Wii are family.

There has been a whole lot of Wii sports playing going on around here lately, and the competitive juices are flowing. Micah holds a bowling record of 265 with an unprecedented 11 strikes in one game.

But don't think for a minute that it's just a game. Virtual athleticism is no joke people. (We were so pumped up from all of the Wii bowling that we all went to the real bowling alley to see how our cyber skills translated into real life and it was dismal. My score on Wii: 225, my score in real life: 89).

We had a yummy brunch at Thayer Hall after church on sunday. It was Skylar's naptime but just as he was about to melt down we started in on the desert buffet....and suddenly her spirits lifted. She really enjoyed her biscotti....specifically the chocolate side.

You can't beat the view of the Hudson river:

Skylar was too busy to be in the pictures (note the filthy knees).

Today Margaret, Bekah, Micah, Dennis and I decided to hit the West Point slopes for opening day. It was Bekah and Denise's first time. Nobody told Bekah how to stop so she pointed her skis downhill and screamed straight to the bottom. Denise on the other hand carried one ski around and ate candy out of his front poncho pocket.

We had to stop for a pizza break.

What is even cooler than wind pants? Why a windjacket tucked into windpants of course. A fanny pack would have put it over the top though. Maybe next time.

At the end of the day Bekah and Denise had mastered skiing so Bekah and I switched equipment for a little while. As it turns out, she should have been boarding all along, she was a natural! Me on skis....not so much.

The nice green golf course was right next to the slopes. Colorado skiing it was not, but for only $7 and $11 respectively, you sure can't beat he price of a lift ticket!

Christmas in Highland Falls.

We enjoyed our first cozy WHITE Highland Falls Christmas this year. The trees were decorated (and undecorated by you-know-who):

My mom made this festive table arrangement. I was impressed!

I love these old wooden skis:

The entire town is decorated with little cadets and my parents yard is no exception.

There are eight bedrooms similar to this and they will ALL be full with family by New Years Eve.

Noni and Skylar took a nap in preparation for Christmas Eve festivities:

The stocking were hung and stuffed and eventually cut down because they couldn't contain everything:

And there was the pitter patter of little christmas feet:

Cynthia and Shiggy came and spent Christmas Eve with us!

We went to the candlelight service at the Cadet Chapel and it was beautiful!

The Rues and Morinagas reunited....temporarily.

Christmas morning and Skylar's yawn about sums it up.....she was completely overwelmed.

Please meet the newest member of our family--the clemson snuggie! Josh modeled his new argyle sweater with just a hint of crispy chest hair. All he needs is a gold chain and the ladies will swoon.

This is Dennis, a family friend from Camden who joined us for Christmas this year. Isn't he the cutest? He's single ladies.

Christmas morning is sheer chaos:

The chaos is followed by naps, then eating, then another nap, then more eating.......

Hope you all had a very merry and blessed Christmas!

Happy Feet

You all need to go to your local Payless and pick up a pair of these cute little slippers (minus the piece of lint on my toe) for only SIX DOLLARS. They're on sale right now. I've recently rediscovered Payless after an 8 year hiatus and they seem to have really improved things. For that price you can afford to show your feet a little love and tell them Merry Christmas from yourself. (They come in three cute colors, I had a hard time choosing).

In other news, Skylar is offering you her personal training services. She is willing to sit on your neck and help you stretch for a nominal fee. (She's also in that "naked and free" toddler stage so I let her run around in her diaper a lot these days).
It appears there will be no picture with Santa this year. Skylar ran up and took the candy cane he offered, told him thank you and ran back to me before I could even get a picture. That was fine with me. Ever since I heard on the news a couple of years ago that a large number of Santa's have criminal records, I haven't looked at them the same way. She sure enjoyed the candy cane though and I think she learned an important lesson: taking free candy from creepy men is totally fine as long as they look like Santa.

Fueled by that sugary goodness she then went up to the candy dispenser display at the mall (how do they even know what this stuff is if they've never had it???) and proceeded to hug and kiss each one.

I guess she was hoping if she showed them a little love they would reciprocate and give up a gumball. If only it were that easy.

My "sad report" for the day.

So tonight I decided to go shopping at 9 pm and take advantage of the extended shopping hours and empty stores. I had a short and definitive list of things I was looking for and the plan was to first go to TJ Maxx HomeGoods to see what bargainy miracles awaited me and then finish up at Target. Great!

Except, when I got to TJ I got a wee bit side tracked by a cute pair of jeans. You know I'm always looking and ever hopeful and really plans are stupid anyway. So after I had finished the rest of my shopping I stopped at the dressing room to try them on (against my better judgement I might add). I was the only person around and there was a half-asleep attendant who looked like the extended hours were kicking her butt.

What followed is hard to believe and yet 100% factual.

I held up the jeans and said "I have one". She said, "I need you to hang it up on this bar so I can count them". Um....o-o-okay. I dutifully hang up the pair of jeans. She stares at them for a second and then says "Okay, you can take them back" and hands me a "1" tag. I suppress my giggle and go try them on.

They didn't fit right (as is usually the case) so I came back out and was getting ready to add them to the discard rack when the attendant said "I'll need you to hang them back on the bar so I can count your item again". Really? I mean really???? Surely she is joking. But after staring at her for a few awkward seconds I realized she was totally serious. Okay, so the first time it was funny but now I'm just sad for her. I couldn't help but ask "Do you guys have a big stealing problem or something?" To which she replies, "Not really, this is just how we are trained".

