Snow Day

Sunday we had snow. Ok, it was only about 1/2" and it never even stuck on the roads. But it was the first time either of the girls ever saw snow. Fortunately, they didn't seem to be too terribly anxious to go get out in it. They were content watching it fall from the warmth of inside the house.

Master of Manipulation

Reagan has long known how to work it to get out of trouble or to get what she wants. I have to admit to having been duped by a two year old many times. Here are some of her more recent attempts:

Last night in the car she got a package of fruit snacks. She was supposed to have shared with Bailey but scarfed them all down before she even handed the first one to her. When I heard Bailey mad, I told Reagan, "Reagan, give Bailey a fruit snack." Reagan said, "They are all gone." I shot her an evil eye. Then the dialog continues:

Reagan: I didn't give Bailey any fruit snack.
Me: I know
Reagan: Mom, I didn't give Bailey any fruit snack.
Me: Ok.
Reagan: Can you give me some fruit snack so I can give some to Bailey?
Me: Think I'm going to fall for that trick a fifth time?

Earlier in the week when Bill told Reagan to give Bailey a fruit snack, Reagan took the whole pack and shoved all of them in her mouth at once. She had fruit snacks falling out of her mouth while she said, "they are all gone" and holds up the empty package.

Then, this morning, Reagan acted out and I put her into timeout. She walked into the corner and stood there for about two seconds then turned around:

Reagan: I'm sorry momma (she starts to walk away to go play)
Me: Thank you for your apology, but you are still in timeout
Reagan: (fussing as she goes back into the corner, pause, pause, turns around)
Reagan: Momma, I need to come tell you something
Me: You can tell me when you are done with timeout. Turn around.
Reagan: Momma, may I come tell you something?
Me: What do you need to tell me?
Reagan: I need to tell you I'm sorry
Me: Ok, thank you
Reagan: May I go play now?
Me: No, you are still in timeout

I hope Bailey doesn't learn all of these tricks this early.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I got this meme from Facebook but wanted to include it here...

This is probably meant for children a little older, but I asked these questions of my daughter Reagan, who is 2. She gave some interesting responses...

1. What is something mom always says to you?
princess

2. What makes mom happy?
when i smile

3. What makes mom sad?
mommy is sick

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
funny

5. What was your mom like as a child?
mommy's not a baby! bailey is a baby and i'm a big girl!

6. How old is your mom?
ummmm....2. no. i'm 2 and you're 5 and bailey is 1. daddy is 10.

7. How tall is your mom?
6

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
mermaid! (yeah, I don't know what that is either)

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
bailey

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
huh?

11. What is your mom really good at?
i hear a birdie in a tree

12. What is your mom not very good at?
sick

13. What does your mom do for a job?
computer

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
celery (I hate celery, where did that come from?)

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
happy

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
tinkerbell

17. What do you and your mom do together?
happy yoga

18. How are you and your mom the same?
two eyes

19. How are you and your mom different?
ummmm.....

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
big hug and a little hug

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
happy

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
ummm...in a castle. and target. can we go to the grocery store and get a cookie?

Confession

Saturday afternoon Bill came down with the chills and then went downhill from there. Sunday was his turn to sleep in, so about 12:30pm I went to check on him. He was laying in bed surfing on the laptop. He said he felt just terrible and just wanted to lay in bed all day. Instead of laying in bed I strongly coerced him into getting up and doing a couple of errands with me and the girls. This is despite him saying he thought he had the flu.

I should say, I didn't doubt that Bill was as sick as he said he was. But in all honesty, I thought he was being a a bit of a big baby. Despite being sick, I thought he should still be well enough to be able to go with me on a couple of really small trips. Suck it up buttercup! I go do things when I'm sick too!

Fast forward to Monday, and Karma comes back and hits me in the butt, HARD. Bill is not 100%, but feeling much, much better. After doing a great workout, jogging/walking 3 miles, I was feeling great. But then, just a few hours later and I got the chills. I finally jumped in the shower as an attempt to warm up.

