The must-have accessory this season (or at least today)

Striped fleece mittens:

The obsession continues.

Answers

The answers to yesterday's quiz:

A = 2. Mexico

B = 3. My sweet baby brother

C = 7.  My grandma and aunt

D = 1. Germany

E = 6. Macy's department store

F = 5. Dominican Republic

G = 8. Peru

H = 4. Italy

We have such a random assortment of little nativities.  But we like our collection--it's just the right size, and each one is special.

 I suppose what we are missing is one large traditional creche with the whole cast of characters.  The closest we have is the Fisher-Price Little People Nativity (of which I didn't post a picture as half of the figures were in a toy garbage truck at the time), and which includes Baby Jesus, Mary, a donkey, a shepherd, a sheep, a cow, an angel, three wise men, and one camel.  But no Joseph!  That's right, it did not come with a Joseph!  Sure, the man wasn't the actual father of Jesus, but he's pretty darn important and deserves a little respect.  (Really, Fisher-Price, you're going to the trouble of including all three wise men and their camel, but you can't throw in the man God chose to raise His Only Begotten Son?)  So we use the garbage man or Vacation Eddie to fill in, which works just fine--though a blond Joseph in flip-flops and a Hawaiian lei doesn't quite jive with my First Noel sensibilities...  

Quite a character

If you come to my house, you never know which Mary you may find.  It all depends on the accessories.

Engineer Mary wearing a construction hat.

Party-time Mary wearing an old firetruck party hat from David's birthday.

Student Mary wearing a Nemo backpack.

Poultry Mary wearing a Turkey crown.

Glamour Mary wearing gaudy old beaded necklaces.

Clown Mary wearing David's shoes.

Super Mary wearing a safety-pinned blanket as a cape. (My personal favorite.)

Or perhaps Doctor Mary, complete with shoes and a coat, ready to make that house call:

Mary spends her day on the lookout for that next great accessory, be it an old Croc, a plastic barrette, or a strand of Christmas ribbon.  She's very opinionated about the matter.  Mary knows that Accessories Are Everything.  (Watch out, Rachel Zoe.)

Nativity quiz

Here is our little nativity collection.  Care to guess where they came from?  

This is a multiple choice quiz, so here are your choices:

1. Germany
2. Mexico
3. My sweet baby brother
4. Italy
5. Dominican Republic
6. Macy's department store
7. My grandma and aunt
8. Peru

Answers coming soon.

Title?

Speaking of a little context for my readers, if you have ever wondered about this blog's title:

One year is the length of this blogging experiment (only a few more months to go).

And "the creek" refers to a geographical location, as well as a figurative one.

Parallel universe

Mary took a big chunk of apple in the bath with her last night.  It was hidden inside her cheek.  She obviously thought the bath was a perfect time for a snack.  By the time her bath was over, there were little pieces of apple floating in the water.  I thought to myself, "I don't want to clean this up.  We need a garbage disposal in the bathtub."  Like Kramer.

Why do the bathroom activities of my children parallel Seinfeld episodes?

Official update

With this blog nine months old and 275 (!) posts long, I thought it was about time to provide some context for my readers, which may be much needed, depending from where and when I know you (if I know you at all).  

I am Alisa.  I am married to Greg.  He is an Air Force Civil Engineer Officer.  After assignments in Delaware and Turkey, we now live near Dayton, Ohio.  Greg is currently working on a master's degree in Engineering Management at the Air Force Institute of Technology.  We are all enjoying his life as a full-time student.

We have a three-year-old son.  His name is David, and he likes trucks, friends, and jumping off the diving board.  He is also learning a lot at preschool.  Mary is our one-year-old, and she likes grapes, shoes, and sitting on her brother's head.  She also enjoys reading books, as long as she can hold the book herself.

The coming year will likely bring big changes for our family.  Greg graduates in March.  We will find out that same month where we will be moving.  Greg has applied for positions in St. Louis, San Antonio, Colorado Springs, Virginia, and here in Dayton, all of which begin in the summertime.  But we could end up anywhere.  The chances are good that Greg will deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan next fall, so I hope we move somewhere I like!

For now, we are spending a lot of time together as a family and enjoying what Ohio has to offer.  We have found the Dayton area to be a great place to live, made even better by the wonderful friends we've met, and we will be very sad to leave.

In addition, we continue to find a great deal of fulfillment in service opportunities as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Above all, we are grateful for Jesus Christ and the joy His teachings bring to our lives.

(Now, if I were feeling motivated, I would print this off on some festive paper and stuff it into my Christmas cards...)

Christmas jammies

Grandma Evie sent some festive pajamas for Christmastime.  (They are perfect--trains for David and sweets for Mary.)  

It is now Christmastime.  But we are having a hard time explaining to David that Christmas Day comes at the end of Christmastime, and that Christmastime is really really long.

Aren't they cute in their Christmas jammies?  

 

Day of reckoning

We just returned from the library where we paid to replace the most beloved of all Busytown books, "Car and Trucks and Things That Go."  

