Christmas Cabin

Christmas! We drove down to southwest Georgia, within spittin' distance (this is how distances are measured in this part of the country; time is measured in years elapsed since the Civil War) of Alabama and the Florida panhandle. Grandpa and Grandma (gimma and gimpa) rented side-by-side cabins (one for us, one for them and Aunt Georgina and Uncle Mike) in Seminole State Park on a nice lake in the woods. Population: us. Nice!



The good news: we escaped the extremely frigid air and snow in the mid-Atlantic; a blizzard descended on North Carolina and all points north of it and we got out of town just in time.  The bad news: while not extremely frigid in south Georgia, it was still plain old regular frigid. 



The highlight of our Christmas cabin was that it backed right up to a nice lake full of ducks.  And, you know, water.



Benjamin has learned several holiday-related words and phrases in the past couple of weeks, including Chichis yites (Christmas lights), Chichis tree (Christmas tree), and Santa (Santa).

Christmas morning we had orange rolls, turkey bacon, chocolate croissants, and scrambled eggs.



Everyone was bubbly with excitement.

Presents!  Unlike last year, when he just drooled on the wrapped gifts and then played with the wrapping paper, this year he got with the program and tore into his presents.  And then he drooled on them.

He got a baby laptop (a.k.a. a "ta da" for the noise they make when they start up).  It teaches letters and animals and plays music, and you can even send him an e-mail.  Maybe now he'll stop trying to push the buttons on Daddy's tada?

He also got an Elmo doll.  It's his favorite Sesame Street character.  It's not a Tickle Me Elmo, which apparently makes horrifying noises.  This is Happy n' Mute Elmo.



The highlight of the trip: searching for sticks and getting Daddy to fling them into the lake.  He woke up in the morning and the first thing out of his mouth was "Sticks-water!"

Check out my festive Chichas sweater!  Merry Chichas, y'all!

Pittsburgh and San Francisco

I made my quasi-semi-annual migration to the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco two weeks ago.  Aunt Megan and Uncle Brian gave Claire and Benjamin some frequent flier miles so they could travel to Pittsburgh to visit while I was gone.  Benjamin got to hang with his cousin Marcus.  They had a rockin' jam session on the piano.

It was a "p-jam" jam session (Get it?  P-jam?  As in p-jammies?  Never mind.)

They made a trip to the museum to see some dinosaur bones.  Now Benjamin refers to all pictures of dinosaurs, including those with flesh, as "disaur bones."

A little bit of Pittsburgh wintertime.

He recently discovered that you can see your breath when it's cold!  A couple of weeks ago, he stopped talking in mid-babble when he first noticed this phenomenon.

Meanwhile, I was hanging out with 18,000 (really) geoscientists in San Francisco at AGU.  Presenting my student's and my research projects and finding out what other folks are up to.  There are waaayy to many people at AGU, but it's a great way to meet future collaborators and see what other folks are doing, research-wise.  I met old friends, colleagues, teachers, and the occasional evil arch-enemy ("So, we meet again Chadwick. This time you will not escape my wrath with your trickery!  Doom upon you!  Doom upo-- cough cough cough."). 

After the conference, San Francisco is a great place to wander around.  This is Union Square, all decked out for the holidays.

I also found a great crepe shop in my wanderings. Strawberries, kiwi, and banana with ice cream and strawberry sauce.

 

Wandering around the city is fine, but you don't want to wander too far away from the touristy areas...



Santa 2.0

Santa came to Benjamin's daycare center again this year. It's the same Santa, but is it the same kid?



 



Solstice-Related Holiday Preparations

Christmastime is upon us once again.  As academic folk we always have very busy Decembers (final exams, grading, AGU conference, etc.) and Christmas always sneaks up on us.  By the time we pull our heads out of our backsides and look around, it's already late December.

We've had our first fire in the fireplace.  It's not Benjmain's first fire ever, but it's the first this year and the first that he can point to and say "fire."  And since he was immobile last winter, it's also his first opportunity to immolate himself in a fiery conflagration if we don't keep an eye on him.