I cannot tell you how quickly I went downhill from there. Yesterday, I was so sick that I needed to go to the doctor and had to have Bill drive me. Today, my bronchitis symptoms are much better but the flu is hitting me so hard I can hardly move.

And what have I learned from all of this?
1) Bill really is a tough guy. The next time he says he's sick, I'm just going to close off the door for quarantine purposes and let him emerge when he's well.

2) Payback is a beyatch. Not only am I sicker and for longer, I get to have the kids all by myself tonight as Bill needs to be gone.


Karma is laughing furiously at me right now. And somewhere under Bill's outward sympathy for me is the smuggest expression of "I told you so" one has ever sported.

Nightime Attire

This is what you get when you let a two year old pick out her own pajamas and dress herself for bed. The photo is missing the red, blue and green knee socks she paired with the ensemble but I think it captured the mittens and panties on the outside of the pj's nicely. I think she's just missing a cape to complete the look. What do you think?

Posing on International Day

This week has been International Week at school. They study different cultures, they get special snacks from countries all over the world, they do a potluck dinner of international foods, and on Friday, they have international dress day.

Reagan's classroom had Italy. That was a bit challenging to find something specific to Italy. But then I had an idea to dress her as a Gondolier. I think we got pretty close with what we could find to work with.

Bailey's Chinese dress is a special dress. I bought it in Hong Kong for my niece many years ago. She was just a year and a half old had been crowned Baby Miss Macon. I brought back that dress and she wore it in the Macon Cherry Blossom parade. That niece is now ten.

Bailey's shoes were a gift from my mom. When I was pregnant with Reagan, I was working in NYC. My little brother was singing right across the street from where I worked at none other than Carnegie Hall. So my mom and Bill joined me in NYC so that they could attend my brother's concert. My mom made a trip to Chinatown and came back with the shoes. I don't know that she remembered we still had the Chinese dress, but the shoes matched perfectly. Reagan wore that outfit at about a year and now Bailey gets to wear it too.

Reagan was pretty excited to wear her costume today. You'll see she was quite the poser. Especially when we got to the steps. She would lay on a step and say, "take a picture of me now" and then she'd hop up and say, "hmm, let me try this..." or "how about I go here" and try a totally different pose. She even intentionally winked in one pose. She'd always want to see what the picture looked like after I took it so she knew how to adjust the next pose.

Bailey proved to be difficult to photograph this time as she just discovered that she could see herself on the back of the camera too. So she just kept coming at me and wanting to see the pictures on the camera.

So here are the girls, striking a pose, working it for the camera.

Bailey getting mad because I wouldn't let her have the camera...

Bailey looking wide eyed and innocent after being busted for trying to strangle Reagan with her hat cord...

Reagan in her first of many poses...

Here's looking at you kid. Perfecting "the wink"...

Bailey's wondering what is with all the posing...

Reagan kept jumping in front of the camera when I tried to take a picture of just Bailey...

It was Roseola after all

Yep. Both girls had rashes today and no fevers. Reagan's was much milder. Of course she also had Roseola when she was nine months old so I was surprised she got it at all.

Fevers

Bailey came down with a fever on Saturday of 103.5. It wouldn't be the first time she's had a fever that high, but it's the first time she didn't want to play and cried even when held. She was absolutely miserable.

Bill took her to the Urgent Care (because I'm too much of a wimp). They checked her ears, they listed to her chest, everything was fine. They swabbed her nose for flu, negative. Drew blood for tests, negative. Drew a catatheter for tests, negative. The prognosis: a virus.

So we had one sick miserable little baby and then Reagan came down with a high fever too. We were giving them both Tylenol and Ibuprofen around the clock. I had to write it all down to remember who took what and when.

