Christmas Eve 2009

Some Images from Christmas '09

Unexpected, record snowfall in Wichita Falls. This is the side of my brother's house.

Adrian is getting the hang of Christmas presents this year. He still needs just a little encouragement to rip into the pretty paper.

Andrew could care less about presents - just keep his tummy full and his bottom clean!

Treasure continues to amaze us, sixteen months after being diagnosed with cancer. She attacked her new toy with twelve-year-old gusto!

Merry Christmas to all. Now I must get out of my jammies, into the shower, and dressed for Christmas dinner at the Moza's!

Treasure's Christmas Gift

I brought a shopping bag of Christmas gifts from a dear friend home after church. She had some little bags in it with small gifts for my grandchildren and one for Treasure. So after we had settled in from lunch I proceeded to put each of the gifts under the tree - these were the first ones I had put out, thinking I was keeping temptation out of Adrian's way.
Well, no sooner had I gotten them all out than Treasure came looking and sniffing at the bounty laid before her. Unbelievably, she went straight to the sack with her name on it, pulled it away from the rest and began the task of uncovering her present! I ran quickly to get my camera and record her adventure - something, I might add, she has never done before! Here is the sequence of events as they unfolded.

First, she pulls it away from the tree and other presents.

Now she is earnestly into the task at hand.

Out comes the tissue paper...

Got to rip that sack open a little more...

She doesn't see that her little package is lying outside the sack!

But with a little help from her best friend Murphy, success is seconds away.

She ran up the stairs so fast I had to run to catch up with her and caught her rounding the corner.

Next stop was in the closet, hidden away from any attempts to remove her booty!

So, thank you, Auntie Jo, for the thrill of victory over the tissue paper and a yummy chew bone that should last a season!

Andrew and Ludee

Andrew is two months old in this picture, taken last Tuesday. At his check-up with the pediatrician he weighed a whopping 11 pounds, 8 ounces! That's almost three pounds from his birth weight! He is still a really good baby. And Adrian is starting to show a little pride in his baby brother. He will take me over to Andrew in his car seat and say "Baby An-du!" Since I am the prominent picture-taker around here, I thought I'd show off a couple of rare photos of Andrew with his Ludee.

"What big eyes you have, little boy!"

All curled up like one of those Anne Geddes babies!

Photo Scavenger Hunt

My niece, Barbaranne, who lives in Pennsylvania, recently joined a Photography Club. She is not only an avid photographer, but a very good one and serious about her hobby. The other day she presented a challenge on Facebook for all of her camera-loving friends, to go on a "scavenger hunt" through our stored photos and come up with something for each of several categories. I found that to be so much fun I thought I'd modify it and do something similar on my blog. So.... if you are game, let's go on a scavenger hunt!

For each post I will present five different categories and post my own pictures. You take the categories and hunt through your files and post your own pictures. If you like, I will link your post here so we can enjoy all the photos. Here is the first set:

1. Something "artsy"

We saw this mosaic at one of the shops at LaVillita when Kate was visiting.

2. Flower

This little bee was hot-to-trot for these pretty blue flowers, somewhere in Ireland.

3. Window
We couldn't resist an experiment with this mirror in a store window in Dublin.

4. Landmark

The Liberty Bell! I had to wait 64 years to go see this emblem of freedom.

5. Blue

I was fascinated by this category and remembered the amazing light display at Longwood Gardens last Christmas.

Okay, your turn. Even if you don't participate here, I hope you enjoy my photos and are inspired to "look outside the box" when photographing your next vacation. There is much creativity to be found, if you only dare to look for it.

Sixteen Months

Treasure had her appointment with Dr. Earl yesterday. Each time we have a recheck, I count off two more months of her life that I didn't expect to have. On the 28th of December it will be exactly 16 months since the first vet gave us her diagnosis and prognosis. We are continually amazed at the tenacity of this little Westie. She really lives up to her reputation.

