Here's this year's Zoe and Santa picture. This was taken at Bass Pro Shop. We waited for at least an hour, after giving up on the 2 1/2 hour wait the day before.

The taxidermy reindeer are a nice touch, if a tad morbid. And if you look closely, it seems Santa should have been more careful with the band saw in the toy factory.

A (small but important) Lesson Learned

Don't buy off-brand packing tape. Buy the good stuff. Otherwise, once you let it stick to itself, you'll spend the next hour sounding like a bad-tempered pirate while attempting to get it going again.

Trust me, it's worth the extra dollar.

Chaos Begets Blogging?

I haven't blogged since May. So why now, when everything is chaos, am I suddenly moved to blog? (Note that during that sentence I had to get up twice - once to get my daughter a new spoon, and the next moment to clean lime yogurt off her feet.)

I think everyone suffers chaos in December. There's too much to do, too little money, too little time. And seven unexpected things that go wrong. Expensive car repairs. Relatives coming in from the same city on two different flights that land hours apart on the same day. Two colds in a row. Worry about the norovirus shutting down schools. Doctor's appointments. Cats attacking the Christmas tree. Artic weather.

And yet I'm painting every day. I finally joined the local artists group, and will volunteer with their auction in the new year. I'm hopeful that I'll meet some artists, as I don't know any here yet. (Though that will be about when D gets a new job in Seattle or San Fran, most likely. His current contract ends in May, and that seems to be where the offers are coming from.)

It's funny - we look forward to Christmas all year, and then - some of us, at least - look forward to New Year's and the chance to relax, at least a little.