As we left Troy’s mom and stepdad’s town, we had a little tiny bit of rain. That was probably the most precipitation we had on the whole trip. Considering that we made this cross-country drive in February, during one of the snowiest winters in recent history, I think that’s pretty amazing.

My mom liked the palms lining this stretch of the highway along the Gulf coast.

Can you tell I was bored? Cameras make the best toys on long road trips.

Cell phones make good toys too. Annalie was typing in a text-message box on my cell phone. In case anyone is getting a headache trying to figure this photo out, I’ll explain that I took this photo by angling the camera at the visor mirror above the passenger seat. That’s why it looks like Troy is driving on the wrong side of the car. Unless you’re Sarah or Lauren, in which case this photo didn’t even make you blink.

I mentioned my geekwear on Twitter, including my Orange Orange t-shirt and one of these pins. Anyone get the references? The pin on the right (a gift from Sonja) could have a couple of geeky meanings.

Another self-portrait born of boredom.

In Texas, the bathrooms are bigger and fancier!

Here is proof that our other cat, Lily, really was in the minivan with us. She doesn’t like road trips and tends to stay in her carrier the whole time, only coming out to eat or drink or glare at us accusingly.

Louisiana sky. I never get tired of taking pictures of the sky and clouds.

Bridge over Lake Charles.

Sunset and a semi.

Sunsets may be larger than they appear. Although these rearview-mirror shots are pretty cool, it’s much easier to photograph sunsets when we’re driving west.

When we were at Tom & Carol’s, my mom was looking at Carol’s cookbooks and found a recipe published 1965 that called for “one 29-cent bag of Fritos.” We all had a good laugh about that, joking that it would be awfully hard to find a 29-cent bag of Fritos nowadays. So when we saw these 35-cent bags of Fritos at a gas station today it cracked us up. I bet this bag is a LOT smaller than the 29-cent bags in 1965 were.

I liked the packaging on these Hubig’s New Orleans Style Pies so much I bought two of them. I guess they’re a New Orleans institution, and no wonder—they were pretty good!

Poor Katy, she gets manhandled a lot by Annalie. She doesn’t really seem to mind, though.

I took this from a moving vehicle, so it was pure luck that I caught the sun shining off a serendipitous lake and that green flare/reflection over there on the right.

Alabama sunset. When I took this we were about one minute away from the Target where we met Bex & Jo.

Annalie in her Hello Kitty jammies + a kitty on her lap = happy Annalie.

Annalie the strawbender! She has done this for as long as I can remember. When she is drinking from a non-bendy straw, she creates a bend in it.

Snowy hills in Virginia. The first snow we saw on our trip was on the side of the road in Tennessee, but that wasn’t very much. This was the first sizeable amount of snow we saw.

I think these are the Blue Ridge Mountains. Any Virginians care to confirm or deny that?

This rest-stop drinking fountain at a rest stop seemed funny to me with all that snow in the field behind it. It doesn’t really seem that funny now, though. It’s entirely possible that I was a bit loopy at the time from a week of traveling.

When I took this photo we’d driven over 3,000 miles (5,400 km) across the country. We’d spent 8 days and 7 nights on the road, for a total of 54 hours of driving time…and yet these last two hours seemed to last longer than the entire trip.

One last rearview-mirror sunset shot before…

…the exit to our hotel. We made it!

We were assured by the owners and the previous tenants that their final walk-through would be at 10am Sunday. The tenants (who were very nice, and quite gracious when we unexpectedly showed up at their house to check it out last week) told us it would be fine for us to stop by this afternoon to show the house to my mom before she flew home, even though we wouldn’t officially take possession till Monday. The keys would be in the mailbox for us, they said.

The keys weren’t in the mailbox. We could see through the open windows that the house wasn’t empty yet. No one was home. It was a bummer.

Even though we couldn’t get in the house, we walked around back so my mom and Annalie could at least see the yard and the deck. You can see about half the backyard in the photo above.

