Christmas eve. Swingin' tunes in the DVD player. Pete in the back wrapping presents. Kids in the garage. They have probably put in a full work week in hours on their latest projects - which will remain secret until tomorrow. The garage is rather chilly but they seem impervious. The good news - a home made Christmas. The bad news - the presents appear to be huge and I am sure we will be expected to find them homes somewhere in our house.

From a Facebook app. Interesting to see what it grabs and includes from your status updates.

Ghosting.
We were ghosted last night. Here is what the accompanying paper says:

You've been Ghosted!

Late last night, we left you a treat.

The tradition is fun, one we hope you'll repeat.

Take the ghost and pin it on your door,

to let the others know, you need ghosting no more.

Now it's your duty to pass on the surprise,

to at least one more family we must advise.

Gather some treats and deliver them soon,

within two nights, under the light of the moon.

Include a ghost with each package you give,

along with this poem for the tradition to live.

 The reverse of the paper has "instructions" - we are supposed to ring doorbell after dark after leaving a bag of candy and the ghost taped to the door - and don't get caught! We collect a copy of the poem and ghost from the originator's house and leave our ghost on the door so we don't get ghosted again... We can't agree on which house to ghost tonight. The one a block away or down the bottom of the hill. The bummer of it all - we had to go buy some candy today...  ;-)

Quotes from A last night while on our doggie walk: "The only things I don't like about our new house are the bugs, scorpions, and snakes" (for the record I have NOT seen any snakes although the boys report seeing them while hiking on the hill) and "Grandma has GREAT taste! Everything she likes is what I like" (I think mainly referring to her cooking and car but he might have had other things in mind too).

Friends brought this little sparkly covered keychain flask gift for liquid courage. I was photographing stuff for email thank yous (printed ones never manage to get in the mail somehow...). It cracks me up. Dog was keeping me company at the time so I decided to see how she looked sporting it. Not bad.

prettiest birthday cake I've ever gotten, originally uploaded by beverlykaytw.

Didn't manage to photograph it before we'd eaten a couple pieces :-)

mango mousse cake

mango mousse cake, originally uploaded by beverlykaytw.

many thanks to Kazumi for this lovely (and tasty) cake