Anya: But Daddy, I want the DORA yogurt!
Daddy: We don’t have any Dora yogurt.
Anya: But DORA!
Daddy: Anya, I’ll tell you a secret. The yogurt you have is the same as the Dora yogurt.
[pause]
Anya: What?
Daddy: The yogurt company puts the same yogurt in this one and the one that has Dora on the outside.
Anya: Why?
Daddy: Because they think if Dora is on the outside, more kids will want to eat it.
[pause]
Anya: That’s SILLY!

My mother is on a sewing roll. Anya and I like this very much because it means packages in the mailbox full of fun new clothes. While the clothes are not for me, they kind of are because I get as much (if not more?) enjoyment out of them as Anya.

Here is Anya modeling her new jammies. You may recognize this fabric from my jammies (Mommy has a jammy dress, and I have jammy pants and shirt!) back around Christmas. This one was a surprise to me because I didn’t realize (or had forgotten) there was any more of this fabric hanging out in Mom’s sewing closet.

This vest I love. I want to wear this vest. I tried wearing it on my head because it fit on my head, but Anya got mad and stole it back. I don’t know if you can tell, but it is reversible. The other side is pink with an awesome and glittery star patch on the pocket. Oh, how I love this vest.

Anya posed for the camera in a yoga pose from school. At least she said it was a yoga pose, and it looks yoga-y to me. Perhaps it is called “Soaring Owl with New Vest?”

Another package came yesterday with a new jumper and pants, but I haven’t taken a picture yet. Soon!

Isn’t she cute in the new outfit Gramma Cheryl made? Just like a sweet little lamb. Aww.

Who’d suspect such a sweet pixie of being able to produce banshee wails? I suppose anyone who has been around when she was getting her hair washed. We only wash her hair every week or two. Sometimes longer if our ears are feeling particularly sensitive and her hair still looks fine. I don’t know what the deal is. We’ve tried giving her lots of warning, and we’ve tried springing it on her. We’ve washed the dollies’ hair, our hair, Gramma’s hair to show her it’s okay. We’ve tried the shower, tub, and sink. (When the weather warms up, we’ll try a hose.) We’ve used tearless shampoo and magic green fairy shampoo. What’s next? Maybe swim goggles? Sedatives? Earplugs (for us)?

• Friday morning when Andy went to take a shower, he was very sad to discover there was no water. Luckily the water man was able to come out later that morning, and several hours and a bunch of $$$ later, we had water again. Water Man had to replace the electric cable going from the surface to the pump, 310 feet below. That is a lot of cable.
• Our new kitchen counters have a grudge against glass. This week, the counters have destroyed a glass storage jar and my favorite FiestaWare drinking glass. Stone is very unforgiving. We probably should have installed cork counters instead.
• I miss Buddy. It’s strange to be outside without him around. Every now and then, Anya will start talking about him, and I’m caught off guard. The silver lining is there is less peeing outside the litter box in the house, and Little Kitty seems to have become a new, much more happy cat.
• I quilled yesterday. Since when is “quill” a verb, you ask? What is quilling? Pretty much, it’s rolling thin strips of paper around a thing that looks like an icepick (back in the days they used a quill). You make little circles or teardrops or other shapes, and then put many of them together to make a flower or snowflake or whatever. There is a lot of squinting involved.
• Anya and I built a house for her fairies out of a small box. It’s more like a shack, but I guess with a little glittler glue even a shack can be fabulous.
• I’ve cooked dinner every weeknight for the past two weeks. No mac and cheese, though I did use hamburger helper one day. I really need to do a menu plan because really the worst part of cooking is figuring out what to make.
• Our dishwasher still isn’t hooked up. Boo.
• Last weekend Anya wanted to make a snowman. We went outside, but the snow was powder and wouldn’t stick together. The next day, the snow started melting, so we were able to make a snowman. Anya kept singing the Frosty song, and when we put the hat on the snowman, Anya said, “Happy Birthday!” And then she was extremely sad because the snowman did not come to life. We explained to her that we did not have a magic hat, alas. She seemed to recover quickly from this setback.



• Doing a load of laundry every day really is easier than doing waiting and doing several loads all at once. It only takes a few minutes to get everything folded and put away. The only downside is that Anya doesn’t have much time to jump on the bed and dance to Strawberry Shortcake in the time it takes me to fold one load of clothes. Oh well, sacrifices.
• The other day Anya said, “My baby cousin is in my Aunt Becca’s tummy.” Last weekend, she had an imaginary baby we had to carry around. We had to put the baby in her car seat, carry the car seat out to the car, and put the car seat in the seat next to Anya. She got very upset if we left the baby behind. I’ve heard of kids having imaginary friends, but imaginary babies? Will she grow up into an imaginary friend?
• I made a little color matching game for Anya that uses paint chips and clothes pin. I saw the activity on Me? A Mom?, but I think I had more fun with it than Anya did.



• I hung out with my scrapbook pals yesterday and finished my 2008 book. Time to start 2009! I want to buy a bunch of new inks for the 2009 book, but, alas, I am retired. Where is my SS check!?!?

At dinner tonight, Anya serenaded us with some classics:

Old Mac Donald had some pants, oy, oy, oy.

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but pants.

A-B-C-D-E-F-Pants
H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-Pants
R-S-T-U-V-Pants
W-X-Y-Pants
Now I know my ABC’s, won’t you come have pants with me?

