Happy New Years' Eve!

And Happy Anniversary to Mama Nockinbird.  Perhaps the only New Years' Resolution I've EVER kept.  One year and counting!  Seriously, if you don't have a blog, you should!  What are you waiting for? 

I really need to do a Christmas recap (because it was a ridiculously FABULOUS Christmas), but the germies, they've gotten to me!  I woke up yesterday wondering why I had to even wake up.  Felt like I'd been hit by a semi.  I slept, or lost consciousness, all day.  Today, it feels more like I was hit a Volkswagon.  A step forward.  However, I was lax in my New Years' festivity planning, and now, here we are, with nary a hat, tiara, or noisemaker.  Little Miss is NOT pleased.  And, frankly, she's not really being very sympathetic either.  Just sayin'.

At least I had the forethought to purchase our "bubbly" during my pre-Christmas expedition to Walmart.  We will have plenty with which to toast 2011 as it rolls in at midnight...or 8:00pm local time.  Have you finished your list of 2010 Accomplishments?  Ready to roll with your 2011 Resolutions?  Me neither.  That's what I'll work on while Little Miss sleeps off her sparkling cider tonight. 

So, the Nockinbirds (including those of us who are NOT camera ready today) wish you a Happy New Year!
ps--I may not be camera ready today, however, I did manage to wax my eyebrows and lip in honor of starting the new year!  Such a feeling of accomplishment...and pain...sort of like a sacrifice...but still an accomplishment, of sorts!  Be good to us 2011!

Holidays are in full swing now!

Paper snowflakes are the only ones we're going to have for this Christmas.  Little Miss Fold and Cut was very taken with this new art project.  I suggested to Molly that she just empty the vacuum canister of the resulting tiny paper shreds to use as confetti for the New Years' party.  I don't think my mother fully appreciates my creativity.  Or the fact that the really fun paper cutting events always take place at her house. 

And what a rockin' house Molly and Papa have right now.  The McKinney Crew blew in today. The sugary treats abound at Molly's Holiday House and are much appreciated by the younger set.

The gumdrop tree was especially popular.

After cramming seven gumdrops into those squeezy cheeks, Molly pulled a killjoy and hid the sugar tree.  Three sets of teeth saved from the cavity monster!

My brother, the Holy-Blessed-Man-Child raided the liquor cabinet (above the dryer in the laundry room, behind the spray paint and florist foam), looking for the brandy.  Lacking appropriate glassware, he found Molly's Walmart-special plastic giant margarita glasses, complete with price tags, to stand in for a brandy snifter.  Classy, no?  Then he realized the first drink he poured was not brandy, but cognac.  He passed that over to Papa, and gave the right bottle a pour.  I think nonplussed would be an accurate summation.

Papa, on the other hand, seemed quite pleased amid the chaos!

So far, so good for the holiday...

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year...because we're out of school/work for two whole weeks!  Monday night we stayed up waaaaaay too late for moon viewing--total lunar eclipse, pretty cool.  But "cool" it has not been.  It was 85 for the winter solstice.  The first season change that I've actually been prepared to mark with a celebration dinner (that's one of my 42 by 41) and it was freakishly unseasonable.  I did make the best beef stew EVER, but we had the A/C on all day! We even had a ladybug roaming around the house!  She's up there above the smiley face.  We let her go outside...which may not have been in her best interest.  It's been pretty cool outside today...good luck, ladybug!

Little Miss and I had to get to the library today since it will be closed the rest of the break.  Lunch at McDonald's was called for, and, of course, it's never too chilly to eat outside near the playground.  We wore our matching jingle bell bracelets, but she felt her outfit really called for the Christmas tree pin I was wearing--con artist.

She's even perfected her "Who?  Me?" look.  Tomorrow she'll be asking to borrow the car.

Since one playground a day is never enough, we visited the Firefighter's Park/Playground for the first time today, also.

The equipment was limited, but we had it to ourselves and, since there's no shade whatsoever, it was nice and warm.  That probably won't be a plus any other time of the year, but in winter it's a plus.

