Instead of posting my usual cynical "Let's never speak of (insert year) again cartoon, I came across this great pictorial of the decade and thought this was much more positive and fun to post. So here it is. It is by Phillip Niemeyer and was in the Opinion section of the NYT. And yet I loved it. Anyway, one of the great things about it was the way he was able to assign visuals to things without real pictures, like Iran on Twitter (the bird in a cage) and 2001 security (the sock--we all HATED that! and still do). Click (then click again on the image) to enlarge, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

And the decade. In spite of the hurdles, I had three beautiful baby boys, got my dream house, started a renovation, figured out (for the most part) how to homeschool, and (unfortunately on the 40 side) got more comfortable in my own skin and started figuring out things like motherhood and marriage. Too bad neither comes with a manual!

Always my favorite pictures of the year. I may have to do more PhotoShopping to get Cam smiling here. Love the stair pic. They got their Nintendo DSs about a nanosecond later, and Tal did a dramatic faint routine down the stairs. FUN.

Last present? I opened a neatly planned trip to New York, with flights and hotel (Waldorf!) already booked. Can you imagine? Very exciting.

We went out for the Chipmunk movie (starring our FAVORITE Chuck actor) and loved it. Only Travis snuck out and saw a different movie at the last minute (luckily, Gramma was with us) and gave the kids about six pounds of soda and candy to rid himself of the guilt. We loved the movie, and everyone was wound up for the next two weeks.

Tal has joined Cub Scouts and loves it. Can't wait for the meetings to start back up in January! So far, he got to help build a box for the Pinewood Derby track and made marshmallow shooters. It doesn't get better than that.

Bikes for the boys at Toys R Us at midnight--who knew it would be so much fun? Or that they would be ASSEMBLED? Oh yeah. Travis rode one of them out to the car on a dare. From me.

Here is Reagan out shopping. The cat peed on Travis' bag, so we needed to buy another, and I surprised Reagan with his own. The checkout ladies helped us get it ready for him to use right away. Such a little Daddy's preppy boy.

So we buckled. Reagan asks for a puppy Every. Single. Day. And lately he's been asking for a puppy for Christmas, so it has been getting worse and worse.

We were going to wait until Christmas Day, but Travis thought that would be a good idea. I'm being a good sport and admitting to the world that would have been horrid. But I did insist on JUST ONCE putting the puppy in a big white box with a giant red bow under the Christmas tree. Not the hit you'd expect--puppy and kids were all stunned and completely silent for the first few minutes. In retrospect, the letdown of it all was pretty funny.

Here is the puppy when we first got home, and another shot of us making a pit stop on the way home. You can see how tiny he is next to Travis there. He's about eight pounds here.

We found a breeder who makes first generation Labradoodles. This little guy looks like a yellow Lab, but he is 50% standard poodle. He is expected to have minimal allergens, shedding, and smell, even though he looks just like a Tanner Dog.

We had a fun family day for Travis. He started off the day at BE, where they made him a morning birthday muffin. Which is just funny, considering all his breakfasts there.

He had a running theme, with a new Garmin watch. We were going to go out to Kobe, but things got crazy (at our house? Never!) and we decided to stay home instead. Of course we did our usual home-made cake and such...it was a fun night.

So the kids and I needed to get out of the house because of paint or something (I can't even remember now), so we decided to skedaddle to Magic Kingdom for the day. It is getting so much easier now with the kids, even without Travis (ahem) and we wanted to see the Christmas decorations while we had the chance. Disney is so wonderful at Christmas.

Now we go so often that we usually make a theme for the day. Today we did a lot of little-kid things. We went to ToonTown and Camden got to ride his first roller coaster (loooooong wait for a 12-second ride, seriously). It was so crowded, though, that we could hardly move. I thought the first two weeks of December were supposed to be prime times to go?

