Nogs and Logs

Ho Ho Ho.

We attended the annual Proctor Elementary Holiday Program a couple weeks ago. They used a new format which shortened the run-time significantly, which was appreciated, but it made it difficult to get a decent picture of our eldest, who was stuck in the back.  

She's the blond on the left.

Lucy was right at the front of the stage though, which made her the photographic center of attention. She performed well, despite being stuck between a couple of yule-log Saxons throughout the duration. Those two boys spent most of  two numbers throwing fake snow at each other with Lucy between them. 5-year-old Neanderthals, that's what she has for schoolmates.

 

 

 Then we had Christmas. Here are a few pictures of children, delighting in the holiday consumerism. We are grateful that they are still at an age in which they don't realize or care that a good many of their gifts come from the thrift store or craigslist.

We thought that our eldest had figured out the true nature of Kris Kringle. She told us a couple times that she knew who Santa Claus was, but when she came downstairs at 4:15 AM, she said, "Look what he brought!"

Good Pictures after a Bad Day

I hate that I feel guilty for having a good day yesterday.  I got accepted to grad school.  I worked at the hospital.  I went home and saw my three beautiful daughters and gave them all hugs and told them that I loved them.  There are some parents in this world that will be going quite some time without having a good day.  I'm sorry.  These are pictures from a recent trip we took to Austin to see my sister and her lovely family, who are also all alive and well. 

 

Nora's expression is due to the fact that she caught that fish, but she didn't know how to not express emotion in front of her intimidating Uncle Adam.

 

Thank You, Independence Youths

So, we've been using our wood-burning stove. We like it. It keeps our little house toasty warm and it feels like winter and we don't have to pay nearly as much in gas. Win win win. Well, the other day, I scooped out the ashes, as is necessary with wood-burning stoves and I deposited those ashes in the garbage on the side of our house. There were a couple of tiny glowing embers. I've done this before. About 10 or 15 minutes later, we left to go to church. As I walked to the car. I opened up the trash bin to deposit my caffeinated soda can. I noticed that there was smoke in the bin. I thought to myself, "I better let the heat from those embers dissipate." So I opened the bin, and we left for church.

Well, it turns out, that rather than dissipating the heat, I actually added the third essential element of fire production. We already had some heat. We already had some fuel. We had only been lacking oxygen. 

The rest of the story comes to us via our next-door neighbors. Says Mel: "I guess some kids were driving by and saw a fire and they stopped and tried to find your hose, but since you don't have an external spigot, they knocked on my door, but our hose didn't reach, so they filled up your bucket there and and we got it mostly out, but by then the fire department had shown up and spread it around to make sure it was all out."

We had two, big, blue, plastic trash bins. This is what was left of them when we got home:

If you look close, you can see the rod that used to connect the wheels of the other bin that was totally consumed.  Amazingly, the only damage to our house was a little bit of bubbled paint on the wall. The wooden overhanging carport was undamaged. The nearby truck was unscathed.
Lesson: If you're going to stupidly leave fire hazards around your house, make sure you do it while you're at church.