St. Philip's moves

Ok, I know I said I wouldn't do another post about St. Philip's, and I hate to bump Macon from top billing on his birthday, but if you're interested, click here to watch a video from the Winston-Salem Journal. It's free from commentary, but it documents the building's passage through Germanton. The building starts moving at around the 2:30-minute mark and almost immediately, they start trimming Grandma and Grandpa's trees. The final scene of it crossing Buffalo Creek at the north end of town is heartbreaking.

2

 Happy Birthday, Macon! We love you! 

from day 1 . . . 

to day 730

it's that time of year . . .

Christmas card outtakes! 

the fire truck gets a tune-up

happy thanksgiving!

We've just returned from Grandma's and Grandpa's, where we didn't snap a single picture! But I should have because it was a pretty historic day given that we've never had, in my memory, Thanksgiving in Germanton. Then, after that notable milestone on Thursday, we opened up today's paper to Grandpa brandishing a sword! Intrigued? Click here to read about his research into Wake Forest during the Civil War.

thanksgiving pageant

Yesterday was the preschool's annual Thanksgiving Feast. The festivities included a little pageant, marking Macon's stage debut. How did it go? See for yourself. And how did this compare to Jed's first performance? Well, at least Jed stayed on stage.



Jed, the seasoned veteran, opted out of most of the signs in the blessing.


And some still shots . . .

Thanks to Grandma, Grandpa and Teddie for joining us! (And to Grandpa for staying awake.)

And after some coaxing from Jed and Grandpa, Macon warmed up to the stage. Too bad half of everyone had left by then. 

overheard

In the last 24 hours, Jed has shared several insights with Macon and me: 

Jed to Macon, "The best way you can help me with this project is to go stand over there." 

Jed to Macon, "You think you're helping me, but you're not." 

Jed to me, "That's not the way the world works." 

parade II

Two years ago, we took Jed to Raleigh's Christmas parade. As you may recall, he was not a fan. Since then, he's experienced small-scale neighborhood parades at the Fourth of July and Mardi Gras and he's had similarly bad reactions every time: parades are too noisy!

Thus, with Jed's previous parade experiences in mind, I agreed to meet my cousin and his family at the parade but with the understanding that we wouldn't be bothering with an early arrival to claim a prime spot because I couldn't imagine we'd really be there very long. Also, I didn't mention the parade to Jed until yesterday. He asked a few questions about it and at some point, I causally mentioned that Santa would be at the end of the parade.

What? Who? Santa?!?

Can we talk to Santa? No, you just wave as he goes by. Can I wave to him? Yes. Will he see me? Yes, if you wave really big. After the parade is over, can I talk to him? No, but sometimes he visits other places around town where you can talk to him. I'm going to make a necklace for Santa. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Little did I know that if Jed knew that Santa would be at the end of the parade, he could be brave enough to tolerate marching band after marching band after marching band. Still, we didn't leave our house very early and when we arrived, we found ourselves on one side of the street and our cousins on the other. Without Moses' help, we were not able to cross the street, so we never met up with the Wilsons, but Jed stuck it out til the end!

trying to keep warm inside Daddy's jacket

post Santa smiles

drawing

Stokes County time

Despite Macon and me coming down with The Cold, we've been to Germanton where, as always, a good time was had by all. 

First, I can safely say that Jed's depiction of St. Philip's 

is much more beautiful than St. P's current chopped-up state. 

funny faces at breakfast

Macon became obsessed with two pilgrim figurines on Grandma's table and he fed them at every meal. 

an uncontrolled controlled burn on Pilot Mountain

We don't live here because . . . ?

And we finished the trip on a high note by meeting up with Ellie, Eli and Ezra at Moratock Park in Danbury for some serious rock-throwing this morning. 

at home

Yesterday, Jed started coming down with a cold and at 11:30 last night, he started a croupy cough. Eric sat with him in a steamy bathroom for a while, and then I "slept" with him in the guest room, periodically moving our flat-on-my-stomach-sleeper up onto pillows when he would have trouble breathing. 

Jed seems to be improving steadily, but he's home from school today. Luckily, we got a diaper shipment in a big box yesterday, which, when combined with benches and two paper plates, means we have a new fire truck in the house.

clearly

The time change was invented by someone with a demented, deep-seated disdain for parents. Maybe he or she had a bad experience in a too-pricey-for-children restaurant where some ill-advised parents had brought screaming children. Maybe he or she suggested that having a child was like having a dog* and got snapped at by an offended parent. I don't know what happened, but we are all paying the price. 

Luckily, we have some photos from happier times (yesterday) when we visited Marbles with our friend Penny and her parents. 

Shortly after we returned home, napping ensued. 

*For the record, I think the differences between dogs and children are few, and their similarities have been the subject of blog post that I've been working on for years. 

treats!

We get an insane number of trick-or-treaters, so if you're wondering what 860 pieces of candy looks like or how fast one can give out that quantity, look no further than here. 

c-a-n-d-y!

jack-o-lanterns: an evil one of my design and a happy one of Jed's design

 pre-costume smiles

diver and shark

At the beach this summer, Jed participated in a question and answer session with divers in the aquarium's shark tank, and soon thereafter, he declared his intention of being a diver for Halloween. Eric and I suggested that Macon could be a sweet little sea turtle, but Jed turned him into a shark. Macon, however, would not cooperate with the head-gear, so he just sported fins. 

to our first house . . . 

seasoned pros take to the street

While the boys were out, Eric started manning the door a little bit before 6 p.m. 

By 8:15, we were out of candy. By our best estimate and the estimates of others in the neighborhood, we probably saw about 700 kids. 

the line at our house