We were due for a new family photo, and as luck would have it I was able to snap one of the four of us this evening when we were out walking — or rather, being buffeted along. It so windy that by the time we finished the loop around the scenic sometimes-a-reservoir walking trail this evening (when I took this shot), we were all pretty wind-whipped. We looked a little dazed and none of us are smiling, but I think it still works, don’t you?

Too late for the Christmas cards that never went out last year (thanks to the shroud of viral misery that enveloped our home for the duration of December), and that’s a shame; it’s four matching red sweaters shy of family photo perfection.

I like days
with a snow-white collar,
and nights when the moon
is a silver dollar,
and hills are filled
with eiderdown stuffing
and your breath makes smoke
like an engine puffing.

I like days
when feathers are snowing,
and all the eaves
have petticoats showing,
and the air is cold,
and the wires are humming,
but you feel all warm …
with Christmas coming.

“December,” Aileen Fisher

View of our back yard, December 24, 2004:

View from our front yard, December 4, 2009:

It was Em’s first ever experience with snow (she enthusiastically pronounced it beautiful) and Cal’s second; and it was the second time I have seen snow in Texas since moving here in 1999. For a brief time, the flakes fell thick and fast, and we savored every minute that we could.

Cheeks were pink, fingers were stiff with cold, jackets and hats and mittens were wet. Smiles were big.

Forget 2012.
Sign me up for December, 2014.

Sometimes I like living in Texas. When I can step outside with my family for brisk walk in the evening without feeling like poultry on the rotisserie, it seems downright inhabitable.

November is the month that finally gives some relief to the insane heat and humidity. The air conditioner isn’t laboring, rattling and groaning through the day, and sometimes I get to wear slippers instead of flip-flops around the house (squeal!). Now if only the mosquitoes would die off when it drops below 70, and we got just a little bit of snow (more than once ever 5 years) it would almost be perfect — at least from November through February.

Marker on natural canvas. The artist’s work is also being displayed on select refrigerators across the country.

Calvin asked me to take a picture of this Star Wars-esque ship he built with Math-U-See blocks, and I thought it would be prudent to do so before the ship zoomed away to cruise remote galaxies and fight evil:

The careful observer might notice a couple of things: that he uses his own built-in clippers to trim his nails, and that there appears to be teeth marks (from the built-in nail clippers) on the front end of his craft. (I’m sure no one will notice that his shirt is wrinkled, because it isn’t, and even if it is, it certainly isn’t wrinkled because I was lazy and left a load of clean clothes in the basket overnight before folding them. Nope.)

I guess you could also call it Math-U-Chew On; truly a multi-sensory math program if ever there was one.

As an overprotective mom of the highest order, I’ve always been cautious about posting photos of my kids online. Today, for the first time, I’m posting a photo of Em that actually shows her face. On my blog. On the Internet. Where people I don’t know (and some that I do) will see it. GASP.

Since it was taken when Em was about 9 months old and she is now 2.25 years old, and because she is wearing such a crazy un-Emlike expression, I think it’s safe to post. I hope. I will not hyperventilate, I will not hyperventilate…

Besides, it’s just screaming for a caption. Got one?

I remember wondering why she was making such a bizarre little face since she was perfectly content and happy when I snapped it. I still don’t know, but maybe that’s why I like the photo — she’s as full of surprises (and drama and expression) at two years as she was at nine months.

I’m submitting this to i ♥ faces, just for fun.

This is what winter in Texas looks like:

(Kind of looks a little more like, oh, what is that other season? The one with the pretty leaves and blue skies and warm to crisp-cool days? That’s right — AUTUMN.)

This sunny, warm, happy-go-lucky weather is the reason it was such a let down to be one of two houses (the other one being Stacey’s) in our city’s vast and sprawling suburban landscape to be left out of the snow flurry party last night. We’re still drinking the bitter dregs of disappointment here at the Ohbecareful household, but I’m confident we can rise again. In a few years. With lots of therapy. And hot cocoa. Maybe some cookies.

(Isn’t it neat the way they just float in mid-air like that? I bet you wish you could have Advent candles just like mine.)

“[Real] doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

- The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams

Lo, the little angel that sits atop our insecure fake tree:

I removed her from her lofty perch in order to photograph her, and managed to capture a moment of quiet contemplation as she was gazing out the window at the landscape of our back yard. She was probably thinking, “Well, I guess this is better than ceiling cobwebs and the tops of heads,” or maybe, “Where’s the snow?” but most likely, “Good GRIEF, people, don’t you ever take a scooper out there after the dog has done her business?”

On the other hand, she could have been pondering the great mysteries of her life: “Am I supposed to be holding something?” and “Why don’t I have a nose?”

My mom helped my sister and I each make one of these many years ago.  And by “helped” I mean that she  bought the pattern and materials and showed my sister and I exactly what to do and probably did most of the work and I (maybe) picked out the doll’s hair color — which, by the way, is not exactly white. It’s more of a Norwegian Blonde, and it’s very becoming for a Christmas tree angel, don’t you think?