We drove back by the house that evening after we took my mom to the airport, just to see if anyone was there. The house was still locked up, with all the same boxes and furniture inside, no keys in the mailbox, and no one around. It made us a little nervous. How could they have had their walk-through if the house wasn’t empty and clean? It’s not like we could call anyone and complain though. It wasn’t our house yet.

I guess maybe the tenants underestimated how much time they’d need to pack up and move all their stuff. Maybe they’ll be working till 3am to get everything out of the house. That sounds like something I might do, honestly. We just have to hope they are done and that the keys are there tomorrow, because the movers are coming bright and early to start unloading our stuff.

Omaha got its first significant snowfall on Christmas Day since 1941 this year, with about 12 inches of snow! It’s magical and all, but the city is pretty much shut down. Many flights out of Omaha were cancelled today, which makes me nervous because we’re supposed to fly home tomorrow, and I have to pick up a certain Australian at the airport in L.A. on Monday.

I know it’ll all work out, but I really hope our flight doesn’t get cancelled. Flying at Christmastime is crazy enough without adding cancelled flights to the mix on top of the added security we’ll have because of that guy who attempted to blow up a flight to Detroit. I’m very thankful that my mom is coming home with us for a short visit so it won’t be just me and Annalie navigating the insanity at the airports.

Don’t mind me, I’m just being a tiny bit Scrooge-ish because it was a weird day. Christmas worship was cancelled, the city was snowed in, and I was missing Troy extra today. But even with all that it was a good day. Annalie had a blast opening and playing with her presents. We watched movies and lounged in our pajamas and ate too many cookies. I made another big batch of sugar-and-spice candied nuts, and homemade mac & cheese for dinner.

And I finished the babette! In a stroke of serendipity, I had just enough black yarn to do a border. I wish I could give the blanket to Ben and Angie in person but with the snow and us leaving tomorrow that’s not likely. I’ll just wash it, wrap it, and leave it here for them to pick up once the roads are clear.

Day 4 – a cabinet full of origami

Taken on the landing of the staircase at my cousin T’s house. I think these are all from a page-a-day origami calendar that her kids had a couple of years ago.

This is representative of the whole house, in that six kids ages 4 to 16 live there, and evidence of their creativity and curiosity is everywhere. In addition to this cabinet full of origami, there is a door in the upstairs hallway that is papered with pages from a word-a-day calendar, and the shelves above the kitchen sink hold framed photos as well as kid-produced art of varying levels of competence, not to mention that there is usually at least one kid in the middle of an art project at the dining-room table or baking pie or cookies in the kitchen.

T and her husband do a great job of involving their kids in many aspects of taking care of their home, and T incorporates many of the kids’ art projects into her decorating both permanent and seasonal (on this visit, I particularly loved the painted-white, glitter-covered pinecone in a Christmas cupcake paper on the counter in the downstairs bathroom, clearly some child’s preschool holiday craft). If I scattered Annalie’s art projects around our house I have the feeling it would just look cluttered, but at T’s house somehow it all works in the most fantastic way. Their house is beautiful and warm and welcoming, a house full of kids and activity and a little bit of chaos and a lot of love. It’s one of my favorite places to be.

Day 145 for Troy

As long as I’m posting my 7 Days photos, I might as well post my photos for Troy too. And yes, I realize this is very similar to Day 139, but I don’t care.

Matching candy-cane pj’s and cute kids trump repetitive photos any day.

Day 5 – Silver where? Wheatfields, of course.

Joe, Kassie, Katrina and I were all very relieved when the forecasted ice pellets and freezing rain did not materialize that morning. We just had plain old rain, which we were quite happy to brave for brunch at Wheatfields with good friends.

We took up two long tables in the otherwise-deserted sundeck, which was nice when we started taking silly self-portraits with our silverware (the day’s theme was silver.

I think the common characteristic among all my friends is that we make each other laugh, and these friends are no exception. We laughed and laughed that day, in between geeking out over cameras and tickling kids and debating the presence of apricots in the delicious quiche. It was awesome.

