Santaland Diaries

Riding Macy's wooden escalator to the 8th floor.
Making small talk with elves.
Going through the line not once, but twice (Elliot didn't get a good enough look at the trains the first time).
Not even bothering to get Harper out of her bear suit for her first ever Santa photo.
Capturing Santa's blank, creepy expression.
Having a random stranger on the subway refuse to let go of my hand after I let him shake it.

All worth it. Thanks, Santaland. See you next year.

Sick

Chris had a nasty cold over Thanksgiving.
I came down with strep the day he got better.
Harper has had a hacking cough since before Halloween. This week she started wheezing too.
Elliot's cough is finally gone, but came down with a 24-hour bug last week that made him run a fever of 104.
And since Thursday morning, my right tonsil has become inflamed and hurts so bad that it feels like someone is sticking a needle into my eardrum. I'm planning on calling every ENT in town this morning and begging them to see me.

Let it end! (Santa? Are you hearing that? That is officially my Christmas wish.)

They Like Each Other

Well, at least most of the time.

Tire Swing

Thanks for the picture, Jaime.

Our Sweet Girl

Halloween

We got one moustache picture before Elliot opted for a clean-shaven look. After the ward party on Saturday, we headed up to Connecticut for some "real" trick-or-treating on Sunday. My favorite part of the evening? Elliot's enthusiasm over seeing stars. "Look, Mom. A star! A star!" Hmmm... he must live in the city.

It was FREEZING, so Harper and I only made it to a few houses, but the rest of the crew made it around the neighborhood. Then we all ate ourselves sick, took a few pictures, and drove home.

"It's me, Mario!"

Link Josh and Volk Caleb (Nintendo was big with the Kemsley/Patton's this year)

"Milk and Cookies"

The View from Our Window

The crazy thing is, I'm so used to hearing fire trucks (there is a station down the street from us) that I didn't even realize our building was surrounded by them until friends started calling to check and see if we were okay. Then I looked out the window and saw this. Actually, I saw firemen climbing that ladder (to the 10th floor), smoke billowing out of the windows and bricks falling -- but couldn't pick my jaw up off the floor in time to get a picture of that.

Fortunately, smoke rises and we're on the second floor. Unfortunately -- we are stuck. And poor Jack R. is stuck with us. They aren't letting anyone in the building -- so if you leave you are out for good. And I don't have a good way to get any information. Right now I am just hoping that no one was inside that apartment at the time of the fire.