Pre-Christmas Goings On

I take a ridiculous number of photos of the horses. I've actually used it as a reason for being late to work. The horses were doing something adorable, I don't even remember what, probably rolling in mud or eating grass, I don't know, but I got distracted and ended up late for work. Actually, how it went down was, because I also use my camera for work, as I was uploading the work photos to my computer my brother saw the time stamp on the horse photos and totally called me on it. But come on, how cute is it when they lie down? I love this picture:That pile in the center is Admiral. The calf was really curious about him, and I kept waiting for Admiral to pop up suddenly and scare the bejeezus out of him.

So the holidays have us all pooped out already. We were grateful for a 2 hour delay of school yesterday to allow for a little extra sleep. Mark woke Sam up Sunday night to tell him to turn his alarm off so he could sleep in...No, I take that back. Mark woke Sam up by telling him to get up because he was late for school, and Sam jumped up in a stupor with a hearty shout of 'Elvis!' No idea what that was about.

Poor Lily is strung tight as a drum. I had such high expectations for her Daisy Scout Christmas Program.There were songs with little synchronized dances, songs with sign language, and they all had to memorize a line to a story. Lily's was :"Teach the children that the holly plant represents immortality. It represents the crown of thorns worn by our Savior." Ya, that's right, I remembered it by heart just now.

I was pumped about all the awesome pictures I was going to take. What actually happened was we arrived 'late,' though we were there in plenty of time. I was just at the edge of my wits because I'd been pounding this date and time into my head for about a month, along with 'don't forget the grab bag gift, wrap the grab bag gift, troop leader gift, holly Christmas tree ornament, red sweater, Santa hat, learn your lines, etc, etc ' and when it finally rolled around, things just weren't going smoothly. Hurried supper, rush to the church, forget the ornament in the car, blah blah, just petty annoyances. But on top of that, they put her in the back row, and I couldn't see her the whole damned time! Come on! Couldn't they have them all switch around for the different songs?

Ah well, I'm not a complainer mom. I'm a 'grateful-that-you're-doing-it-instead-of-me-I-know-how-bitchy-parents-can-be' mom, and other than that they did a really terrific job. Besides that, Lily was so tired and unenthusiastic, pale and hollow-eyed that she wasn't very photogenic anyway. My baby was tired!Aggie's schedule has been the easiest this holiday season. One grab bag and a tray of cheese and crackers.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to parking myself on the sofa all Christmas day, and sleeping in the day after Christmas and possibly the day after that. Or getting the crazies because there's stuff everywhere and my house is a wreck. Kind of a tradition, too.

Here's what's trappin':These came from the live traps Mark has set up at a nearby neighbor's house. She asked him to trap all the raccoons that have infested her property. I found out that the bait is tampons with vanilla on them. He took my tampons to trap raccoons. Didn't even ask first.

He uses other things too, I think, like actual food, and it's always a possiblity that you'll trap something other than what you're after such as a cat or an opposum.

Mark stopped by the office to see me last week and mentioned in passing that he had a 'possum in his van. And I was like 'really?' and 'I have to take a picture of it.' Before he opened the box I also asked him if he was going to skin it, since the fur buyers will buy 'possum and skunk and whatnot, and he said 'no' and I said 'why?' and then he opened the box and I saw that poor little ugly animal. So ugly it's cute. Then Mark was all 'Now do you see why I didn't skin it?' The one even had a stumpy tail, poor thing.

Actually, no worries; everything that he's trapped he's released. Even the raccoons are getting released at new locations so Mark and Jill can go hunt them another day.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!