happy... belated... christmas!

is it over...? is it safe to come out from under the covers...? truly, with my hand of my heart, this christmas was not that horrible. au contraire, in fact! my english chocolate stash is full to overflowing, we are anniversary-ing in Cape Cod and my JoMa collection is beautifully replenished with scents like amber and lavender and nutmeg and ginger (the beautifully shaven man in JoMalone says those scents complement one another fabulously:) thank you Santa(s) <3

Sam got the most amazingly fun book from christmas from Santa :) about the various flags and license plates of the states. sounds boring right...? not at all!!! especially the little section for each state "there ought to be a law" - it's soooo funny!! i can't stop reading them and these are the ones i already know by heart:

in New Orleans it's illegal for a woman to drive a car unless her husband is waving a flag in front of it....
in Iowa, kisses must last no longer than 5 minutes and forget it altogether if you have a moustache
oh and if you have just one arm and play the piano you must do it for free :)
in Arkansas, teachers with bobbed hair can be denied a raise (rightly so!)
in Massachusetts, you may eat no more than 3 sandwiches at a wake
in Maine you must tie your shoelaces while walking
in Alaska, you may NOT take your flamingo to the barbershop.... you betcha that governor of theirs will blow it's pretty kneecaps out if she sees you breaking that law (cheeky ;)
in Purdy, Missouri you CAN NOT dance - and FORGET dirty dancing!

and Sam's other book 'the Orphan Train' is compulsive reading! i had to finish it last night even though both boys had dozed off around page 34. i had to make sure the little orphan boy found a home (he did and i could happily drift off to sleep then:)

i should walk but it's cold out there and my iPod is all George Michael. George Michael is strictly warm breeze music, not 57 degrees music.... i need to put some cold weather music on it, but i have no clue what that would be? REM is summer/fall. and you can't powerwalk to Barry. hmm. warm up already!!!!!!!!!!!! our last few days of Bush hell (woohooo!!!!!!!) really are freezing over :)

we are planning to drive to Massachusetts - our "sea to shining sea" dreamdrive. it's only 3033 miles. the roundness of that number is making me think it's entirely possible. it's only mere 14 tanks of gas, 5 nights in Residence Inns, $600 in gas, 16 hour days, 4am get-ups, endless jumping DVDs, living off nutrigrain bars and tictacs.... pictures of chickens playing tic tac toe and skyscraper size longaberger baskets as we whistle past at 100mph.... it's all soooo very doable!

christmas eve...

yuletide morn

christmas lunch with the cousins

yesterday we went fashion valley, san diego

to build Chomp and Bino-Bino, the newest dinos

and dine at Uno's (Danny had a PB&J of course) Chomp and Bino were very bad dinosaurs and tried to eat each other