FOR ALL YOU SCIENCE GEEKS - A GIVEAWAY

The South is strange to me for a lot of reasons. Why are people so friendly? Why can't I find a Jewish deli anywhere? Why is there only one Dunkin' Donuts within 500 miles of my house?

But, there's a strange phenomenon that my mother and I have noticed as we drive to town on cold mornings. At first, we thought there was garbage wrapped around the base of dead plants. But, it seemed improbable that the garbage would go on for miles. A couple of hours later, we drove home and saw that it was all gone.

Closer inspection several days later showed that these clusters were balls of very delicate ice that formed around the base of the dead plants. Here's my question: What the heck? I've Googled like crazy and can't find an explanation. So, I'm giving a $5 Starbucks gift card to the first person who can explain the science to me behind these ice balls.

AN EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT

After accidentally killing my beloved Malik, I had no desire to get another dog. Big Daddy said he wanted a dog, but I knew that the idea of a dog was much more appealing to him than actually having a dog in the house.


Then, this guy showed up.




And wouldn't leave.



And then Big Daddy started loving on him when he was outside. And then the cherubs named him "Piggy Pudding." And then we let him sleep on the back porch on a particularly cold night. And we gave him some food and water. And now we have a dog (renamed "Harley," because "Harley" is a manlier name than "Piggy Pudding").


Says Bean, "Mom? I'm glad that Harley's here. It's nice when everyone has dogs."

DECORATING THE TREE

The girls had a great time decorating the tree (and undecorating and redecorating the tree and undecorating the tree ...). We try to keep the breakable ornaments out of their reach, but we still suffer ornament casualties every time they redecorate. My bike-riding Kermit the Frog ornament has been beheaded several times, and I just finished cleaning up the innards of a snowglobe ornament.

The cherubs also enjoy the pre-lit garland. They don it like feather boas and prance around the house like princesses.

I think Christmas with my own little angels is even better than Christmas when I was a kid!

THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF PARENTS

While the cherubs are still young, the adults in the family will spell things that we don't want the girls to understand. This code works until the kids learn how to spell. Then, we'll have to learn a foreign language.

The girls have caught on to this secret language, even though they don't understand it. We were spelling to each other the other night at dinner about Christmas presents and such. I guess the girls were paying attention more than I thought, because after dinner, Bean came up to me and said, "Hey, Mom. I need my P-A-S-Y."

I said, "What do you need?"

Bean said, "You know, my L-I-F-D."

Hmm.