“Mom, I need some tape,” Tori says as she’s holding a red and white soccer ball. Of course I’m curious so I ask her why. She answers, “because I want to make Baby Siah the Little Mushroom Guy from the driving game.” It takes me a moment but I realize what she wants to do… she was planning to tape the soccer ball to Siah’s head to make him look like Toad on Mario Cart. She thinks he is cute. See the picture... he has a red and white mushroom type head. She’s so cleaver. I wish I could say I let her try… but I didn’t. It sure would’ve been funny though. Secretly, I hope she tries and succeeds but I can’t in good conscience encourage that.
Mom, I need something to put in my panties to have a tail like Tigger. I offered her a ribbon which she refused and said, “I’m making something.” A moment later she shows up with a lego tail she made and placed proudly in her panties. Of course it fell out a few seconds later and broke apart. We had to come up with another solution. I offered to tie a scarf around her waist... she refused around her waist though and promptly stuck it into her panties. Um, not exactly what I was thinking but she was happy.
Not Tori’s ism but someone else’s … We were at the beach and this little girl of about 5 starts to play with Tori. A few minutes later some high school age girls in bikinis set up their towels behind us. The little girl looks up and says, "oh, hot chicks. My daddy loves hot chicks. I should go tell him." And she runs over to her family. I was shocked! It was funny and disturbing. Later that night at dinner Jeff and I are joking about it and we said something about hot guys on the beach… Tori starts to laugh and says, “silly Daddy, there weren’t hot guys on the beach, they had their sunscreen on.”
While watching the news a couple days after the inauguration- “Barack Obama is my favorite… Barack, rhymes with rock and she continues to say his name over an over.”
Thanks Mimi and Papa for the tent. The little monkeys love it.
Yum, 
Shelley's boyfriend Scott gave us all tickets to Zoo Lights for Christmas. Thanks Scott... it was a lot of fun. There were tons of light decorations. They were even in sync with the music. Tori loved seeing the elephant.
Tori and Auntie Shelley had fun making a gingerbread house- Yummy!
Our stockings are filled by Santa... he only gets credit for the little things in our family. We don't really focus on Santa but Tori's into it, so we play along. 
For Tori and Josiah's main present we made a train board. We collected parts and trains from friends (thank you sooo much) and Craig's List to make this fun board. Josiah immediately climbed into the middle of it and proceeded to remove anything that wasn't glued down. It slides under the couch when not in use. We really felt like we were in Santa's workshop while we were making it. We'd sneak out to the carport each evening after the kids went to sleep and work. It was freezing outside so we'd come in and warm up with hot cocoa.
Our Christmas morning tradition is to enjoy a nice breakfast together... we make Monkey Bread the night before and bake it while we are opening presents. It fills the house with the delicious smells of cinnamon. We put a candle in it and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus before enjoying.
Stockings are full and hung on the bookcase with care, presents are out...it's time for visions of sugar plums (what is a sugar plum anyway?) Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.
