Emmie's New Cat

Emmie got a new robotic Furreal cat from her grandma. She named it Krsdl (Crystal) after Frosty the Snowman's wife. Nonni assured her this cat would not do naughty things. When she woke up on Christmas morning it seems she had left us a surprise in the hall. Emmie was visibly flummoxed!

Santa Was Here!

Santa's elves played a prank on him and took pictures of him while he was delivering gifts. Then they stuck the pictures in the kids' stockings way down at the bottom so he wouldn't know they had done it. A few funny things, we noticed Clay was back up in his bed even though he was having a slumber party in Emmie's room that night. Emmie thought it was silly that Santa would bother to move Clay just so he could check on him in his own bed and not only that but change his pajamas first then bother to put him back and change him again. Clay thought it was pretty neat that he didn't remember any of it. He must have been dead asleep. I thought maybe he came in earlier in the week to check on them but that was obviously not the case Mom! The kids had it all figured out.

They were surprised Santa would go into the fridge. Then they realized we forgot to put out any snacks. They felt pretty bad about that. He ate all the rest of the split pea soup. Emmie was a little annoyed since she loves it so much. I told her it was OK because he did rinse out the container and put it in the sink. Emmie also thought it was pretty amazing how much Santa resembles Scott. Scott was working a 24 hour shift so there's his alibi. The one thing they thought was so funny was Santa getting stuck in the cat door. He probably won't try to come in that way again.Thanks for the pictures Santa's Elves! The kids are both relieved they were good enough this year. They kept their rooms clean the whole month of December. What an amazing accomplishment!

Emmie's Sign

Santa gave Emmie a hanging whiteboard for her room. She immediately put it to use. Unfortunately she hung it by her door to control who is allowed to enter her room and who is not. Clay was bugging her this day. He is usually on the no entry list. Currently I'm not allowed in her room. Atleast she is practicing her spelling and handwriting skills.

We're Back!

The New Laptop! Welcome to the 21st Century

Our old laptop lost its light on the screen. We had no idea that could happen. I had to back up all our photos for the last 2 years onto an external hard drive without being able to really see anything. If I had bright sunlight right on the screen I could faintly see the desktop but not the mouse. It was a bit like trying to use a computer with cataracts in the dark. I am sure we lost lots of pictures and videos. For some reason not all the transfers were successful. I found quite a few empty folders on the external hard drive. I am trying not to think about it.

I would really like to go back and recapture the month of November and the first bit of December. We went to Monterey right before Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time. I better just stay current until I have some extra time to go back and sort through the pictures now that they aren't so easy to get to. I tried to download them all onto the new computer but I couldn't get them organised into anything other than one super giant folder of 8300 pictures and videos. I have been curious to know how many we had. That's about twice what I thought, a bit ridiculous for sure. I would like to get them all uploaded to a photo printing site to get hard copies made. It was taking so long I had to quit. Too bad I couldn't have finished before this happened.

I am really looking forward to publishing more of life around here now that the hubbub of Christmas is past. Unfortunately, the laundry is ceiling high and I can't even find the kitchen counter.

The Minnick Family Christmas Photo