Christmas Card Outtakes

We tried to get the kids out among the front yard decorations to get a good picture for the Christmas card this year.  Didn't happen - too dark, too blurry, to much tom-foolery.  There wasn't that one that was just right, but there were plenty that were pretty funny nonetheless:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Pre-Christmas fun

It got busy in December.  Here the kids are making cookies at the Brooks Museum holiday party.

And making more coolies at home.

The tree was decorated.

The mantle was turned into The Winterwonderland.

Phoebe was Rudolph in her school Christmas performance.  There she is, bottom right next to Kris Kringle.

She did great.  Stay tuned for the movie.

He's a good boy when he's not awake

Christmas Parade

The kids got bundled up for the annual downtown Christmas Parade.  It was great as always.  Jerry "The King" Lawler was the Grand Marshall.  Memmm-pphhis!

Santa Clause hi-steppers.

Rocky the Redbird right before he rode his bike over to give Phoebe a high-five.

More hi-steppers.  They are 90% of the parade after all.

Finally, two hours after the parade started, and after Phoebe and Frankie had caught their weights in candy and beads, Santa Clause finished things off.

Go Santa! 

Phoebe, who isn't fooled by fake Santas, was satisfied that this was the real McCoy.  See you soon.

Phoebe bakes

Here are two movies from Phoebe's Thanksgiving baking.  Last year was fun and who can forget Brown Sugar in My Eye from 2 years ago?!  Enjoy!

Brunch

Superdad and Phoebe had their first annual father-daughter holiday brunch.  After eating, we went and picked out Phoebe's Christmas present for her brother.  We went to the Beauty Shop because it's pretty fancy.

Bacon biscuit and homemade potato chips.

A banana-Nutella crepe for dessert.  I struggled to explain what a crepe is to Phoebe before it was served.  When she saw it, she asked, "Why didn't you just say that it is a chocolate quesadilla?"  Next time.
    

St. Jude Marathon

The St. Jude Marathon goes right through our neighborhood so we went down to the corner to watch the people run by.

It's not quite the scene as we used to have on 4th Ave. and Bergen St. along the NY Marathon route, but its big enough to be fun.  They had about 16,000 runners this year.

Phoebe climbed her favorite tree on the way home.

Employee of the Month

Phoebe came to work with Superdad the day before Thanksgiving.

Everyone wanted to know who hired the cute new Girl Friday.

There are two turkeys in this picture, but only one is hanging on the wall. Apparently, watching some street law is funny stuff.

With nothing but time on her hands, Phoebe did a lot of coloring. She even colored some pictures for Superdad's office pals. Here's the Richard Nixon she did for Goodman. He said it was the best gift he's received in years. I've seen some of his gifts, so I believe him.

And here's the Jimi Hendrix she colored for McCann. He first thought it was Paul Stanley without the star around his eye, but didn't want to say anything to Phoebe for fear of looking like an ingrate.

To reward her for all her good work, we walked down Main Street to The Peanut Shoppe for chocolate covered peanuts.

The working Mr. Peanut roaster makes the place smell pretty good.

Choices.

A bold statement.

A satisfied customer.

Back to back motherless weekends

The Lady of the House hit the road two weekends in a row!  One trip was for book stuff and the other for work.  Superdad had never had the kids by himself for two nights in a row, let alone two weekends.

Weekend 1 began with a trip to Wayne's Candy World to stock up for the trick-or-treaters.

Then a trip the the farmer's market where Frankie ate a donut...

and Phoebe painted a pumpkin.

Frankie was due for a haircut.

Friends kindly had us over for dinner.  That was a big help.  Get a load of this crew:

 

Band practice.

Day 2 of weekend 1.  Frankie always insists on getting a better view of his pancakes.  Check out the new haircut.

Stumbling to the finish line with a trip to the zoo before pickup up mom from the airport.

Snacks.

Weekend 2.  Superdad calls for back up and Mimi and Pop Pop roll into town to hang/help out.

We made the trip out to Collierville for lunch and to see the trains.

Lunch from Mensi's.

Burgers and shakes on the town square.

Our next door neighbors gave Phoebe their daughter's old bike.  Just in time too, because Phoebe was really outgrowing her old one.  About a month ago, Phoebe learned how to ride without training wheels.
 

It seems like we go to Dino's for spaghetti and meatballs every time Mimi and and Pop Pop are in town.