Joe’s Day 5 photo
Kassie’s Day 5 photo and her blog post Pole Girl, Dip Punk, Betho and me
Katrina’s Day 5 photo and her blog post Fun with Friends

Day 146 for Troy

Annalie decorated the mirror with two sets of clings…one is a Nativity set and one is Peanuts. They go together, right?

Day 6 – almost done with the Babette

I’ve been working on this blanket for my niece AK for a couple of months. It’s the wonderful Babette Blanket pattern. I used the colors of the aurora borealis as inspiration. (That gives you a really good hint to her first name.)

I’m about two-thirds done with stitching the squares together. I hope I am able to finish the rest before we go back home. Then I’ll wash and block it. I’m pretty happy with how it’s turned out so far.

Day 147 for Troy

At Christmas Eve worship tonight, my parents’ pastor announced that the Christmas Day service was cancelled, since we’re supposed to get 12-15 inches of snow tonight. I’ve only known him to cancel services two other times in 30 years, but it looks like he made the right decision because while we were in church it snowed about three inches. My mom took this photo in our front yard, You can just about see the snow fort my dad and Annalie made earlier today.

Merry Christmas to you all! May your holidays be filled with good surprises, kids in matching jammies, yummy food, and joy. Especially joy.

We landed in Omaha Saturday evening at 5:30. It was already dark by the time we left the airport, and Annalie was extremely disappointed when we told her she couldn’t play in the snow till the next day. We consoled her with a promised visit to meet her new cousin right after we dropped our luggage off at my parents’ house. As we drove down the interstate she opened her mouth wide in a show of speechless delight at each new expanse of snow.

When we stopped at Godfather’s to pick up pizza on the way to my brother’s, I literally had to grab her to keep her from rushing into a mountain of snow that had been plowed over to the side of the parking lot.

AK is extremely adorable and also a champion sleeper. She was asleep the whole hour we were there, even though we were passing her around and taking pictures. Annalie was totally smitten, asking to hold her twice, kissing and hugging her gently, and cooing over how adorable she was. I hope they’ll be great friends someday.

Annalie drew this on her dry-erase board during church yesterday morning (I snapped a quick shot with my phone before she erased it). It’s the first time I’ve ever seen her draw people with clothes rather than simple stick figures. I asked her later if she had seen that drawing somewhere before and was remembering it, thinking maybe she’d seen a picture somewhere in church that morning. She said, “It’s the drawing you did for me, remember?” I showed her how to draw a simple stable scene almost a week ago. I was rather amazed she held that image in her head for so long and did a fair job of recreating it without having it right in front of her.

And then after church and Sunday School were over, it was time to go back to my parents’ house and get Annalie suited up for PLAYING IN THE SNOW, YAYYY!

Annalie’s snow pants were a Christmas present two years ago. I’m kind of amazed that they still fit as well as they do. The coat is one we bought on clearance when we had to make that unexpected trip to Omaha for Troy’s dad’s funeral almost two years ago. It was huge when we bought it, and now it fits her perfectly. Time flies.

I think the only thing that would have made Annalie happier about the snow is if it had been snowing while she was playing. She didn’t worry about it much, she just made her own snow by throwing it up in the air.

Then she figured out she could pick up pieces of snow and throw them at Grampaw.

But before she got the chance, Grampaw made the first move!

Annalie got him back eventually, though.

Annalie was running and slipping and sliding all over the place. She kept going down in the snow, laughing her head off. She was getting pretty wet but she didn’t care a bit. I’m glad she got the chance to play in the snow before it got super cold (it’s 4 F/-16 C as I write this Monday evening).

We took this photo yesterday around 4:30 in the afternoon, about to head to the post office and mail most of our Christmas packages. Do I look tired? Because I was. I’ve been spending hours and hours in the kitchen in the past few days, baking and cooking and packaging and labeling. I’ve actually been enjoying myself immensely, which is probably no surprise. As we all know, I love to bake and cook. I even figured out a way to watch shows on iTunes while I baked without endangering my laptop.

Plastic wrap on the keyboard! Works like a charm.

