Payson, Jell-o, and Sam: Christmas-crazed

On Friday afternoon, we packed up our Thanksgiving leftovers and a couple pairs of clean underpants and jumped in the van, heading north to Payson. I had been plotting it a couple of days, but Jake doesn't like to be pinned down too early. That's how Jake rolls: his insistence on spontaneity makes things interesting around here. Somewhere around Usery Pass, Jake called his parents, so they grabbed toothbrushes and jumped on the Beeline Highway, too. Sister Liz and Aunt Nan, who was in town from Nebraska, completed the party.

Jake took our guests for a ride in the Rhino on the golf cart path Saturday morning, and they came back in with frozen faces (is that what botox looks like?). It was COLD up there. The picture at left is from last summer.

I feel certain now that all my former Christmas cheerlessness was due to our hot weather. I am feeling feisty and festive tonight. I think a couple of days in bed under a down comforter, in front of the fire, reading, eating cranberry jello, and drinking Martinelli's from the bottle, are good for a girl's constitution. I changed clothes only between my stay-at-home sweats and my hot-girl-about-town sweats. Sometimes a girl needs to get out of bed to go to Arby's and get a french dip sandwich, and for that she needs black Juicy Couture.

I took the kids for a 'hike' (along the cart path), in the 'woods' (on the golf course). After a quarter mile or so, we veered off onto some elk trails looking for lost golf balls, in similar manner to Survivorman. The kids started to freak out that we would be lost forever (between holes 2 and 3 on the Chaparral Pines Course), so Ross, the good Wolf Scout, started marking our trail with tiny bits of litter and small quartz stones he was collecting for just such an occasion. The trail went into a steep decline, and the kids thought that meant you should pick up speed, and they all ended up rolling down the hill. I showed them how to step sideways so they wouldn't slip, but they stared at me bug-eyed. I got them back on the cart path and things went more smoothly. Sam even tried to step sideways on the cement hills.

Here is what Tommy did this weekend:
Climbed stairs (only rolled down on his head once)

Had lunch in bed with Mom

Played Super Mario Brothers with Dad on relic Nintendo Jake fished out of dumpster at Higley and Baseline after Grandpa Ross chucked it.

On our way back into the neighborhood tonight, Sam started exclaiming about all the Christmas lights. We started driving around, and saw all the highlights, including the Shmeltzs', Wards', and the guy with the leg lamp on Portobello. Sam was so excited he was shaking (it could have been exacerbated by the Gatorade he'd been drinking). He told me we don't have to get ALL the decorations up tonight. We could just do half and do the rest tomorrow. Great.

Below: Sam with his pop. You can see he was half-crazed before he saw the Christmas light display.