Here it was pretty warm and merry and cheerful. The kid happily zipped through his presents. The dinner came together pretty easily. And we enjoyed some darn good family time.

One more holiday left to celebrate. One more week left in the year. I hope your day was peaceful and joyful.

I’m trying to get back into taking photos. I’m mad at my camera so I’ve been giving it the cold shoulder. Instead, I really should give it some TLC and try to milk some more time out of it. I was “this close” to buying a new one several weeks ago, but the economic crap is hitting us hard. So, yeah. Patience, which I have none of, is the thing I need to concentrate on.

So because I still don’t understand my flash very well I decided to play around a little bit with the closest willing model. I actually took my 50mm off for a bit too. I grabbed my Tamron and played with the 17mm “almost fisheye” aspect. Bounced the flash off the wall behind me. Maggie is so tolerant. Lucy, on the other hand, came in, walked around the chair* a few times and exited.

*My $3 bargain chair that I scooped up at the employee store the other day.

I’m a total germ magnet. I had one year, maybe two or three years ago, where I made it through the season basically unscathed. The rest of the time I slog through colds and flus and general misery, cursing my body for being so stupid as to actually succumb to the invaders. I eat fairly well. I exercise. I try to get enough sleep. I try to stay hydrated. Yet none of that seems to matter.

I felt the latest cold hitting me on Saturday evening. I actually pulled my car into the gym parking lot but I was exhausted and the lot was packed so…away I drove. This time I decided to arm myself. I headed to the store and grabbed a big bag of Vitamin C drops and some zinc lozenges. And I started popping them. In the morning I took some decongestants to add some firepower to the battle.

And I do believe this is actually working!

I pulled my butt out of bed at 5:30 this morning and I had a decent amount of energy. And other than sneezing a few times a day, I’m seemingly crud-free.

I won’t declare a total victory just yet. We’ll have to see how the defenses work the next time the kid brings some goop home from daycare. But I have very, very high hopes!

After going slightly crazy trying to find small, cheapish items that weren’t made of chocolate to tuck into last year’s advent calendar, this year I went with a Lego version. Every day he opens a door to reveal a small Lego toy that’s part of a so-called theme. This year’s theme seems to be food related (barbecue grill, ice cream cart, hotdog stand), but then how do you explain this cat caught in a tree? (Or the scuba diver hiding behind yesterday’s door? Scott explains that he must be diving for fresh lobster.) I have to admit that I’m nearly as excited as he is to find out what’s inside each day.

Anyone who has even the vaguest of interest in my doings the past day or two has seen a number of skins on this blog. That’s because I’m feeling limited. And hating it. WordPress has a lot of pluses to it, but the theme selection is not one of them. So I keep playing around trying to find one I like.

I’m going to have to give in at some point and get the .org version. This is driving me batty!

He does, you know.

He’s a flirt.

He’s a comedian.

He’s a smarty-pants.

He’s a rebel.

He’s a boy of many opinions.

He’s a pouter.

He’s a charmer.

He’s a helper.

He’s an enthusiast.

He’s a picky eater most days.

He’s adventurous on others.

He’s a child of little patience. (Well, aren’t they all?)

He’s a master of persistence.

He’s a quick study.

He’s a giggler extraordinare.

And he’s mine!

This year he was excited about the tree again, but he wanted to put ornaments on this time around. I tried to explain to him that we would have a hard time finding some that would work, but we could try. So we were browsing through the holiday decor when we can across a 12-pack of birds with clips, which he really liked. There were other styles that we found, some with trees, some with snowflakes. But he loved the birds. And I thought they had potential.

So we strung the lights on the tree. New multi-colored lights per his request. (We needed a shorter strand anyway.) And then we adorned his tiny conifer with sweet little songbirds. He was thrilled. And that night he said to me, “Momma, I’m glad there are birds on my tree. I like having them in my room. And now I won’t dream about any bears.”

I’ve never in my life made a gingerbread house. Much less a gingerbread train. It always seemed too daunting a task. It actually wasn’t that bad. But who knew that it would only last a microsecond? That kid sure does like his sugar!

Long after Dev and Scott had trotted away, I was still mooning over the meerkats. They make me giggle. So small and furry and serious. This guy was solo, but the others were all stacked up in a crazy pile. No one was around (because who wants to go to the zoo when it’s freezing?) and I contemplated climbing over the rail and sneaking one home with me. Really I did.