Reagan seemed to recover pretty quickly. She was a little grumpy, but otherwise fine. Bailey took a lot longer. We sent them both to school today since Reagan's was gone and Bailey's was under 100. They said Bailey was still a little clingy and fussy. I won't be half surprised if tomorrow her fever is gone and a rash is there instead. The classic Roseola case. We'll see though.

I had today off for President's Day and so Bill took it off too. Since we were able to send both the girls to school, we got a great day of doing some shopping, going out to eat, seeing a movie. It felt like one of those weekends before we had kids. I wish we had family around so we could get a few more days like that once in a while. It was quite fun and relaxing.

Miss Bailey

Let me update you on Miss Bailey. She quietly turned one on Christmas Eve. There wasn't the pomp and circumstance or the party of 50 people like we had at Reagan's first birthday. We unceremoniously drove most of the day to Florida for Christmas. She never even got a first birthday cake. I feel a bit guilty about that and vow to make sure she always gets a proper birthday every other year.

When Bailey turned one, it seems like overnight the lights went on in her head. She took her first steps Christmas Day and immediately started babbling more, imitating more, and just wanting to be more involved in what we are doing.

Bailey's walking started out like a crab walk. She'd only walk sideways. After a week or so of that, she changed to the zombie walk. She'd slowly totter down the trek with her hands straight out. If she wasn't always giggling her butt off, I'd imagine her walking thinking, "brains, I want brains" in true zombie fashion.

Six weeks later, and Bailey is completely changed. She still has a bit of the zombie walk, but now she attempts to run, especially after successfully snatching a toy or food from Reagan or some poor unsuspecting baby at daycare. You'd never know Reagan has 1.5 years on her. Bailey doesn't let it deter her in the least. The other day she snatched Reagan's burrito right off her plate and was scarfing it down (with her only two teeth) as quickly as she could while trying to make a clean getaway. If Reagan is in "her" chair, Bailey pushes her right out of it. She has every bit of fiestiness as Reagan and has become quite ornery. She has discovered the classic games such as "let-me-climb-up-the-stairs-as-fast-as-I-can-and-see-how-far-I-make-it-before-Mom-catches-me" or "look!-I-can-stand-on-a-table!"

No matter what she gets into or cooks up, she continues to do it with a smile on her face and a laugh in her heart. She truly brings us great joy. Reagan truly loves her and gets just as excited as we do when Bailey does something new. Reagan has actually done a better job than us at trying to teach Bailey sign language. By one year, Reagan knew over 100 signs. By 14 months she was combining them to form "sentences." Reagan has retained most of that knowledge and it's really cool to see her "talking" to Bailey with sign language. Bailey only does a few signs, but we see her trying more and more every day. She understands a lot more than she communicates as she has become quite vigorous in her head shaking "yes" or "no" to respond to our questions.

Both girls are just amazing to us. They are so very different from each other yet we love them both with all our heart. I look back and can't believe I cried tears of sorrow and frustration when I found out I was pregnant with Bailey. She was truly meant to be in our lives when she was and I can't imagine our lives without her.

Out of the baby years...now on to more toddler years!

(I have a bunch of pictures to add to this post but I'm not on the right computer. Rather than wait, I'm posting now and will add the pictures later. Don't forget to come back and check them out. As many have pointed out, she's grown to be quite the big girl practically overnight. I have some cute pics to share.)

We Bought What?

Let me share with you what can happen when you let a two-year old walk with you in a Target instead of putting her in the buggy. Here is a picture of some of the things we purchased earlier this week.

The punchline is neither Bill nor I actually knowingly bought any of these products. Bill usually handles the credit card transaction while I unload the buggy. This time it was the other way around. Bill tossed everything in the cart up on the belt, assuming I had a perfectly good reason why I wanted two types of acne medicine (neither of us have acne), a black eyeliner (I use brown), and my favorite--makeup for women of color. Let's face it, even on my tannest day, I can't use makeup intended for black women.

I caught Reagan putting in one of the Noxemas at one point and pulled it back out of the cart. She protested and said, "but Mom, you NEED it." Gee thanks for that. I pulled it back out, but the sneaky little bugger put it back in again when neither of us was looking.