We've had a few opportunities to hit the mall and join the frenzy.  I grew up near the Tysons Corner mall in northern Virginia, and I always enjoyed going to the mall at Christmastime, as odd as that may sound.  I was a "local" and so I had a secret parking area that allowed me quick access to the mall, so parking wasn't a problem (and I usually didn't have to deal with those scary people that stalk you in their car as you walk back to your parking spot).  Glittery decorations and holiday hustle and bustle is cheery fun for me in small doses.

We've survived our first horrible pestilence of the holiday season.  A couple of weeks ago we were all on Amoxicillan all at once.  Claire and I had three strep tests between the two of us, all negative.  Nevertheless, we were treated for strep.  The doses were calibrated for our various body masses, but the bottle sizes were not.

We picked up a nice tree.  I have this dream that someday we will get a permit from the National Forest so we can have a memorable family walk through the snowy woods to find the perfect wild tree.  But this year we got it from the Home Depot parking lot.  It is notable for the fact that the tree farmer didn't trim all of the branches in order to shape it into a perfect conical shape.  I like a little natural-looking fuzziness in my Christmas trees.  Also in my cats.

We lugged out the ornaments.  Benjamin was more interested in their value as toys than their intended decorative application.  We kept the spiky and breakable ones and the ones with sentimental value away from him as best we could.  But he's sneaky and fast.

He helped a bit with the decorating.  This primarily involved struggling to put ornaments on the tree, taking them off again, and then struggling to put them back on the tree again.

Merry Christmas!

You Can Put Your Arms Down at School

The winter solstice is approaching.  The cold weather is here.  Time to overbundle the kid!


"My kid brother looked like a tick that was about to pop."



Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] Meanwhile, I struggled for exactly the right BB gun hint. It had to be firm, but subtle.

Ralphie: Flick says he saw some grizzly bears near Pulaski's candy store!

[everyone stares at Ralphie]

Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] They looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears.

Turkey 'n Spuds

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Benjamin's daycare served up some culinary fun that might have been called "Parents: Come Feed Your Own Damn Kid Some Lunch for a Change", but instead it was called the "Thanksgiving Potluck," or something like that.
We served up a heapin' helpin' of delicious Thanksgiving favorites.  Benjamin responded with this face:

Kids, Mommies, and, me.



The kid sitting next to him kept grabbing at his food.  You wouldn't think it would be that easy to steal food from a renegade Indian, but Benjamin was all too happy to share.  He was only really interested in the pie.

The Real Turkey Deal on Thursday.  We hoofed on up to Blacksburg, over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's (and Grandfather's) house we went.

Here's Grandpa and his oven mitts and the Bird.

The oven mitts were one of the many new attractions for Benjamin.

Grandma and Grandpa also bought him some swell new toys and a new bed.



Aunt Larissa and Uncle Eric got in on the the cooking, and Bob and Dee Leggett drove down from Great Falls to join the festivities.

A holiday devoted to giving thanks for all we have (wonderful family and friends) and all we don't have (gonorrhea).  Ultimately it's about the joys of feasting and gluttony, and giving thanks for elastic waistbands.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Thing About Those Pretty Fall Leaves Is, They Fall.

We may not have New Hampshire's maples or Colorado's aspens, but we do have a few colorful trees in Charlotte in November.  Mostly we have oaks, which turn from a dull green in summer to a vibrant dull brown in autumn.  But we also have some maples that are nice.  They is real purty.

Then they all start to come down.  And they don't stop falling until all 89 trillion of them are on the ground.

That's when the crack team of leaf removers steps in.

Benjamin very much wants to pitch in and help, but the rakes are Daddy-sized and he is Spud-sized.  Plus, he doesn't quite get the concept.  He may actually remove more leaves from the pile than he adds.

The reward for his exertions is a fun ride in the leaf tarp.