p-a-r-t-y

So, Cash had a milestone a few days back (9 days ago, to be precise). He celebrated his first birthday! We had family over to celebrate and it was pretty much a ploy to get all Ben's family squished into one room where they were forced to watch my boy toddle around on the rug and say nice things about him. Of course, to return the favor I made taco soup. And if that wasn't enough, we served birthday cake and ice cream. Since my family couldn't take time out of their "busy" schedules to come up and see their adorable little grandson on this momentous occasion, they have asked me to post some pictures of the evening's frivolities. Of course, these pictures don't come close to showing the true liveliness of the party. In fact, Uncle Jason even shed a single tear as he exclaimed,"I can only dream of hosting a party as full of love and laughter and merrymaking as this birthday celebration has been!" What can I say? I throw a darn good party.

How to Depress Yourself...

1. Download a not-so-flattering photo of yourself on MyHeritage.com in their "Celebrity Face Recognition" section.

This was the only picture I could find that fit all the "criterion". Most pictures of me have a kid's head blocking half my face. Unfortunately, this picture was taken while I was pregnant and camping (hence no make-up) in Yellowstone last year. Loverly.



2. Watch in anticipation while the Face Recognition Software does it's work...

3. Feel your dignity and self-esteem rapidly deflate and then disintegrate as you realize the high-tech software has decided you closely resemble this guy:



STEVE BUSCEMI!?? REALLY??? Ouch. Squared.

4. Post your Collage online in a sad and feeble attempt to re-fill the void that was self-worth by fishing for compliments in the form of blog comments.



Here's my Celebrity Collage:



Oddly, it doesn't make me feel any better that Christie Brinkley and Charlize Theron made it on my list. Because Stevie Buscemi as my TOP PICK? That's like finding a hair in your food at a restaurant. It ruins the whole enchilada.

if i had a million dollars...

...and a yard, i might consider having Santa bring a playhouse like this one for Maggie. (Heck, I might get one for myself).


Or maybe i'd prefer this one:


They even come complete with running water in the "kitchen":


Pretty crazy, huh? You can check out other "plans" here. For those of you who don't have childies, they make doghouses as well (ahem, cliff and erin, i think pepper NEEDS one of these. perhaps the swiss chateau?)

...and don't call me Shirley!

Saturday morning Aunt "Ya-Ya" decided to curl Maggie's hair. It turned out adorably and I kept calling her my little Shirley Temple... in fact, I looked up a few pictures online and this is the comparison. {Also while looking for photos I realized that Maggie and Shirley share the same birthday... Hmmm, maybe I should get some head shots done and sign her up for tapdance?}

Click!

So, as Ben clearly stated in his last post, I love taking pictures. I do. I enjoy documenting my life and the lives of my children. And some day when Ben develops Alzeihmer's, he'll probably finally appreciate it, too. So, that said, here are some of the newest downloads to our iPhoto library:

Christmas Tree 2007:



Ben has been dying to try an "upside-down" Christmas tree for years. Well, he finally got his wish this season. Merry Christmas, hun. It's actually been rather nice not having to constantly re-hang ornaments torn off by curious toddler hands. Plus it's a space saver in our rather small condo. I call it my evergreen chandelier.


On saturday we went to a production of "The Nutcracker" that Ben's neice Andelin performed in. Maggie was mesmorized by all the beautiful ballerina costumes. She pretty much sat through all 2 hours of the show- impressive for a super-hyper 2 1/2 year old.



Cash LOVES this little couch. He lounged around most of the weekend.



Rooftops

In need of a stronger toothpaste...

This morning while I was lying in bed, Maggie came in still rubbing her eyes and asked for a drink of water. I handed her the water bottle I had sitting on my nightstand, kissed her on the forehead and whispered, "Anything for my little girl!" Maggie wrinkled up her nose, pulled her head back and said, "I don't want to smell you!" Mmmm, love those early morning sentiments!

Mmmmm

That's all I could think of when I saw this:



Being one who is in love with Brie and bread, you can be sure I will be trying this recipe.

Enter the doldrums...

So, I've been in a sort of slump the past few days. This was going to be the year that I tried to make most of my Christmas gifts for others, but being the Queen of Procrastination that I am, I've hardly started on any of them. And it's the 4th of December. That means I have 20 days (much less for those items I need to mail out) to get these projects done, ready, and wrapped. But instead of feeling a certain sense of urgency, I instead have been feeling unmotivated, uncreative, and at times down right LAZY. I should be oozing Christmas spirit by now: our tree is up and trimmed, a Christmas album (Harry Connick, Jr.) is playing in the background, I'm drinking a Wintery Sweet and Spicy sort of tea (think orange, nutmeg, cinnamon), and I have a Cinnamon Apple candle burning on the stove. But still, I can't seem to pull it together. A list of things on my "Urgent" list:

-Finish making Christmas gifts (of which there are at least 6...)
-Make persimmon steamed puddings (my mom sent me home from Thanksgiving with about 12 persimmons which are all getting dangerously over-ripe)
-Get cards mailed out (I think that one will be nixed this year)
-Make and freeze sticky rolls for Christmas morning (this one can wait a couple of weeks)
-Make and deliver goodies to family/friends/neighbors

Hmmm, doesn't seem too long a list, but still. Well, here's hoping that tomorrow I wake up magically motivated. In the meantime I'm going to go sit down on the couch and watch "A Sesame Street Musical Celebration" with my kids. If Elmo can't get me motivated to do something useful, I don't know what will!

{UPDATE}
So, I guess that writing this post was sort of cathartic because I'm almost finished with 2 gifts, I have a loaf of banana bread in the oven, and I'm making a grocery list for items I need to make my steamed puddings. Let the Christmas season begin!