Unfortunately, the receipt is tossed and since Target's return policy sucks, we now have a few items we can donate to the local women's shelter.

Oh, and this is also exactly how I ended up with six boxes of Weight Watchers Calzones on Saturday.


Some recent random pics, just because...

New Blog: Walk Away From the Twinkie

Because I don't have enough trouble keeping this blog up (sarcasm on), I've decided to start yet another blog. Rather than turning this blog into my escapades on trying to lose a gazillion pounds and run a marathon like tomorrow, I've decided to keep that separate.

I figure it will be a good to keep a journal of my journey, and I'm inviting you to come along...

Walk Away From the Twinkie

My goal is to update both this blog and the other blog daily. I think now that I've finally finished my "second job" role, it will be much more realistic for me to find time. For the most part, I think I'm going to be working a normal 40-50 hour work week now. I'm pretty excited about that! That is also what led to me finally being able to take on the weight challenge as well. It's really nice when things finally come together.

I have a new cousin!

My Aunt Kelly is a year younger than me (I'll pause for a moment while you wrap your noodle around that concept). After a difficult delivery, Kelly had her first baby. I now have a new first cousin!

Kelly lives in Seattle so we don't get a chance to see each other very often, but through the magic of Facebook and email I look forward to watching her little baby boy grow up.

Congratulations Kelly! We are so happy for you!

Brady Joseph Lynch

January 17, 9:35am

7lbs 3oz, 19 inches

Here's a picture of Kelly and Brady. How adorable is he?

Here's the proud dad, Tim, with little Brady. That's right, sleep while you can!

The Loftiest of Goals

So what do you do when you find yourself 100 lbs overweight and you can't run to your mailbox? a) Get a rascal scooter
b) Diet and exercise sensibly to loose weight and get in shape
c) Bury your sorrows in a pint of Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby
d) sign up for a marathon

Ok, I realize most of you probably would have picked B (although C does sound like a tempting winner). Alas, if you haven't found out by now, I'm not like most people. I picked D. That's right, I signed up to run in a marathon.

I realize how crazy it all seems well, because it is. But I am very goal driven and up until now, I haven't had a strong enough goal and motivation to push me to my end result. So as I was perusing the company intranet yesterday I saw a notification for early sign ups for the Chicago Marathon on October 11. I started to think about it and thought this could be just the piece of motivation I'm looking for.

I did some research. A lot of people suggest you run regularly for about a year before you try to train for a marathon. There was a lot of good and of course, conflicting advice. In the end, I ignored a lot of the advice (not that I am recommending you do the same), and decided to go for it.

I'm not looking to beat a certain time or even enjoy the run. My goals are to simply survive it and finish it in 6hrs and 30mins before they take down the water and first aid stations. I may not get anywhere close to that goal, but I'm going to do everything I can do try. Bill said he'd call it success and would be proud if I just finished 10K. That may be all I can do, but I'm still shooting for the entire 26.2 miles.

I've got eight months to loose weight, get in shape, and prepare for the race. I'm starting with the "couch to 5K" program where at the end of nine weeks I'll be able to run three miles without stopping. We'll see.

Everyone has to have a dream, right? Here's mine:

Chicago Marathon

October 11, 2009

Bridget finishes the race

Lured from the tent

I previously reported how Reagan would only sleep in her princess castle tent she got for Christmas. I am happy to report that a solid month later, she has finally been lured from her tent into a real bed.

Prior to her taking up residence in her tent, she was sleeping in her little toddler bed. But she's always had a twin bed in her room that has gone unused. The twin bed is a canopy bed that looks like Cinderella's carriage. She's shown great interest in it over the years-- for climbing, for jumping, for doing dive rolls off of it. For sleeping-- no interest whatsoever.