I cannot get enough of that missing front tooth gap!

Since we were near the Square, Little Miss suggested we take a walk around it.  She's five and she enjoys browsing the shops on the Square...I never expected this.  My favorite parking space was open, and from it we saw that the Old Jail Museum was open...an adventure!  I just tried to put in a link to the museum, but there's not a website.  Sorry.  Hours are spotty, $2/adults, $1/kids.  They were having an open house today, so it was free (love that!) and the docents were most entertaining.  I hadn't been since 1985, and it seemed like there were more displays of local history this time.  I would like to go back and really look at it all.  Little Miss was preoccupied with the "ghost" that lives (?) upstairs.  Another 42 by 41 item on my list was to get involved in local history...geez, I guess I have to look into volunteering at the Jail Museum!?

Here's Little Miss standing in what had been the living quarters for the jailer and family.

I think she's scared straight.

We did get to see the "ghost" from the inside, but Little Miss would go no where near it, thank you very much.  Or as she would say, "Oh, for Pete's steak!"

There he is in the second story window!  A lovely half hour with local history.  Now, it was time to walk the Square!

Christmas photo ops abounded.  The gazebo was open and decorated, but the continuing work on the courthouse made it little less than picturesque.

This year, the Merchant's Guild put giant Christmas trees on the four corners of the Square and different merchants/groups decorated each one.  This was the most colorful, and thus the winner of Little Miss's Choice Award.

After making it 3/4 of the way around, we were ready for a sit-down.  And the kind people at Granbury Live! theater do have lovely outdoor seating.

There's that gap again!

We called Loverboy as we headed home.  He had just pulled into the Nature Center for a walk, but we convinced him to wait for us.  Playgrounds, shopping and now nature!  What a day!  It was pretty chilly by this point, but we took some new trails and saw some new sights.  I'm lucky to have two animal poop experts to walk with.  My  daughter, MY DAUGHTER!, who was hoofing along in front of me, said, over her shoulder, not even slowing down, "Watch out for the coyote poop.  It ate a lot of berries."  Well, thanks.

Berry festooned poop notwithstanding, it is a pretty place for a walk.

Life is good.  Holidays are good.

Someplace new...

There's a new restaurant in Nockinbird Town!  Hoffbrau has gone into the short-lived Mexican Inn building.  Yea and yum!  Not willing to let the grass grow under our feet or wait for the grease to get old, we hit the steakhouse tonight.

Little Miss was not overly impressed with her cheeseburger and steak fries, but she did enjoy eating a chunk of Loverboy's chicken fried steak (with her hands), especially when she cajoled him into sharing the cream gravy.  My seventh generation Texanne girl loves her some cream gravy!

But first in her heart is a bounce house.  I'm not sure what the connection is with a Spongebob bounce house and a steakhouse...but why ask why?

I'm not sure giving children an opportunity to bounce themselves after a meaty meal is the best gimmick...but it worked for us tonight.

Squidward looked a little worried about it, too.  Little Miss had it to herself for about ten minutes, then a herd of small people climbed aboard to demostrate their acrobatic daring.  It quickly became clear that our two choices had become a) leave and go home or b) wait ten more seconds and go to the emergency room for a cracked coconut.  We chose option a).

It's only Monday?

And X-TREME! we Nockinbirds have been for the last couple of days.  Little Miss had a cheer competition Sunday (!) morning..and I mean morning!  After a three hour practice Saturday morning, we settled down early because we had to be in Garland at 7:30!! Sunday morning!!!  I don't know that I've ever gotten up, on purpose, at 4:30 in the morning.  I do know I've never gotten up that early to go to a cheer competition...but I have now.

Trust me, her father and I did not look so chipper.  Nor was our makeup so well done.

They really seem to be getting the hang of the cheer-team scene.  I'm happy to report that no one was dropped from atop the pyramid.  And check out the Christmas tree hat in the foreground.  I wonder if it's some sort of all season hat...a witch at Halloween, a tree at Christmas, a carrot at Easter.  Genius.

And this time, there were trophies!

