Lil Miss and I were talking yesterday afternoon. She was all excited about Halloween and trick or treating. I described to her previous Halloweens she had and the costumes she wore. When I mentioned the year she was an elephant (she was 16 months old) she told me that she was afraid of the scarecrow. I asked her what she meant. She explained that she remembered that Halloween and remembered us sitting her on the scarecrows lap to take her picture and she was afraid of the scarecrow. I questioned her a bit more and I couldn’t believe it, she really did remember an experience from when she was 16 months old! Wow! I can’t remember hardly anything from my childhood and certainly not anything from when I was 16 months old. I think my first memory was from when I was 5 and went across the road to give the neighbor lady something from my grandmother. As a reward she told myself and the girl with me that we could choose either a sugar cookie or potato chips. I just remember it being the hardest decision of my life and wishing that she had offered us neither because it was too hard to decide.
I had an email from a Canadian friend last night. It was so devasting that I feel a need to share it with you. He wrote:
With all the news on TV about the hurricanes and destruction that the East Coast of the US is experiencing and the mud slides in the Middle East and South America and floods in Haiti, along with the dire predictions made by such films as The Day After Tomorrow, we shouldn't forget that Canada has it's share of devastating weather too. I've attached a photo illustrating the damage caused to a friend's home from a storm that passed through Vancouver a couple of days ago. It really makes you cherish what you have, and reminds us not to take things for granted.
Click to view image of destruction
This same friend also sent me a link to a cool game on the Coors web site. What a fun game. I especially like the things they said at the end of the game when I reached genius status. Give it a try!
As G-man said last night, it’s all downhill from here. The holidays are upon us. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it and then the big one, Christmas. I used to have all of my Christmas shopping done by September. I was the kind that rubbed it in your face too. “Ha ha, I have my Christmas shopping done and you haven’t even started!” Well that changed last year. Last year we skipped Christmas and went to Key West instead. We gave the kids money for Christmas before we left and took them out for a Christmas dinner. That was the extent of our Christmas last year and we loved it. G-mans family however did not love it. They told us, upon our return, how we ruined their Christmas. First, G-mans sister and mother reportedly sat by the phone all of Christmas day waiting for us to call. We didn’t call anyone because we were on roaming charges. And we had told them before hand that we wouldn’t be calling because of the roaming charges. Nonetheless, they sat around the phone all day complaining that it just didn’t feel like Christmas because we weren’t there and we hadn’t called. They said that it was the worst Christmas that they had ever had and we couldn’t skip Christmas anymore because it ruined theirs. Okaaaaayyyyyyy. Nothing like a good old guilt trip to get you in the Christmas spirit. So it looks like Christmas is on this year and no Key West for us until January. I hope I can wait that long.
