It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

(A post once a quarter? I need to do a little better than that)

I'm ready for Christmas. While I was rushed for a while, it seems so easy now that the gift-buying is done. AND the gift-shipping to Texas is done - that was a big sigh of relief to get out the door.

Since holidays are now just our little nuclear family, there doesn't seem to be very much pressure. No worries about where you need to be by when. Jim and I don't really give each other gifts, and gifts to grandparents tend to not be elaborate (hey, they don't need more "stuff" in their houses any more than we do!). I had one day a week or so ago where I just pounded out all my shopping online. The only thing I'm behind on is getting Christmas cards out, but for some reason I've gotten very lenient the past few years on getting them out on time. I figure people will still like receiving them even if they don't arrive until Dec 28.

I can't really do any baking because I no longer have a stand mixer.

So here's to kicking back and enjoying time off with my kids and my husband.

We have had a few snowfalls already this December, but this one last Saturday was the coolest. Individual snowflakes could be seen. 

Our new little snowmen decorations. Toilet paper rolls and tube socks!

Advent calendars. In addition to these three, we have the button one and a snowman one. Definitely have to trade off between who does the Lego one and who gets the chocolate.

 Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

Grace said she didn't care about figuring out her presents early. Until they showed up under the tree. Now she is going crazy shaking boxes.

Merry Christmas!

Year of the Cicada

So as most everyone knows, we had the emergence of the 17-year cicadas here in the Northeast this Spring. Creepy things - a couple of inches long with weird red eyes.

We dreaded the arrival of them. Tolerated them when they were here. I can't say I miss them now that they are gone, but looking back on it I'm glad we were here to experience them.

They were all over the place. Making Grace and her friends squeal on the softball field when they flew into them.  All over my tires when I came out of the eye doctor office (can't explain that one). Hanging all over plants around the neighborhood. We were expecting there to be swarms of them that would keep us in the house. There an incredible amount of them, freaking some people out, but at least at our house they weren't overtaking us (though I did have one friend tell me she had so many at her house that at one point her ground was "undulating" with so many crawling across it - ick).

This is a video I took of the sound they made. For weeks the droning noise was constantly in the background. This was taken near the end when it was so loud you heard it not only outside but also in the house with the doors and windows closed. It was very much like an alien invasion movie was playing outside.

But after a couple months of no-bug silence, the last phase of the cicadas have shown up. All of a sudden these dead branches started appearing in trees around town (if you enlarge the second photo below you can see them better). I thought it was stress on the trees from the heat wave we had a few weeks ago, but it's apparently where the females had laid eggs in the trees. The babies are now dropping down to bury themselves into the ground to wait out the next 17 years until they once again emerge to mate, lay eggs and die again.

It was creepy and weird but utterly fascinating, and something to talk about in 17 years when we get ready to see them again.

Happy Mother's Day to me

 Love these kiddos that allow me to celebrate this day...

 Wouldn't trade them for anything!