It was peed on.  Twice.  

Remember George and the art book?  There was a lot of that too.  But, as unpleasant as it may be to ponder, I figure plenty of library books spend quality time in the loo.  

But then it was peed on, and even though it cleaned up off the plastic cover quite nicely, I began to wonder if maybe it would be morally wrong to return it.  Then it was peed on again--inside this time, on the pages.  That's when I knew this book would become a permanent part of our family.  

For weeks we've been renewing the book over and over, postponing the inevitable.  Finally, today we bought the book.

We're out twenty bucks, but I owe my son's regularity (too much information?) to that book.  I'm not sad it will still be around.

Yummy in our tummies

I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of the very best parts of our trip to Atlanta--the food!  

Greg's parents were there, too, and his mother prepared delicious dish after delicious dish, including perfect cherry pie, the traditional post-Thanksgiving turkey noodle soup (the best thing that can happen to leftover turkey), and Grandma Gibbs's special apple dumplings.  Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.  Yum!

Even better than the food were the hands that prepared it.  We're very grateful that Greg's mom and dad made the trip to Atlanta so we could see them (and grateful we got to eat Grammy's food).

Return to Stone Mountain

We had such a good time at Stone Mountain on Thursday that we decided to go back on Friday.  This time Grampy treated us to a ride on the Stone Mountain Scenic Railway.  (Have I mentioned that David was in heaven in on this trip?)

David (with Caleb and Grampy behind) going about the very serious business of riding a train:
David with super pal Sadie:
We followed our train ride with a yummy picnic of leftovers at a really great playground.  The weather was lovely--how hard it was going to be to get in our car on Saturday and drive north into winter.

By the way, this is what the front side of Stone Mountain looks like:  

It's not a very good picture, and I promise the area is much more picturesque than it appears here. (Also, if you look closely, you will notice a carving of Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis on the face of the mountain.)

Stone Mountain

Just after we stuffed ourselves silly with Thanksgiving dinner, we decided to climb Stone Mountain.  

Matt kindly carried Mary on his back.  That way Greg could carry David if he needed a little help...which he didn't because his enthusiastic cousins kept him motivated.

The above picture is special.  It's the first picture of Matt and Mary--finally!  Matt was the first person on Greg's side of the family to meet Mary.  He held her in his arms when she was just one day old--and there wasn't a camera to be found!  Mary had some quality time on her uncle's back to get reacquainted.

The cousins!!
It was a steep hike (especially with bellies full of turkey), but we all made it.  Kudos to Greg who did it less than eight hours after running a half-marathon!

Hanging out at the top...
Looking at the view.  (Which was beautiful.  The weather was beautiful too!)
And heading back down. . . 
A perfect post-feast outing.  I sense a tradition in the making.

The pilgrim and the turkey

Some of the kids decided to dress up for Thanksgiving dinner.  David was a pilgrim.  Mary was a turkey.

A handsome pilgrim and a cute little turkey, if I may say so.



The pilgrim was much happier than he appears in these pictures.  In the last picture the turkey is folding her arms for the blessing.  (Why was I taking a picture when we were supposed to be praying?  That little turkey with her folded arms and real fork (!) were just too much to resist.)

Excuse the interruption

I interrupt these half dozen or so blog posts about Thanksgiving to bring you this exciting news:

I successfully left Mary in the childcare room at the Y today!  Yipppeee!  

I have been hoping/trying to do this for the past year.  Mary is a big boob without her mom or dad.  And her piercing, high-pitched hysterical wail doesn't help matters.

But I think she is now old enough to be intoxicated by toys, toys, toys.  So many Elmos, baby dolls, and Cozy Coupes--she just couldn't help herself.  The ladies who work there reported that she was "very independent, for one so young" and "into everything."  That's our Mary.

What a wonderful development.  The future looks very bright, indeed.

If you run 13.1 miles on Thanksgiving Day, you can eat more pie

Thursday morning David had a very special outing with Grammy, Grampy, Uncle Matt, and Sadie (who, by this point, was his newly proclaimed best friend).  They came by the hotel at 7 am to pick him up and go watch his daddy finish the Atlanta Half-Marathon.  David was as enthusiastic as ever about the early morning adventure. (I stayed behind so Mary could take a morning nap.)

I love this picture of Matt, Sadie, and David (with his backpack) walking towards the finish line.

Waiting
and more waiting.  David and Sadie cheered on the early finishers.
Greg has this nice habit of running fast, so his spectators never have to wait too long for him to appear!  There he is, in red, having just run under the Olympic rings:
With a time of 1:34, he finished in the top 5%.
Cooling down with Dad:
After the race, David got this pilgrim's hat painted on his face.  Pretty fancy.
With winter having set in here in Ohio, Greg's long runs are over for the season.  But I sense a few more half-marathons in the future.  (Why half?  Because sometimes half is better than whole.)

Thank you, Grammy, for these pictures!