I’ve been doing as much of this stuff during the day as I can, but for some reason Annalie has been totally uninterested in helping me with any of it. Normally she loves helping me in the kitchen so I don’t really know why she’s hasn’t wanted to help lately. I’ve coaxed her to hang out with me in the kitchen a couple of times by suggesting she draw some Christmas pictures for friends and family.

This is a drawing of Annalie hugging a giant candy cane. Cracked me right up.

And when I’ve let her watch shows or play games on the laptop, or offered her hot cocoa, Annalie will hang out for a while. But she never wants to stay in the kitchen for long. The Christmas tree has been the source of much inspiration in Annalie’s play, and the centerpiece of several elaborate games, so she likes playing upstairs in the living room most of the time right now. I don’t want to spend all day downstairs while my kid is upstairs, so I’ve been putting off a lot of the baking till after Annalie’s in bed.

I don’t mind late nights, and baking late at night is kind of a hobby of mine. But because most of the gifts we’re giving this year are homemade goodies, I’ve been doing a LOT of baking. Since Annalie and I going to be out of town for Christmas, I had a deadline for getting everything baked and shipped. That has led to some very late nights recently. Coffee consumption has been higher than usual. I’ve been a bit loopier than normal.

For example, one night I had the bright idea to use address labels instead of tape to seal the wax paper wrapping around the homemade granola bars. You know, those free address labels you always get in the mail around Christmas? I’ll never use them all, since we’re moving soon, and I figured they were more festive than tape. In the morning I looked at the pile of address-labeled granola bars and had to laugh. It looked like I was very concerned about my granola bars always being able to find their way back home.

This idea was definitely a good one though. I’ve been saving all my plastic peanut butter and mayonnaise jars for a while, ever since I read somewhere that they were good for storing art supplies. It’s a good thing I never got around to organizing my art supplies because they made great containers for the pretzel pralines and candied nuts I made to give as gifts. I was originally planning to use some of the glass pickle and jam jars that I’ve also been saving for ages, but glass is heavier and breakable. The plastic jars might not be quite as pretty as glass, but they’re lightweight and sturdy, perfect for shipping.

I might have had a little too much fun drawing the labels for these. The candy-cane one is my favorite.

One thing I made a ton of that I haven’t written much about is the World’s Best Apricot Cookies. I’ve mentioned them a few times, and some of you have emailed me asking for that recipe. I will get to that eventually, I promise.

I painted this ornament a few weeks ago when I just wanted something small to paint while supervising Annalie’s painting one day. I meant to put it in my Etsy shop before now, but I totally forgot about it till I was looking for something in my cupboard during one of those late-night baking sessions. It’s listed there now if anyone wants it.

Bex saw this one on Flickr and claimed it right away. It’s also in my shop, just waiting for Bex to buy it.

And now I have to go finish my laundry and dig out Annalie’s snow pants and pack our suitcases because tomorrow we’re headed to Omaha where we’ll probably have a very white Christmas at my parents’ house with its new siding.

Photos taken by my mom

In the past few weeks whenever we talked about our upcoming trip to Maryland, Annalie would always remind me that it might snow while we were there, so be sure to pack her snow boots and her snow pants, just in case. And Mom, maybe you should check the weather and see if the weatherman thinks it will snow while we’re in Maryland? And it might snow. So be sure you bring my snow boots. And snow pants. Because it might snow. Snow. Snow snow snow SNOW.

I did check the weather forecast, and saw that some snow was possible but not likely. I didn’t bring her snow gear because it would have been a pain. And anyway we have friends here with a dozen children between them, all of whom are happy to lend us coats and mittens and things if the need arises.

You can imagine Annalie’s delight when we woke up today and saw a light dusting of snow on the ground. It was just enough to be pretty without mucking up traffic. It continued snowing throughout the morning, pretty wet flakes drifting to the ground but not really sticking. Perfect for trying to catch on your tongue.

The snowflakes were relatively large and showed up nicely on my black coat. Annalie spent a few minutes examining the tiny crystals before gently puffing at them and watching them melt into nothing.

