Winter has arrived . . .

Outside our favorite nursery, Edwards Greenhouse. Today was their annual Holiday Open House. In years past, our main goal was to see Santa. As the girls have grown, they go for the treats and I go for the most brilliant display of poinsettias you have ever seen. Unless you are lucky enough to live on a tropical island, say Hawaii, you have probably never seen such a variety. They have some that are taller than Emma. ( I failed to take a picture of one of those, so I may have to drag myself back for another visit!)

Hanging out after seeing the head jolly old elf. I am so thankful Katy plays along with the idea of sitting on Santa's lap. Emma is still a believer and we have to keep up appearances!

One of my many favorite displays. Check out the amazing pink poinsettias. The cabbage/kale matched perfectly.

Pretty in Pink

Before I forget, the real reason we left the house today . . . Santa making a few adjustments before the professional started snapping photos.

And the winner is . . .

Here it is . . . the winning picture for the Boise School District Christmas card contest! Emma's was chosen out of a field of 1,400 submissions.

Emma holding onto her "muse," Pee Wee. He was the inspiration for the design on the card.

Pee Wee looks pretty happy to have achieved celebrity status---so does that cute little red-head! Way to go, baby girl!

In case you didn't notice, Emma is a pretty happy young lady right now. We were notified last week that her design had made it into the top 100. That news got her a free ticket to the Festival of Trees, the sponsor of the contest. After the call yesterday informing us of her "top winner" status, we found out Emma had won a family pass into the Festival, 50-100 copies of the card and a presentation by the Superintendent of the school district in her classroom next week. That is a great deal of attention for such a sweet little girl and she is enjoying every minute of it!

Birthday Boy . . .

Alaska Christmas 1962

Etta, Troup and 1 month old Eric!

Eric in Willow, Alaska 1963. Kind of looks like Emma, doesn't he!

On the docks in Juneau, 1970. Love those striped pants!

Eric's brother Greg, Eric and Paul at the airport in Kona. No date on the photo, maybe early 80's. Check out those legs!

Leavenworth, Washington 1978. Looks to be in his John Lennon phase.

Today is my husband's birthday. 48 candles this year! We celebrated a bit this morning with breakfast and gifts. The girls gave him a new "old guy" game controller for the Wii. He said it will be easier for him to use--I guess his hand-eye coordination "just ain't what it used to be!" I gave him a Lynyrd Skynyrd CD. Eric was googling them the other day. He played some of their You-tube clips and was reminiscing. He was so shocked to find out that I had never purposely listened to that group. That kind of music was not allowed in our house. Really. I listened to Olivia Newton-John, the Osmonds and country music. Heck, the first album I bought with my own money was Barry Manilow! It just goes to show that opposites do attract. I, for one, am sure glad they do!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

We love you!

PS. He looked good rocking out this morning with Skynyrd blasting out of the Mac. I caught Katy doing a little toe-tapping of her own! Heaven help us . . .

I think we are going to be late for school this morning . . .

Eric, Katy, Emma and I just returned from watching Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.  We were able to catch the midnight show!  It sold out yesterday--all nine screens at the theater were showing Harry!  So many people there.  Mostly high-school and college-age kids.  A great atmosphere--everyone was excited and there were several people dressed as characters from the series.  Katy and Emma even reprised their "roles" from Halloween.  Too much fun.  The movie was great.  Really looking forward to July . . .

Blurry shot, but I kind of like what it did to the girl behind Emma.  Maybe she was disapparating . . . 

Fabulous Fall Fun . . .

The fun you can have with leaf bags from the Home Depot!

Emma, Katy and her friend Lily goofing off in the big ol' pile of leaves.

It was a beautiful day in this neighborhood today.  I believe it reached 70 degrees--pretty nice raking weather for sure!  I was cleaning up my flower beds when I dropped a bag (paper, not plastic!) over Emma's head.  That lead to her "walking" around the front yard, purposely trying to bump into things.  Katy and Lily were inside working on a fundraising project for the school library(more on that when it actually comes to fruition.)  They looked out the window and giggled for a few minutes before deciding to join in the silliness.  A short round of tag while wearing the bags was followed by "bury" each other under the leaves and it concluded with several rounds of jumping into the huge pile.  It took about an hour before they wore themselves out.  

A quick recap of our week:

          *Only 3 days of school.  Parent/Teacher conferences took place Wednesday night and all day Thursday.  We went early Thursday to receive the great news--straight A's for both Katy & Emma.  This is Emma's first year to get letter grades.  Pretty exciting.  

          *Katy & Eric won $75 for the pumpkin they decorated for the orthodontist office.  I tried to talk Katy into applying that to our monthly bill for her braces, but she just wasn't going for that idea.  Instead, she bought a super cute metal lunchbox for $12 and stashed the rest.  

          *The girls and I went to the animal shelter to check in on some Dachshunds that were rescued.  Check out the story here.  The dogs were not available for us to walk as they were being nursed back to health and undergoing various medical procedures.  We were able to locate a really sweet male Dachshund in the kennels, his situation unrelated to the rescued dogs.  We took him out and he walked the yard a bit.  After I sat down, he jumped up and tried to take a nap on my lap.  He was so cute.  Katy really wanted to keep him.  I told her she could check on his fees at the desk.  Well, he is a purebred and that will set you back $300.  We did not come home with a new pet, suffice it to say.  Katy did donate $10 of her winnings to the shelter.  It was hard for her to leave.  On our way out, we did stop in and check out the cats.  Emma really enjoyed watching a pair of kittens playfully knock each other around.  She thought they might be a fun addition to the house until she saw their little claws.  "Too dangerous!" she declared.  Yeah, and the fact I am no cat lover pretty much sealed that deal.   

I am sure other things happened this week, but I can't come up with anything else.  Enjoy your weekend!  I'll try to write again soon.