Change

Well...no more nursery. Time to loose the apron and gird up the loins. I'm back in the Young Women's presidency; first counselor which puts me over the 14 and 15 year old girls. And here we go...

Winner Winner Turkey Dinner

There's a large herd of wild turkeys that come by the house every day; the boys decided they'd like to eat one for dinner. (Grandpa says they're pretty good.)

We don't have any "real" guns, so the only way to kill them with these guns is shoot the turkeys directly through the head. Otherwise the pellets would just bounce right off their thick feathers.

Yeah right. (Notice the little initials by the holes?)

Maybe some live practice would be better. (For you worriers, the gun was out of air.)

Then one morning there was a scramble in the kitchen! Michael had spotted the turkeys! He missed. Don't you love the conjunction of girly kitchen items and a man with a gun?

Adam ran to the laundry room. No luck getting them in the head.

Looser Looser Turkey Bruiser.

Minute to Winit

Natalie and Mo planned some relay games for the family to play one evening. It included picking up noodles with a noodle....

racing to put a cereal puzzle together....

which was cearalsy too hard to do in a minute...(get it? Khee hee.) I kill myself.

And fanning eggs across the room and back again with a piece of cardboard (which was a lot like bumper cars only with humans running into things)....

and lastly, a tie breaking game of "how fast can you empty your box one tissue at a time?"

Can you guess who won? We should do this again next year. Totally fun.

Janeway Mom

Since you're a Trekkie, you'll understand why, when I told Mom we should do her hair like Captain Janeway, her expression was one of excitement. "Oh! I love her hair!" (Mom has always liked Janeway's short hairstyle.)

So off to the bedroom we scampered. I don't think I've ever done Mom's hair before. It was fun! We teased, hair sprayed, curled, and hair sprayed some more. What do you say, did we get close?!

I think she totally liked it! Fun!

New Terminal

After three years in construction, the new terminal at the Sacramento airport has been completed! (Is is a major, major upgrade.) Adam and I were lucky enough to fly into and out of this wonderful space. Thank you Sacramento for giving us something spacious and interesting to look at after disembarking from a cramped journey with nothing but chair backs to stare into.

According to this video contributor, the bunny (Leap) is made from aluminum and was chosen because "many stories from different cultures are associated with the animal. Travelers are leaping into the unknown, and they all bring their own stories on their journeys." He is leaping into a ten foot suitcase at ground level.

This chandelier hangs in the center of the terminal hallway. A security guard spoke to me while I was taking pictures and said at the right time of day, sunlight hits the crystals and creates a rainbow of colors.

Too bad this is after the security checkpoint. I'd be willing to visit for a few hours just to see the light show.

Mexican Forever

It all started with this dinner and then, we had Mexican leftovers for days. Natalie and Mo made a 7 layer chip dip one night, and we had leftovers. Later, I went out with Ferrin (a good friend) and we had...Mexican. Then another evening Adam and I made Cafe Rio (Mexican) for everyone, and again there was leftovers....

But this dinner was probably the most memorable.

This year Dad started the trend on Christmas Eve. So we set the table as colorfully and kitschy as possible and hung quickly made Mexican style streamers from the ceiling.

From scratch, Dad prepared: yellow rice, black beans, lime chicken, and a family style taco platter with all the makings for our own little corn tacos. Each person got their own Jarrito flavored drink with a straw.

We had a Tres Leches cake for dessert and it was ALL delicious!

Christmas Day Snapshots

What's Christmas without a little (bad) picture taking? Here's the fam in our usual spots this year.

Don't you love Mom's earrings? Outrageous spiky things aren't they?

Michael with the smallest gift. Don't ask me what it was...it was so small it has slipped my mind.

Dad and Zuki doing their usual thing.

Total Score

Gifting ideas sometimes aren't easy to come by...but this year Zuki and Malaika scored! I wanted to share the ideas in case you have some little girls in your life too.

A few months ago I finished this Christmas present for Zuki who is totally into Rapunzel (for about $17.00). You have no idea how many times I almost blogged about this, but I wanted it to be a complete surprise.

So, come Christmas morning Zuki pulled the hair out of the box and knew exactly what it was. Putting it on immediately she went upstairs to "let her hair down". I am thrilled; it was PERFECT. (Thanks MelissaS (I think it was you), one of your blog posts gave me the idea!)

She wore this around ALL DAY—if you wanted to know where she was, just look for the braid disappearing around the corner (and now Mom's wood floors are very clean.)

Next, both girls received a fairy portal! Zuki is VERY excited to have Tinkerbell as a visitor to her house. I will let Natalie tell little story behind it and how it works. But I did want to share the idea and send you to the artist who makes these. Click here. Each portal comes with a description, is well packaged, and is amazingly detailed and tiny—about 3 inches tall—in person.

Lastly, Malaika received a swirly hat. She's not used to things on her head...but I imagine when it's cold outside she won't mind it so much...and it's totally cute! Find it here.