So, the appointment... First, she weighed in about a pound lighter than last time - not a good sign except that yesterday was one of her "fasting" days. She does that periodically. So I wasn't too concerned. When Dr. Earl came in the exam room the first thing he noticed was her eye. Just in the last three days the cornea of her left eye flared up again so she is back on some prednisone drops, a little stronger than before. The eye had been clear for four or five weeks. Her right eye is fine with just artificial tears every day.

Next up was her ultrasound. As usual, both the technician and Dr. Earl commented on what a perfect patient she is during the exam. After looking at the tumor from all angles, Dr. Earl is satisfied that it has grown less than a millimeter and is still self-contained. That's wonderful news. When we discussed her frequency of urination he asked how she was doing with her meds. She still tolerates the cancer drug, but has rejected the antibiotic for two months. He has changed that to another med in hopes that she'll handle that better. Often a bladder infection will occur and this is more a precautionary measure.

The antibiotic presents a new challenge for us - getting it into her stomach! I can bury it in her food and she roots it out and leaves it in her plate! So this morning I tried the "peanut butter" approach and she found fifty ways to swallow peanut butter and leave the pill! Finally I was able to mold it in a piece of cheese and, unless she spit it out later, that seemed to work. This pill is touted as "beef-flavored chewable", but I've yet to see a pill that can outsmart a Westie!

Here it is, 9 a.m., and she's had her pill and eye drops, and now she's taking a Westie nap beside me. And I'll continue to marvel at my little miracle dog this Christmas, much more than I ever allowed myself to consider just sixteen months ago.

Santa Pictures

It's time for Santa pictures so I met Meredith and the boys at North Star Mall for a visit with St. Nick. Andrew was so snugly warm in his sling, napping next to his Mama's heart.

(These pictures are backwards, so bear with me as I explain each one.)

After interacting with Santa, we rolled the stroller to a pretty spot by the Christmas tress to get a picture of Adrian in his festive Christmas sweater.

Andrew is oblivious to the man in the red hat so I was able to snap a cute picture before he knew what was going on!

Adrian, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the kind old fella and Mommy helped make the experience more bearable. Actually, I like the picture with all three of them.

Here, then, was the first attempt at getting the Santa picture.

So, Barbaranne, it doesn't matter if it's in Texas or Pennsylvania, there may be a Santa Claus, but nothing is going to convince Adrian to be happy about it!

The Un-Snowy Day

After much hype and "winter watch and warnings" this week, we were to have an inch of snow fall on San Antonio today. Not surprisingly, it didn't happen! Although, right after lunch, as Meredith was leaving the house, we did see some flurries of snow, but we also saw the sun at the same time. That was really bizarre. All was not lost, however, because Meredith and I redeemed the time by making Christmas cookies. And, of course, my camera was close by, just in case.

Here is Andrew on the seventh-week anniversary of his birth. Last Monday he weighed a little over ten pounds! I think Meredith is going to have two tall sons.

The piano tuner (and repairer) came this morning to see what could be done for a dropped pedal on my piano. As you can see, Adrian was very curious about the strange man lying down under Ludee's piano! Eventually he went in the room and sat in a chair to watch.

Always a novelty at my house, the stairs lure him up to the second floor. He has perfected his safe descent by bumping down each step. He's getting really good at it too.

I thought it was time I tried to get a photo of both the boys, figuring by now it's pretty safe to capture them together (with Mommy's help, of course.) Adrian wasn't too keen on the idea at first, thinking it would be more productive if he could just get hold of his ball behind the chair.

Meredith finally got him to give his baby a little kiss! He gets pretty exuberant, though, and Andrew looks like he's saying, "Help me, please! I've had enough kissing!" I'll remember this moment when Andrew is pestering Adrian in a few years!

So, no snow today, but lots of cookies were baked and decorated. And Murphy came by as did Uncle Pat. For a while, the house was really chaotic, but peace reigns again - for a while!