So late in the afternoon Camden got lost. It was terrible. I was looking right at him, and then he was gone. He usually rides in the stroller (strapped down!), but we were walking from ride to ride in Tomorrowland. I was telling Travis the story later and he interrupted to say, "Just tell me now that you have four kids with you." So anyway, they did find him--but I'll say that instead of looking for him in those crowds, I immediately got a cast member to get security on it. I figured twenty people looking all over was better than just me with three kids. They took my other kids back to the Buzz Lightyear shop to play games while they checked the kid nursery (because apparently kids are lost all day long) and tried to keep me calm. After they found him, cast members kept stopping us to check if he was with his mommy--they had spread the word fast!

TAL! After the Cam debacle, we decided to go on one more ride and then call it a day. We were on our way to Buzz Lightyear when it all fell apart anyway.

So we have always competed on the ride, and wondered what the trick is to getting a high score, like there must be some sort of Easter Egg or something. So the ride is ending, and I look up at Tal, and the score on his car says 999,999! He actually beat the ride! I couldn't believe it. They met him at the end and gave him a Galactic Hero pin. It was a nice way to end the day.

The Rs have been making paper moustaches to finish off their Mario/Luigi getups. It is quite awful.

Reagan here is wearing a tie, goggles (for the Nerf guns), and suicide bangs. Making faces really helps set off the look, I think.

So pictures every year are a royal pain. Getting a picture of four little boys sitting still? Like herding cats. I have a little Christmas flip-thingy that I always put in the kitchen and I put the worst photo each year in it. One year, everyone just looked absolutely tortured, so that started the tradition. Last December, there were so many not-good pictures that I made a collage.

Every year, there is an Angel Breakfast at Idlewild. We're greeted by angels & shepherds, the kids dres up like angels & Marys & shepherds, and then there is breakfast, crafts, puppets, and more. This year was just Reagan and me (SNIFF!), and next year will just be Cam, as it is strictly for 3-5 year-olds. It is a sweet time that I absolutely enjoy, even though EVERY year it falls on the busiest weekend we have and causes total chaos, and Tal is usually there having his last-minute practice for his program...

Reagan has had two major nose injuries lately, and I Photoshopped them out. Then I felt horrible about it. You know, the Ralph Lauren ad scandal and all. Well, he is my kid and I love him with the nose, I just wanted his pictures to be good forever. So anyway, the lamb one (it was a shepherd theme) has the nose boo-boo still there. He is cute with the nose issue, too. Thank goodness he didn't knock out any teeth.

Tal gets to be in some awesome programs at Idlewild. He wanted to do something different this time, so he tried out for handbells. Everyone wore their special parts costumes through the whole program (bummer--he LOVES costume changes). He loved learning something new (of course) and it was the first time the three brothers all sat through it. And my blondie always ends up front & center--can't miss him. Love those gloves!

Our big hosting event for the year was the piano recital. Tal & Riley take lessons, and their teacher had decided to have a Schubertian (I may have the word wrong) evening, where the students would play their pieces as everyone chatted and had refreshments in a less formal setting than a usual recital. It was SO nice to listen to the Christmas songs all evening! There were also some games, and the night rounded out with an acted-out 12 Days of Christmas, which I am so glad I caught on video.

At the beginning of the night, I had cleared out the kids' playroom for some of the extra (SIXTY! for 30 students and their families!!!) chairs that had a view of the piano, and noticed that one of my cherubs had taken the liberty of turning on SpongeBob and setting up a chair for himself. Hysterical (probably only to me), but I had to take a picture.

For some reason I started an advent box--the "red box"--and a surprise is expected EVERY DAY. So some days it is chocolate, others it is a Christmas movie, and sometimes it is a Christmas activity. Every day there is pressure for me to perform. One day we did the gingerbread house kit--I'm finally getting the hang of these things. Kid method: One candy on the house, one in the mouth. Oh, well, it was fun, and I figured out how to get the frosting in the bag right and not let it get all hard and gross. The first time I tried one of these, the candies hit hard frosting and bounced all over the kitchen and I tried to vacuum them and the vacuum blew them everywhere and they stayed around for like two years...

Still need to find a Griswold-style lighted house to visit. Any more fun ideas to get the Christmas spirit rolling? Not exactly any snow here, although we did play with the puppy in 36 degrees this morning.