Makes getting up at 4:30 am worthwhile.  Did I mention she had a fever in the night?  But the show must go on!  Teamwork.  We planned on leaving as soon as her routine was done, but she'd turned a corner and we stayed to see the "big girls" cheer.  Oh!  And there was vomit, too.  Puked up her doughnut on the way up.  She does that so much with her mucusy allegies, she gives us advance warning and can wait for the proper recepticle to be found.  Such a trooper.  Apparently, there was a barfy virus going around the group that had sense to stay at a hotel in Garland, but we've been right as rain since the compeition.  No more fever either.  Quit judging me, Mother.  And I know you still are! 

Since we were paying spectators ($10 to park, $13 each to get in!) we were stamped with "SPIRIT," and we so are spirited!  There was a lot of spirit at the events center, too.  I finally got a picture of Little Miss there with Santa...she's in her full makeup and regalia...but still, picture with Santa...check!  And they each brought a toy to donate, which Little Miss really likes to do.

We went to Build-A-Bear (much to Loverboy's joy) after the competition where we accumulated yet another stuffed dog (welcome to the Nockinbird family, Sugar) and purchased a pre-made bear at her request to donate to Toys for Tots.

She seemed to enjoy chatting up the handsome young Marines as well.  After lunch at Olive Garden (what do they put in their salad dressing that makes it so ridiculously yummy?  Baby seal oil?) we tried to stay awake for the drive home...mostly successfully.  At cheer practice tonight, it all seemed like a surreal dream that I had seen all those people only 30 hours earlier. 

Other fun things that have been going on include:

This basket of deliciousness that arrived as a birthday present for ME from MawMaw.  I said for ME!  I'm pretty sure some people have been helping themselves when I'm not looking.

Speaking of things that are mine...some snoopy snoop found my pink rhinestone cat's-eye glasses and fell deeply in love.  I was afraid she was going to want to wear them to school the next day, having enjoyed the attention they drew while were eatting dinner out. 

Three and a half more days 'til Christmas break...three and a half more days.  Ho, ho, ho.

OMG...I'm 40!!?!

We've been in full Christmas swing around here, so we'll just let that lil' ol' birthday slip quietly on past.  Here Little Elf is putting the finishing touches on her Christmas tree. 

Saturday, we made it to a Build and Grow to work on the caboose of the train project that will involve the next couple of Saturdays.

I was hoping she would go with the Holiday Express sticker option on it, because, you know, we need another Christmas decoration.  But Little Miss preferred the Wild West package.

We braved the cold breezes to make a visit to Santa.  I thought this year she would jump right in and lay out her Christmas present demands requests, but she pulled up shy.

There were, however, several photo op locations she had planned for the day.

We warmed ourselves by the marshmallow roasting station.

At the library, we found our reindeer car's cousin.

Friday, her class went on a field trip to see Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.  The most fun was listening to the kids try to pronounce "abominable snow monster."

Since she had asked Molly to be a chaperone after I had signed on as well, and we had to take our own car to the show, we had a girls' day out after the show.  We found some fresh holiday greenery at Central Market...and a lot of delicious things to eat.  Little Miss has apparently expanded her palate to the enjoyment of smoked salmon and herb spread served on flatbread.  I had to pull her away from the sample table after she swiped her fifth sample.  Of course, we purchased those tasty morsels to bring home for dinner!

She had her school musical debut Thursday night in a K-6th production of Arrest These Merry Gentlemen.  It was unbearably cute...and unbearably long for squirmy kindergarteners who were, of course, in the front row.  Towards the last half, when they stood to sing, Little Miss threw in a lot of her own hand gestures and choreography.  My personal highlight was when she felt it necessary to unbuckle, adjust, then rebuckle her belt while standing and singing right there in the front row.  It was pretty amusing, too, when the little girl next to her on the end worked some part of her embellished shirt into a situation where she couldn't lift any of her arm except to bend her elbows.  She was flailing her arms around like the robot from Lost in Space.  It was, overall, a very good show.

Now I'm off to work on my "42 by 41" list of things to do in the next year.  I'll keep you posted.