But about a week ago, I put in the Cinderella movie for the first time. She watched it with great interest, becoming very upset with the ugly stepsisters destroyed Cinderella's dress for the ball. Then, when she saw Cinderella's carriage, she immediately identified it as looking like her bed.

When the movie ended she asked to watch it again. She's now watched it about a dozen times. And she now wants to be "Cinderella Princess." The bed that was only good for jumping from has now become her bed of choice for slumber, over her toddler bed, over her tent. She looks so adorable being so tiny and sleeping in such a big bed.

I wish I had thought of putting on that movie a long time ago.

What's for Dinner, Super Bowl Corn Dip

With the Super Bowl coming up, I've started thinking about what I'm going to take to our friends' Super Bowl party. Here's one super easy crowd pleaser for your consideration:

Corn Dip

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
2 cups mayo
2 cans Fiesta/Mexican corn- drained
2 cups grated Monterrey jack/Colby mix
2 cups grated Parmesan (or Parmesan Romano mix)
Add some cumin, jalapenos, diced chilies, or red cayenne pepper if you want (it's perfectly yummy without them)

Directions
Add all the ingredients and mix together
Cook in 350 oven for 30 minutes

Notes
Scoops Tortilla chips are awesome with this
I think next time I may try this same recipe but adding crab. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Ballet Dreams Dashed

Reagan has a couple of things she takes at school in addition to her regular curriculum. One is tumbling, we are just now adding yoga, and her favorite: ballet.

Every Thursday Reagan has a ballet class that she SO looks forward to. Just the act of getting dressed up in her leotard, skirt, and ballet shoes makes it all worthwhile to her.

So today of all days, the girls sleep in a little. Bailey didn't wake up until 7:45. We haven't used a real alarm clock in 2.5 years because the girls take care of that for us. Not today. Ballet is at 9 and school is 30 minutes away. We had to hurry, hurry, hurry!

In our rush, I went ahead and put on Reagan's ballet clothes. The ballet instructor always begs us to do that anyway because it saves her tons of time on getting eight two-year olds out of uniforms and into leotards. But not once have I actually done it. I always send Reagan in her uniform and let them change her. Since I did go ahead and Reagan in her clothes, she was especially looking forward to ballet today. Every step had a little hop or twirl with it and she wore her tierra and waved her wand proclaiming she was a ballerina princess.

At 8:30 Bill scrambled out the door and took the girls to school. Shortly before 9 I started checking email. As I scanned the new mail, one subject in particular stood out: PLEASE READ NOW. NO BALLET TODAY.

Ugh, too little too late. I already had a two year old dressed and ready for ballet and walking through the doors of her classroom as I read. Apparently the teacher had a fever so she decided to stay home (good call). But I had Reagan already dreaming of prancing and twirling in ballet. While Reagan was in her uniform when Bill picked her up today, that didn't happen without a struggle. That was one disappointed little ballerina.

Of course she still thinks Santa Claus is going to come every morning and bring her more presents, so she's getting used to the concept of disappointment. And tomorrow is yoga, so life will be good again.

Here's Reagan at school during one of her ballet lessons:

What's for Dinner, Hearty Yummy Veggie Soup

Confession time here. Last year I had a very busy, demanding job and towards the end of the year I multiplied that chaos by two. Working crazy hours, having a newborn that didn't sleep through the night, and combined with the fact I worked from home and virtually didn't move at all, I am starting this year weighing more than just before I delivered Bailey. That's just plain unhealthy, unflattering, and embarrassing.

So, starting the new year I made a resolution, along with 50 gazillion other people, to lose weight. My goal is a little more ambitious than many, but it needs to be. This time next year I plan to be 100 lbs lighter than I am now (geesh, I can't belive I'm saying that). My biggest part of the success will be to make sure I workout 30 minutes a day, twice a day, five times a week. But certainly eating healthy is part of it too.

