Lila begins to scale a mountain of presents at Nana's. Merry Christmas!

Eating puffs off of a platter at Great Uncle Rick's house -- happy holidays!

Lila on the baker's rack

Holiday card

Back in November, Abby, Nana and I conducted a photo shoot in preparation for our holiday card. Abby had also tried earlier in the day on her own, but hadn't had a ton of luck. I ended up putting the camera on continuous mode while Abby and Nana tried their best to entertain the kids and get them to smile. I counted all the pictures later that night. All told, we took about 250 (on continuous, you're grabbing a few each second -- but still). About 5 had the kids smiling at the same time, and I think only 2 had them smiling and looking in the same direction. Wow. So the first picture below is the one we actually used. Then I put together a little slideshow of some of the outtakes. Enjoy!

Brandon thinks sneezes are hilarious

Thanksgiving

It's been nice to have a few extra days off with the kids. I'm sort of looking forward to the relative predictability of the office, as opposed to the complete unpredictability of... kids chasing the dog, kids pulling each others' hair, kids eating paper, kids not napping, dogs eating bottles, dogs eating toys. On the flip side, I haven't had any meetings since last Wednesday, and I can tickle the kids. I can't tickle my co-workers. I mean, I can, but I probably shouldn't. If I do, this blog will likely take a clear, "I'm looking for a job" slant.

Also, having another adult in the house is like a drug. Abby's mom was here for a full week. She headed back to Florida on Saturday. So now we're in withdrawal. I'd write more if my eye wasn't twitching so much. Abby's dad and brother are coming this weekend -- heads up gents, guests get first watch with Alex and Brandon, and those boys like to haze the house guests.

So, Thanksgiving was great. Nana and Papa hosted a whole host of guests. The kids got to try pretty much everything. I think pumpkin pie and persimmon pudding (a family tradition on my dad's side) seemed to go over the best. Here's a recipe you can try. It's probably not exactly my family's recipe, but it looks pretty close.

Here's a pic of the kids in their Thanksgiving outfits :-)

Alex's marathon crawl