As we southerners like to say "bless her heart".

Toddler Bliss

Skylar's two favorite things these days are:

1) her daily piece of advent chocolate from her calender granbabe gave her (she never forgets about it and eats it with breakfast which makes me a little proud because I think chocolate for breakfast is a great idea)

2) a swim in her over sized tub.

Thankfully water is included in our rent so we fill this sucker up every day for her!

The fun starts in Lugoff.

We decided to go to church with my grandparents at First Baptist Camden last Sunday (the church where we got married). Skylar was happy to check out a new nursery. When I used to drop her off at our old church nursery she was always way more dressed up than the other kids who usually wore play clothes. I like putting her in dresses, so that's just what she wore and nobody cares one way or another in Colorado. But here it's a different story. The other little girls were dressed to the nines in their frilly smocked Christmas outfits and elaborate bows. Skylar looked like a ragamuffin. Not that I cared, I thought she was cute, but it just made me realize yet again that we are in a totally different culture here.She wore a little anklet that my friend Amy Hilton made her. Thanks Amy!!

We thought it would be fun to go see the Christmas lights at night at the Zoo in Columbia. It was drizzly and in the mid 50's but when we pulled into the parking lot there were parents zipping their kids into full blown snowsuits as though the drizzle was actually ice or snow...or something even a little bit cold.

Bekah made friends with this furry little guy:

And Josh had fun milking the fake cow with rubber udders.......

Other than that we've just been hanging out in Lugoff with my grandparents. They're only 20 minutes away and Nana has cooked dinner for us almost every night since we got here! Typically we do something wild and crazy like this (Josh is playing digital Yahtzee):

Skylar is loving all of the extra attention from her entourage of adults:These are Nana's orthopedic shoes. She assured me that at some point you just stop caring and it's all about the comfort and that this is what I will be wearing some day too. And so will you. Consider yourself warned.
Skylar adores Coco the poodle. All she talks about all day is "cocococococococo". He's so sweet with her and just sat there while we put the hat on him over and over again.
Today was spent at the hospital with Josh. He had his fifth (and hopefully last) knee surgery today. Everything went well and Bekah is currently pulling night shift. Josh was relieved that they got new hospital gowns since the last time he was there. Not only was it significantly longer than the old kind--very important when your that tall--but it also plugged into the wall so you could blow hot or cold air through them. Doesn't that sound fun?

I'm baaaack.

I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to blog about something over the last couple of weeks. We are now in our apartment in South Carolina and just got our Internet hooked up today. So here I am sitting on the edge of a baby gate for a chair (we have no furniture yet) blissfully uploading my pictures. I'm officially home. (Apparently, home is where you set up your computer. And yes I realize how sad that sounds.)

It's nice to not be traveling anymore. We've had some adventures along the way, but other than getting rear-ended on the highway in NC, I can't really think of them right now. The highway patrolman was decidedly unpleasant with me as he informed me he didn't have to write me a police report if the damage to my car was under $1000. Let's just say southern hospitality doesn't necessarily extend to misplaced Yankees. (If you aren't sure if you're a Yankee than that probably means you are).

So I'll stick with pictures for now.

Here are Skylar and Granbabe playing "taco" in the new dog bed (before it was used by a dog):

Sweet kisses:)

The horses are always a big attraction, but it was SO COLD that we didn't get to spend too much time outside or in the barn.

Here's Skylar picking up the "Osage oranges" and I have absolutely no idea what that means. I just know they fall from the trees and Skylar enjoyed harvesting them.

She takes her job as a farm girl very seriously.

Her Great Aunt Karen came over for dinner bearing gifts. Skylar loved all of the thoughtful things Karen brought her, but especially these puzzles!

Meanwhile, Bill was hard at work making all sort of yummy things for us. I really need his recipe for turkey curry sliders.....so good!
I found this on my camera, probably taken by Gayle, of Skylar showing off her penguins. She loves her penguin and monkey jammies the best!

I also got to spend a great afternoon with Marie and her girls, but of course I was so busy talking that I didn't snap one picture! I realized it later and was so mad at myself!

We ended up leaving Leavenworth a little sooner than expected because we were trying to beat a snowstorm and see Dave Zupancic before he deployed. Amy Armstrong graciously let us stay with her on short notice and we had the best time!

Dave and Micah the evening before he deployed:

Amy made us some muffins from Barb (her sour dough starter, yes she named it) and they were AMAZING and picture perfect to boot:

Amy having a morning beverage and being fabulous.

It was so good to spend time hanging out and catching up (and the Nut and Berry Martinis weren't bad either!).

Skylar was being a bit uncooperative in this picture. We think she's getting ready to turn 2 or something.

All in all, we spent 6 days driving and Skylar was great in the car. We rolled into Spartanburg, South Carolina around lunch time and went to Bojangles (Micah got to pick) for our inaugural meal. While we were there (none of us ate fried chicken, so I'm not sure why we went) one of the other customers saw Skylar and said in her southern drawl "Who baby that is? She be so cuuuuute". Micah giggled with glee and said "We are officially in the South".

And boy am I going to have fun blogging about it..........