnest, most creative group of friends their ever was . . . ." and then they would trail off wishing they were us. Once we kinda got our concept we grabbed the first english speaking tourist we could find to snap our shot. And then we waited while she tried to figure out what button took the picture and what button might start a nuclear war. And this is what we got . . .

First off, look how our "photographer" cut off the totem pole. Now it looks like Amy just gave birth to a blind 33 year old woman with the Rockettes rooting her on!

Christmas Decor: An Obsession

Did you enjoy all those amazing posts about all the fun advent activities that I planned for my kids? What was that? You never saw them? Weird. I am sure that Martha Stewards spies intercepted them in the world wide web and are now planning my demise. OR with all the busyness of the season, I stumbled into bed every night with a candy cane stuck to my hair. (It's like a choose your own adventure). And now I've started the New Year out with a nasty cold that has invaded Phoebe and me. We are like the walking dead around here. And to top it off my husband who does 90% of the work around here is in Savannah, Georgia. He'll be home soon and we all can't wait to eat again.

I really should have recorded what my house looked like after Christmas because it was horrendous. Horrendous is really too kind of a word, really it looked like Santa ate his toy bag, drank bad eggnog and then threw up in my living room. And then I was so overwhelmed by the vomit I just sat in it for a few days. The new toys have mostly found their place in the house but the tree is still up and the lights are still on and well I like them. And the house feels full and complete when it's all fancifived.

I'm sorry most of my pictures are blurry. And while I'm at it, I'm sorry that I even feel the need to apologize about them. I broke my regular lens for my "good" camera and have been using the zoom lens to get by. Which means that I have to stand in the next country to take a photo and hold my breath so that it won't be fuzzy. I can. not. stand. how pictures look when using a flash and because of that and my lens issue . . . blurry (blah!)

Here are just a few corners of the house that made me smile this holiday.

The kids and I made these little paper NOEL banners as gifts this year.