Annalie is frowning because we asked her to smile. Right after this picture was taken, she cracked up because she’d done the opposite of what we asked. I think the joke’s on her because it’s an adorable photo anyway.

When we were at my Aunt Janet & Uncle Larry’s house, Annalie kept calling Janet “Grandma” and Larry “Grandpa.” Larry said, “Eh, she just sees an old guy with gray hair and thinks, That must be a grandpa!” Then he told us how one of my cousin’s kids used to call him Grandpa too, and it bugged my cousin so he would tell his daughter, “That’s not your grandpa, that’s Uncle Larry!” So she started calling him “Uncle Grandpa.” Then we blew Annalie’s mind by telling her that Janet and Larry ARE a grandma and grandpa, and that their twelve grandkids are her second cousins, most of whom she knows well and plays with every time we’re in Omaha.

I asked Annalie if she wanted crunchy or smooth peanut butter on her sandwich. She put her hand out, palm down, and moved it back and forth in a continuous motion as though she were running her hand along the surface of a table and said, “Smoooooooth, please!” I found that hilarious because I talk with lots of gestures. That’s the first time I’ve seen her use such a classic one, though.

This morning while we were lounging in our pajamas and watching Zoboomafoo, I mentioned to my mom that we should try to hit Target to get Annalie some more pants. When I packed to come here, I could only pack two pairs of long pants for Annalie because she outgrew all her other pairs over the summer. I told Annalie the only solution was for her to stop growing. Without taking her eyes from TV she said, “Mama, don’t you want me to grow up and have even better manners?”

When we left the house this afternoon to head to my cousin’s house, it was snowing. Not the fun kind that comes down in big fat flakes good for snowballs and snowmen, but the kind that comes down in tiny hard pellets and barely accumulates at all. Annalie was still very excited that it was snowing. As we drove down the expressway she watched the snow and exclaimed, “I just love winter!”

As we drove along we talked about how November is technically still fall, even though in Nebraska it feels like winter sometimes; and how you can look for other clues to see what time of year it is, like Halloween pumpkins or Christmas decorations. We talked about how the weather in Nebraska can be unpredictable. I explained that if something is unpredictable you don’t know what’s going to happen next. Annalie replied, “So, if I don’t know what’s going to happen it’s unpredictable, and then when I know it’s predictable!” I’m not sure but that might have been the first time I’ve heard her reason out a new word and its definition.

At dinner this evening Rachel mentioned that while cleaning her basement recently she came across her set of Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. That led to me mentioning that HalfPintIngalls has a twitter account.

Annalie seems to still be on Pacific time. Our first night here she was up till nearly 1am. Last night she was obviously tired and in bed at 8:30, but didn’t give in to sleep till 11:30pm. (But then she slept till 9am which she NEVER does. Silver lining!) For those keeping score at home, tonight she was out at 10:50. If the trend continues, tomorrow she’ll fall asleep right around 10. By the time we go home she’ll be on Central time and then our problem will be keeping her up past 6pm.

I’ve taken tons of photos but have not downloaded them yet. I’m lazy, I’m busy, I don’t have my laptop, the only computer in the house is in the room where Annalie is spending hours each evening going to sleep.

There is leftover Godfather’s Pizza in the fridge, and some yummy dessert pizza too. I know what I’m eating for breakfast!

It snowed here last week! Tuesday we met friends at Chick-Fil-A for lunch and ran some errands, and by the time we headed home the temperature had dropped 15 degrees and snow was falling.

It doesn’t snow much where we live, and when we get snow it usually melts within a day. So as soon as we got home, Annalie and I suited up to go out and play in the snow. Santa brought Annalie fancy new snow boots and snow bibs, and she was anxious to use them, and to try out the new hat I made her.

After Annalie made some snow angels and threw some snowballs, we headed indoors for snack and stories. By the time Annalie woke up from her nap a few hours later, the snow was almost entirely gone. Now we’re back to cold dreary weather without any fun white stuff to play in, and Annalie asking me at least every other day, “How many more days till summer NOW, Mama?”

To see more snowy photos, go to Snow! – a photoset on Flickr.