Here's the sun!

The sun favored us today with an appearance - it was a bright and clear Christmas, though still on the cool side with a brisk wind. We got up early (as usual), had breakfast, and headed over to Sherry's for Xmas Morning: Santa had got the memo that we were out of town, and decided to fill some stockings for Isaac and Bella at Sherry's house, while leaving the other presents for us back in Edina. Santa is sure flexible.

Bella's stocking had some great stones and glass marbles that looked like planets. Nature girl was thrilled. Isaac was fixated on his candy cane and made a horrible mess. The boys (James and Henry) got their main Xmas, with loads of great books and tools. We got them matching "Cyber Surfers" which are remote controlled helicopters in the shape of a surfing robot. They spent the morning crashing them in the house, and the afternoon learning how to fly them for real... by the evening they were actually good at flying them! Ah, perseverance.

Henry showed us a very cool thing about chickens: When you hold them, they want to keep their heads in place in 3 dimensional space. So if you move the body up or down or back and forth, they'll stretch or scrunch their neck to keep the head in the EXACT same XYZ coordinates. If you pull it too far, they'll snap the head to a new location and try to hold it there. This could explain how they walk too: They move forward, moving under their head, until it's uncomfortable, and then they snap the head forward into a new holding position... I was amazed - wonder what sort of little GPS in in that head?

In the afternoon, us MEN went with a WW2 era forklift and pulled some dead trees out of a ravine near the farm, dragging them with a chain to a bonfire location. 6 feet of shipping pallets formed the core, with 7-9 foot lengths of wood stacked around in a teepee shape. When we lit that sucker, it was probably visible from space. Oddly, the family didn't congregate around the flame - I think it was just borderline too dangerous to risk Isaac wandering toward. They stayed inside and worked off their food comas with some Spongebob. Sherry has been whipping up some wonderful meals for us out here - we're very lucky to have her hospitality.

Hoping the weather holds for tomorrow - we'd love to walk around Chico a bit (maybe get the RIGHT walking crab). And apparently there's a VERY good sushi restaurant right around the corner from me... Maybe Isaac would like some sushi? (I know - kids get the cooked stuff.) If nothing else, I might like to visit El Patio one more time too... See if Isaac will eat another bowl of Pico de Gallo? ;-> Little mister sweet tooth hasn't been quite as agreeable with subsequent meals - he's zeroing in on where the candy and cookies are in any room and demanding them. Along with any wine, Diet Coke, or whiskey he can see... which is just strange.

Final note: Bella and I went shopping on Xmas Eve and she demanded the silliest hat I've ever seen: A black cap with black spikes, and on the ends of the spikes, eyeballs on strings. Here it is if you're curious. She's been wearing it pretty much non-stop for 2 days now, and it's definitely her "Christmas Look". She just looks... happy... when she's wearing it.