You Are Being Replaced, My Dear Lover.

Someone got kicked out of the garage and onto Craigslist. Out with with old, in with the new, I guess. I'm going to miss old Tithing Van. Seriously. I'm really going to miss her, and it was great while it lasted.


But the new Honda van is much sexier and younger, and it's time to move on.


Merry Christmas to me!! A new dryer and a new van, all in a few weeks time? I think I just might piddle!

Buying cars from dealerships is tortuous. We were there all day, and into the night. Abby and Jacob were with me for most of that time. At one point, an employee gave Abby a giant red balloon. The fun lasted a while. The next day, Sarah asked where the balloon came from. "You bought a new van, and all they gave you was a red balloon? You got a really crappy deal, Mom."

Look who had a birthday! She's a whole fart-teen years old, and she's the best!! Her nose is stuck in her new Kindle as we speak. Her choice of food was Outback Steakhouse (she'd heard about the "bloomin' onion," and also has a thing for Aussies), and an ice cream bar for dessert. Fourteen candles have a tendency to melt ice cream rather quickly.

On family night, we took a spin through the neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights. Our little area has a Christmas light route that gets quite a lot of traffic. It started almost 30 years ago with some friendly neighborly competition with Christmas decorations. People started driving by to see, more neighbors joined in, and it became a tradition. They take food and cash donations for the Marion Polk food share and raise tens of thousands of dollars, as well as tons of food every Christmas. Have I mentioned before that I love my neighborhood?This year they had a horse rescue group that was seeking donations. Look who got to torture one of the horses? A highlight of the night, for sure.

Many of the houses have big wooden stockings in their yards with the names of family members. The first such house that we saw with stockings was the house of "Jean" and "Bob." Kate looked, read, looked, puzzled, and then said, "Mom. What's a JeanBob?"

Duh, Kate. Duh.

Every year on a certain Saturday, Fireman Santa drives through every street of Keizer, sounds his sirens, and hands out candy canes and photo ops to the kids that chase him down. Actually, the Mom chased him down at our house. Kate was looking for her shoes.

Have I mentioned that I love my neighborhood?
This is about as comfortable as Abigail was going to get while she talked to Santa. If she would have known it was Scott, I'm sure she would have jumped right onto his lap.

Jake, on the other hand, was at ease.


I heart this boy.

This past Sunday, we had no problem getting the kids up for church that starts at 9. Usually, I have to do some stern "encouraging" to get Kate out of bed. But they were all up just after 6 on Sunday morning. The secret ingredient? A RA-coon (that's how Abby says it). Neal was letting the dog out before he left for his meetings, and the dog started going nuts. On the back fence was a giant raccoon. Neal ran upstairs to the girls room to have them look out the window at the visitor. They were pretty excited as they watched the raccoon walk back and forth on the fence. It was great Sunday morning fun.

I think the dog was agitated and piddle-suppressing for the rest of the day.