So now I'm on this new eating healthy kick but I was hungry and it is really super cold outside. I wanted something comforting and warm, filling, but sticking to the low cal and low fat regimen. Then I remembered that Cabbage Soup diet of days gone by. Did you ever try that one? The one where on Day 1 the soup was bland but tolerable and you didn't mind eating just eight bananas in a day because you were going to be 10 pounds lighter by the end of the week. But by Day 7, just the sight of the soup in the fridge was enough to make you gag and you instead found yourself scarfing down a six month old bag of forgotten Halloween candy and an entire bag of chips. Yeah, that's healthy.

But it got me thinking. The veggies are low cal and healthy and the soup wasn't entirely bad. What if I made a soup that's tastier than the original and I didn't eat it 12 times in a day? Then it becomes a yummy, healthy meal rather than a diet. That was all I needed and I was off.

So, here is my version of the old Cabbage Soup recipe. It's got a nice little kick to it, but not so much that Reagan can't eat it. It really is quite tasty, healthy, and hit the spot on a cold Winter's night. You certainly don't need to be dieting to enjoy this soup!

Hearty Yummy Veggie Soup
Prep time: 20-30 minutes
Cook time: about an hour

Ingredients
1/2 head of cabbage, shredded
1 bag frozen crinkle cut or sliced carrots
1/2 bunch of celery, diced
1 large onion, diced
2 cans diced tomatoes (I used ones flavored with jalapenos and garlic and onion)
1 container V8 Hot-Spicy (you really want this over the regular stuff!)
1 can beef broth
1 packet onion soup mix
2 Tbls minced garlic
Other spices to taste- I used anywhere from 1-3 tsp of each: cumin, seasoning salt, Mrs. Dash garlic and herb blend, Worcestershire, pepper (Really season this stuff here!). If you want it even spicier, try adding Tabasco, diced jalapenos, or cayenne pepper.

Directions
Add all ingredients in a large stock pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer until veggies are tender, around 45 minutes to one hour. Remember the veggies will cook down, so don't panic if there doesn't seem to be enough liquid. If you do need to add more liquid, add more broth and cut back on the salt you add.

Notes
This makes a lot of soup. Try freezing some of it for another day!

Girly Girl

When I did Reagan's room, I have to admit to doing a very girly theme. There is pink everywhere and there is a bit of a Cinderella theme going through the room. However, I never bought a single Disney princess anything, never made mention of Barbie, and introduced her to Pirates and trucks as early as one could. Yet here we are, with one of the girliest girls I've ever seen. I'm not complaining mind you, I'm just dumbfounded as to where it came from. While I freely admit to supporting her habit, we did not start or encourage it. I can only surmise that some girls are just wired that way.

So, what makes me think I have one of the girliest girls around? Let me show you.

I give you Exhibit A: The Princess Castle Tent
Reagan got a lot of things for Christmas. You never really know which ones are going to be the big hit and which will bomb harder than a Jessica Simpson movie. The Princess Castle tent her nana bought her was clearly the front runner this year. Since this tent has been set up in her room, she has refused to sleep in her bed, opting instead for a little sleep mat and sleeping bag set up in her tent. She spends all of her free time in this tent. She would refuse pop tarts and fruit snacks over a few more minutes in her tent.


Exhibit B: Her weekend attire choices
Reagan wears uniforms to school Monday through Thursday. On Friday's we pick something together to wear. On weekends when we are running to Target and Publix, she gets to pick what she wears. You might see a common theme here...





Exhibit C: The Minnie Mouse high heels
I made the mistake of letting Reagan go into the Disney store one day. She saw a pair of bright yellow Minnie Mouse shoes and immediately pulled them off the rack and started trying them on. I let her put them on. Instead of wobbling, getting frustrated and yanking them off (what I hoped would happen); she jumped up, ran off, and starting saying, "Oh, mama. These are my favorite! I love these."

