Christmas season is officially here!

Deck the Halls!!! Or perhaps just my living room. We broke down and bought a nice fake tree this year; one that we could use over the years that really looks like a tree. We have been using a "paper" tree (I guess that is what they are called), for the last couple of years and needed a change. So we invested in one the day after Thanksgiving. We even bought a plugin that smells like pine. But it is official, Christmas is coming. Music is in the air. Lights are up. Lists are longer this year. And the kids are counting the days until Santa shows up. Here are some pics...

Luke and Maia are snuggled up playing DS's together.

On a side note, some students of mine had asked if I would do what is called "No Shave November" and I said sure. ( I had no idea that it was for colon cancer research). But now I know. It lasted a whole 12 days until I shaved it all off. I came home from work and kissed Coralie. According to her, I sand-papered her upper lip off with presumably a mustache made out of steel wool. So after many days of empty hugs and hollow kisses where she barely graced me, I decided it was all going to have to go. Here is a brief documentary on the removal process.

Mustache and Beard...

Cop Mustache...

Hitler Salute...

Baby Faced...

It was the first time that I ever tried to grow something over two days. It is overrated though. My face was all itchy and the girls complained however, Luke thought I was a true man and wanted one also. My mustache and neck grew the best though.

On a final note, I was looking for a star to put on our tree and it was revealed to me this beautiful, wonderful ornament. I thought it was cute until Coralie pushed the button. I fell in love with her all over again.

I never did get the star, but I'll settle for Star Wars... especially Han vs. Greedo.

Men... What do you do with them?

Hilarious!

Well... here he is. Luke is finally growing out of the grunge stage that all boys go through and deciding that looking good really is good. I don't know what happened but he figured that looking decent doesn't need to cost him much. Clean shirt, smart tie, combed hair, and voila! A young man. I was honored that he asked me how to tie a tie. I never learned until I was 17. He is ahead of my generation by a few years. So I taught him the single Windsor; my favorite of them all. Note Luke's concentration powers.

The Focus.

The Hand-Eye Coordination (from years of Nintendo).

The Guidance.

The Epiphany.

That's is my son. It is crazy how fast he is growing. Less than 2 years and he will be in middle school. He is a fine young man.

Halloween 2011

Here's Maia trying on her costume and showing her scary claws! She's been a wolf for probably a month already. =)

Maia's showing me her tail. She loves her tail!

Casey and I ready to attend the Masquerade Ball. He wore the mask he bought when he went to Italy. It looked so good! And check out those boots I found for $2 at a thrift store...I did awesome.

Here's Katie Belle as Kirby. Her costume was a HIT! Everyone liked it but all the young guys handing out candy were the ones who recognized Kirby and LOVED it! She was also the most excited about her costume. She was soooo proud of it! =)

And here are all of us. Luke was Racer-X from Speed Racer and Sadie was Luminara, a Jedi from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoons. They were all happy with their costumes!

We had a great Halloween! Last Friday we had a Ward party and Trunk-or-Treat. The kids loved showing off their costumes to their friends and got a bunch of candy BEFORE Halloween. I even won a prize for one of the best adult costumes! =) Then Monday we dressed up again to go trick-or-treating and hang out at Jeanie's house. It's funny but going to Jeanie's house has become one of our Halloween traditions. This year, we decided to trick-or-treat in Jeanie's neighborhood until kids were tired of it and then we went back to hang out with Jeanie and help pass out their candy. Just good fun with family. I couldn't ask for more.