Christmas Photo Dump, Installment Numero Uno

 First of all, I realized like....4 days after the fact that indeed, I posted the camel post unfinished and without pictures. Fail. So here, without further ado, is the picture of me, my BFF Abdul, and my awesome friend Hannah. Isn't he cute? He was just about to nuzzle my head. I haven't washed my hair since. Joking!!!!!!

 James was also lucky enough to meet Abdul and was thrilled to get his picture taken with an actual camel. Woo!

 

And now, on to the Christmas festivities!

 Grandma was here!!

 Aunt Sally showed up for the party too!

 And no, we don't look that much alike, do we? haha

 Ma, Me and Katie

 Speaking of Katie, this girl is delightfully weird

 

Katie got to show off her reading skills for Grandma and Aunt Sal

 And Tyler got to use his mad glue gunning skillz to build a sculpture. Seriously, this kid has the art gene but I think his is more of a creative building/3-dimensional brand. He has been successfully wielding a glue gun for the last year, and he will pretty much glue anything that isn't nailed down into one of his projects. He walks around the house with a vision in his mind and you can just tell, he may not know what he is looking for, but he KNOWS what he is looking for. :)

Guess What?!

I got a selfie with a camel. C'mon, I know you're jealous. We are now BFF's, this camel and I. Not to be confused of course with B-U-T-T's. So after the camel made his appearance in the act (which I was totally not paying close attention to, because....hello! Camel!!) Hannah and I decided to see if we could get a closer look at the camel. Then I asked the guy if we could get our picture with the camel and he said YES!!! I have no idea why I love this camel so much, but I do. He let us get right up next to the camel, who I found out goes by the name 'Abdul'. Touche. Abdul kept nuzzling my head which was hilarious and kinda scary at the same time. I asked the guy if he was going to spit on me and he said 'Only if I tell him to.' Super. But Abdul was a friendly camel and there was no spitting whatsoever. Only awk

Tyler

Tyler told me this morning, "Mom, you are a B-U-T-T!" I told him that wasn't a nice thing to say and he looked at me and said sweetly "What? You're my best friend!" It was at that point I had to inform him that indeed, what he meant to say was "B-F-F". This kid is a nut, but I love him. He's my BFF. ;)

FaceTime Is The Best Time

Guess what folks? I need bifocals. I'm like...so...geriatric. I needed someone to help me pick out glasses, because dang! There are way too many styles and some of the ones I like don't like me. For example, I really like these throw-back frames:

But they make me look like a hardy German which really isn't far from the truth come to think about it. I am 99.9% German. And these....

But they overwhelm my face, and I don't know what to pick which is why I needed....my sister! Stupid geographical distance. That is where FaceTime comes in! Yep, I FaceTimed Rachel in the middle of America's Best. Note to Self: The 'America's Best' claim is a stretch. But I digress. I basically went though every frame in the women's department, trying on anything promising in front of ye olde camera. It was quite possibly the funniest thing ever, because a) really?! It was funny, b) Phil was involved and c) There was no one else in the store so I am pretty sure they were all thoroughly entertained. Especially if they heard the part where Phil kept asking me if I had pooped today. Sadly, we decided that all the frames of America's Best were not, in fact, best for my face. Except for the most expensive pair in the store. Therefore we will probably be repeating the FaceTime spectacle in the near future. :)

Random Tidbits

**I have had this blog post half written for a week and a half, so it might be a bit disjointed and random**

I have absolutely no brain power left but I am going to write anyway. The past week has been Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child. This is my favorite, favorite thing to help with and my kids love it too. During Collection Week, different churches and organizations around the area drop off their shoeboxes where they are counted, rubber banded and packed into cartons. The cartons go onto semi trucks and are sent (now) to Baltimore. Today, Tyler had the day off and the other kids didn't. I told him it would be our 'date' day and asked him what he wanted to do. His requests? Go help with the shoeboxes and eat french fries. "Two big boxes of fwench fwies" to be exact. He kindly suggested that I could buy my own if I wanted any. We went to help with shoe boxes and as it turns out there was a crew of men coming up from the city to help. They came from a rehab house that our sister church runs in Kensington. The guys were big, burly and tough. Tyler got right up in there and started showing them all how to pack shoe boxes. He just walked right up and started talking. I basically exploded with pride. While some of them were talking about O.D.ing and their wife leaving and their mental illnesses, there was Tyler chatter away. They all learned to pack shoe boxes and they packed them with joy. When it came time for us to leave, they called out 'Goodbye little guy!' to Tyler. I think he made some friends. :)

In other news, James made the funniest of funnies. Last year, we went with some friends to a live nativity play. There happened to be a live camel there with which my friend Hannah and I were fascinated. We might have even hatched a plan to camel-nap said dromedary and keep him for our very own. Fast forward to this year. We are all going again, and Hannah mentioned a great 'Camel Caper'. I was joking to the kids, and said I was going to knit a really large bag so that Hannah and I could steal the camel. Tyler's eyes grew very big and he said 'REALLY??' Um, no. But it would be fun. James looked at me, wheels turning, and said 'Mom, you don't need to knit a bag. Just wear a really big sweater and you can just stuff it in your shirt and people will think you just have large breasts.' (yes, those were his near-exact words) Then he looked at me and added deadpan 'But make sure you steal a two hump camel, Mom. Not a one hump camel.' And I died. Pretty much, this kid has my sense of humor, which I inherited directly from my dad. At first, I wasn't sure if I should be proud or embarrassed, but dang it! I'm proud. That kid is hilarious and quick thinking. And heck, he might be on to something for Operation Dromedary Shenanigan....