So $20 later we were walking out with a pair of toddler size 7 high heels that I was sure would be tossed the moment we got home. Uh, can I say how wrong I was? Every morning when it is time to get shoes, she pulls them out and says, "How about these?" Then I have to tell her it is a school day and she can't wear them to school on a school day. But when weekends roll around, all bets are off. I let her wear them to her heart's content. If you weren't looking at her feet, you'd have no idea she was in heels. She's just as adept at them as a pair of sneakers. I guess she gets that from her mama. Good thing since Mr. Height Predictor said she's going to be a towering 5'3" in adulthood.

The soles are worn, the toes are completely scuffed out, but she wears them everywhere, even to scooter in.



Notice the purse she is carrying in this picture? She picked out her first very own purse before she was even a year old and carried it everywhere.

So that's our girly girl, Reagan. Two years old and every day asks to watch Princess or Barbie movies. Wears her tutus with her pirate shirts and high heels and sleeps in a princess tent. When I grow up, I want to be just like her.

Been a long time gone

What do you know? I do still remember my blog address. I stated before that until the end of the year I was absolutely buried in work. Well, now it's the new year. I'm down to one role and a more normal, manageable 50 hours of work a week. What shall I do with all of that newly found time? Blog, of course.

I have six weeks of pictures and stories to catch up on. I'll just be posting the highlights so that I'll have them for posterity. Everything else will be a new year, a new start, new stories, new recipes, and hopefully lots of fun.

So far, 2009 is looking pretty good. I can't wait to share it with you.

It must be Christmas, the Leg Lamp has returned

One of my all time favorite movies is "The Christmas Story." One of the sub plots in the movie involves the Dad and the arrival of the "major award" he won. It arrives in a beastly sized wooden crate and he excitedly but carefully opens the crate and unpacks the items to see what he has won. The Dad discovers he has won a lamp. But not just any lamp. To him, this lamp is a thing of beauty, a masterful work of art that proudly needs to be displayed in the front window for every passerby to behold. To Mom, she sees nothing more than a ticky-tacky lighted leg with a fringe trimmed shade that would do better sitting on top of a trash pile at the city dump than on her living room table.

I tell you this story to bring you back in time with me to Christmas six years ago. My Mom, being ever the impulsive shopper , decided to pull over and purchase some Christmas gifts from a van turned into a makeshift roadside stand. Most of the year that "stand" sells turtles and hermit crabs with airbrushed decorated shells that are guaranteed to teach your child about The Circle of Life within two weeks. They might even throw in the Ziploc baggies and shoe box for your back yard burial for free if you ask them.

But a month out of every year they sell something else. They sell a Christmas decoration. My Mom saw these decorations and decided all the kids in the family needed one. That Christmas rolls around and my gift is unveiled as I pull it out from a kitchen trash bag. What Bill saw when I opened this gift was a thing of beauty. He saw superior skilled craftsmanship of a perfectly geometrical orb and entrancing multi-color lights dancing in symmetry and precision. He was in awe and immediately plugged it in to find just the right setting to showcase the work of art.

What I saw when I opened the gift was a couple of clear Dixie cups cobbled together with a dollar store string of Christmas lights. While I could appreciate the work that went into making the piece, I couldn't get past the fact that it was still just Dixie cups glued together. I smiled at my Mom and thanked her for the gift and made a mental note to drop it off at the first Goodwill drop off point I passed going home.

But it never made it to Goodwill. Bill overrode me. He made a spot for the piece in the front window the moment we walked through the door. He futzed with the angle, the height, and the light settings. He turned it on and walked out to the street to see how it looked from a passersby eye. I think he was prouder of that light than his first car.

This Dixie cup art has become known amongst all of our friends and family as simply, "The Leg Lamp." Six years later, Bill has once again pulled out The Leg Lamp and put it on display in the front window just as he has every other year. He futzed with the settings, adjusted the angle, and stood out in the street to see how it looked to passersby. But rather than wanting to destroy it in a furious dusting accident (yeah right, who would believe that one from me?), I just smile and go with it knowing the holiday season has officially begun and Christmas will be right around the corner.