Christmas decoration time

As soon as Thanksgiving is over, you can put the decorations up, so we did it today (28th) to get the most out of them before we return to England in 3 weeks.

CC shows a willing and helpful spirit in the build up to her first Christmas.

My good friend Goran (from Macedonia) helped us today. Jessie took this picture, and Goran asked me to remove it from the camera as it looked so awful. I have duely oblived by deleting it from the camera, having posted it to the blog.

Jessie finishes off her dance to the Michael Jackson song.

The crowning moment.

FDB 2008.

The Goke 2008.

Thanksgiving 2008

We shared Thanksgiving with our sehr gut friends ze Parkers. They are from Texas, and live below us. I cooked the turkey, whilst Christen cooked all the trimmings. It was delicious. BTW that's grape fruit juice in the glasses!!!
Mmmmm turkey.

Callie demonstrating how best to digest the lunch.

The chocolate dessert starts to take effect.

CC in November

Since Sienna has become much more mobile this last week, we now have a human wrecking ball in the house.

A funky little sleepsuit courtesy of the Give And Take.
CC was 9 months on 23rd November.

When the cats away (namely Jessie is at school) the mouse will play (namely CC goes into Jessie's room and assaults the forbidden dolls).

One day all this will be mine.

How to look like your Dad when he was a baby, minus the big ears and big nose.

Hangin' out with the 'In Crowd'.

HELPFUL HOME REMEDIES FOR MEN

AMAZINGLY SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES:

AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.

AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.

FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.

A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.

IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.

YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.

IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.

Random vignettes from November

CC's first lemon slice!

Sofa charging et al.

Woar.

Jessie's own attempt at face painting. Pretty striking stuff. She scared our little Korean neighbour with it in the hallway, and he ran straight into his mother's arms, while Jessie continued to growl at him much to my apologetic embarrassment.

Monkey Joes. Where kids can and do go beserk.

Harvest Party

Jessie's school had a Harvest Party on the day of Halloween, and the families were invited for an early lunch. Here's Winnie.
Pumpkin Skittles.

Each class did a little fancy dress parade around the school, which was probably even more fun for the parents than the kids.

There are lots of girls Jessie's age in our apartment block so she has a great time. Here's Amelia, Jessie, Avery, and Raylee.

In the evening we went to another Fall/Harvest party at a nearby church. We hope to have a similar fun and fancy dress event back in England in our future church as an alternative to Halloween.

Having mastered this trick earlier in the day at school, and then having done it three times at this church party, Jessie had plenty of donuts.

Yankee Candle Winter Wonderland

7th Heaven. Jessie finds a face paint artiste and for once mummy and daddy say ok.
The feline butterfly takes shape. This has to be one of the few times Jessie has sat still for more than a minute.

Jessie was delighted with the result, and kept going back to look in the artiste's hand mirror.

Dear Santa, please may I have make up and tattoos.

This is hardly a colour coordinated photo.

We had a divine visit from our dear friend Christine, and the only reason why we haven't posted more photos of her is because Christine was normally doing all the snapping herself.

FDB. Family Doyle Boston.

I can't wait for this Christmas to come, and visit our family in Britain.

Campus in late October