In The Mind of A Thirtysomething Mom

From Our House to Yours

Merry Christmas

From our lily pad to yours,

Merry Christmas!

The Case of the Disappearing Mr. Penguino

Glory be!  Mr. Smoochiefrog pulled out a Christmas miracle and temporarily fixed my computer.  Lucky me!  Now you can see some of the pictures I've taken today.  :)

Last year, I bought a lighted penguin for our front yard that looks similar to this:

(Photo courtesy of Target.com)

The only difference is that our penguin has a red hat and a blue scarf.  Mr. Penguino stands 18" (just so you have a point of reference).

We've been under the attack of a nasty winter storm since last night.  Early this morning around 10AM, I took the following picture of our front yard:

You can see Mr. Penguino hanging out in a snow drift that comes up to his penguin nickels, as K likes to call them.  (If you need help translating, email me and I'll explain)

A little while after I took that picture, I went back out to check on Mr. Penguino and this is what I saw:

As you can plainly see, Mr. Penguino was now beak high in snow.  We figured he's probably quite comfortable as this is his normal habitat.

1.5 Hours later:

Mr. Penguino was now fully submerged in snow, leaving only his hat to identify where he stands.

About 3 hours later as I came down to check my email for Nutcracker updates (please God let them cancel tomorrow's performances), I stuck my head out and saw:

The cotton fluff of his hat was all that was visibly left of him.

I'm really curious as to what will happen once the Christmas lights come on at 5:30 EST.  Here's how Mr. Penguino looks when he's lit up:

 

If you go back through the pictures, you can also see our magically disappearing candy cane lights.  They now are little pink patches of glowing snow:  :)

As long as someone doesn't walk or sled over the decorations, it'll all be okay.

If you're stuck in this mess, Smoochiefrog family prayers are with you that everyone will be warm and safe.

I will be back next week, barring computer issues, to share the videos of K being an angel in the church Christmas program.  Cuteness overload, seriously.  :)

Have a great weekend!

She Posts!

I know, I know, I suck at updating my blog.

Would you like to know why I've been a major fail queen at doing said task?

I'll list 5 possible reasons I've not been posting; you guess which 3 one is incorrect.

1. My computer died; twice.
2. I've been on vacation, and internet connection was spotty at best.
3. Since the end of November, I've been home all day long for only 3 days due to all the dance rehearsals/performances.
4. I've been running around buying Christmas presents.
5. I've been cleaning the house to prepare for holiday company.

If you're still stumped, I'll let you know that #2 is only in my dreams.

I don't even want to admit this, but #3 is so correct I'm amazed Mr. Frog remembers what I look like.  In fact, I'm on the run for the rest of the week with rehearsals tonight, tomorrow, and Friday and performances Thursday, Saturday, and twice on Sunday.

I never thought I'd say this, but thank God for Monday!

Before you suggest I remove the girls from dance, they want to do this.

Let me repeat that:

THEY. WANT. TO. DO. THIS.

Nothing says I have to be happy about being a taxi though.  :P

As if all the Nutcracker stuff isn't enough:

• The girls had a dance performance on Saturday for their studio.  They both danced beautifully, and I'd love to share video but I can't (more on that below).

• K had a church Christmas program Sunday, so they've had rehearsals for that.  K was the smallest angel, and was the star/ham of the show!  B was a wise man in the same show and did his part perfectly.

• B has a school chorus program tonight, so I'll be dropping M off at Nutcracker rehearsal, flying to the school for that, and flying back to pick up M.

• D arrives into town on Saturday night.  Again I'll be leaving M at Nutcracker to go to the airport to pick him up, only to fly back to the venue to pick up M.

• My dad arrives next Wednesday.

• We're still not finished decorating for Christmas.

• My computer is dead, for the second time.  I'm typing this on Mr. Frog's computer, and we're both miserable about this arrangement.  All my pictures, videos, and bookmarks are on my deceased computer.  Mr. Frog doesn't get his massive gaming time once the tadpoles are in bed.  We all make sacrifices, but this one really sucks.  I can't even get the video/pictures from this past weekend off my camera.  ARGH!  The first time it died, it was resurrected with a new hard drive.  This time, it's not so easy.  

I don't know if I'll have the opportunity to get back on here and post again before the New Year.  I'll just go ahead now and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Y'all have a great one!