Hush little baby, don’t say a word
Mama’s gonna buy you a turkey bird,
And if that turkey bird doesn’t gobble,
Mama’s gonna buy you some pants that wiggle.

Rock-a-bye baby in the tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, pants and all.

2011 brings a really big change to our lives, and it will be very interesting to see what unfolds. We’ll see how we do at our goals this year. Many of the goals are carried over from last year, and a few were developed via ouija board. In some cases, the person for whom the goals are stated were not consulted before, during, or after creation of said goals.

Dad

• Get the floors done
• Finish painting the kitchen
• Remove all clutter from the surface of the secondary desk in the office
• Hang the curio shelf
• Buy a Mac

Mom

• Sew Carol a knitting needle case
• Get three estimates for bathroom remodel
• Make winter pajamas for Anya before September
• Make two jumpers for Anya
• Finish Carol’s bathmat
• Make Anya’s rainbow blanket

Craig

• Graduate
• Get an awesome job with spiffy new degree
• Become a green belt in kung fu

Andy

• Activate new dishwasher
• Finish the plant room
• Finish putting in the trim and painting the “hallway” area of the basement
• Paint the dining room
• Install new kitchen window

Carol

• Explore at least three new national/state parks
• Send cards out for all birthdays and anniversaries to arrive no more than a week late
• Finish Anya’s Christmas stocking
• Finish 2009 and 2010 books
• Clean up and maintain the berry bed
• Grow a garden with Anya and maintain it

Kenny

• Get drivers license
• Learn to stand on head
• Eat ten hot dogs in five minutes (with buns)
• Sing in the shower every day

Anya

• Learn to ride tricycle
• Learn to count over 20
• Grow a garden with Mommy
• Learn to write her name
• Snuggle Mommy every day

It’s time for our family performance evaluations. I requested everyone’s self evaluations, but I didn’t get any back. No raises for anyone this year. Here’s what we said we’d do this year. (Or what I said people would do in the case of everyone but my mom.) The italicized items were done or at least worked on.

Dad

+ Quit complaining (Not totally, but Mom says it’s a lot better.)
+ Help Mom paint the bedroom by Mom’s birthday (A few months late, but done!)
+ Get the floors done
+ Finish painting the kitchen
+ Fix the microwave handle
+ Build a pond and waterfall in the yard

Mom

+ Sew Carol a knitting needle case before the end of January
+ Get three estimates for bathroom remodel
+ Make winter pajamas for Anya before September
+ Make two jumpers for Anya
+ Work on Craig’s afghan with Carol (Done and being used!)
+ Finish Carol’s bathmat

Craig

+ Do well in school
+ Learn to juggle flaming torches
+ Teach Chewy to run an agility course
+ Bench press 300 pounds
+ Write memoirs
+ Join a woodwind ensemble

Carol

+ Finish Anya’s year 1 scrapbook
+ Finish Anya’s year 2 scrapbook (Half done.)
+ Enter something in the county fair (Didn’t even go to the fair!)
+ Work on Craig’s afghan with Mom (Done and being used!)
+ As a family, go on a hike or camp once a month
+ Complete a 5k walking race

Andy

+ Finish the plant room
+ Finish laying the floor, putting in the trim, and painting the “hallway” area of the basement (Floor done, trim almost done.)
+ Refinish the floors in the sun room and Anya’s room (And painted Anya’s room!)
+ Take a beginner’s blacksmith class
+ Finish prepping the wood for the kitchen / living room floors (Went with purchased flooring, installed and finished it, took down a wall, replaced base cabinets, made calkboard wall, started painting.)
+ Get the generator fixed up

Kenny

+ Make a five course meal from scratch
+ Paint a picture for Carol
+ Learn to play the guitar
+ Go on a date with the captain of the cheer leading squad
+ Get an A in English
+ Ride across the country on a bicycle

Anya

+ Ditch the diapers
+ Learn colors
+ Learn shapes
+ Learn to ride tricycle (To be fair, our driveway isn’t very conducive to triking.)
+ Paint a picture for Mommy
+ Learn to play the bongos, eukelele, and recorder

Looks like Anya is the winner! For her accomplishments, she wins a nice crunchy pickle! Soggy pickles for everyone else.

I don’t know if Andy and I are gonna pull off this Santa thing. There are so many details to keep track of! For those Santa newbies like us, here are a few tips:

• Don’t put packages of crisps in the stockings when she’s seen stacks of them sitting around the house.
• Make sure to set aside some presents for Santa to deliver. If you put all the presents under the tree as you get them, you find yourself sitting around on Christmas Eve thinking, “Huh. What is Santa going to bring?”
• Don’t discuss how you bought that salsa verde Santa put in Bubba’s stocking for real cheap in a case deal on the Kmart website.
• Remember to put out cookies. Then remember to eat some/part of the cookies. Do not move the cookies. Santa does not move the cookies.

I find myself wondering if the whole Santa thing is really even worth it for this kid. She doesn’t seem to really talk about Santa much, and I think if there were no Santa for her, she’d probably just go about Christmas merrily as ever. But, it seems sort of wrong to not have the jolly old dude be part of Christmas, so I guess we’ll keep working with him each year. Maybe if Santa was a fairy instead of an elf, Anya would be more interested.

This was definitely A Very Fairy Christmas.

We have to build an annex to the house for all of Anya’s new fairy and princess stuff. Oh wait, she got her own house, too!

Some solar panels and a composting toilet, and she’s set! First, though, she needs to get a dumpster delivered, so she can clean up her homesite.