Happy Winter Solstice

The Shortest Day

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the
Snow-white world,
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen.
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.

And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can year them
Echoing, behind us--listen!

All the long echoes sing the same delight
This shortest day
As promise wakens in the sleeping land.

They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends, and hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year, and every year.

Welcome, Yule!

--by Susan Cooper, 1977 http://www.thelostland.com/biography.htm
written for The Christmas Revels
http://www.revels.org/

Upon these stones we will build our barricade...

We've declared a baby-free zone. Our office/computer room was impossible to baby-proof, and Roxanne knew it. Every time she was out of my sight, I would find her at one of our desks, reaching for a mouse, keyboard, cables, or phone.

Enter the mega babygate. We had to mount it about 6 inches from the floor to work around the molding, but we thought, "What the heck? It's such a big visual barrier, that by the time she figures out how to go under it, she'll be too big."

Enter commando baby. In about 10 minutes, she was doing an army-crawl under the gate, got stuck, and got scared. Ha! I figured that would slow her down. I left the room for a moment, and when I came back she was inside the gate, reaching for a keyboard. Ack!

We've temporarily solved the problem with a hunk of wood. If she can slither around that, she deserves to be inside.


I laugh at your gate, mwah ha ha!

Island girl

Me: "Roxanne's favorite foods right now are avocado and banana. It's like she's an island girl or something."

Dan: *Sings a few bars of Elton John's Island Girl* "She's so white, the only island she could be from is in the U.K."

Me: *Laughs*

Dan: *Plays Island Girl on iTunes for our breakfast entertainment.*

Food marvel

If Disneyworld had Foodland, it would be Wegman's. This place isn't a grocery store, it's a village of food. The bread guy, the cheese guy, the sushi guy. Wow.

Roxanne liked it, too. Here she is, exhausted from the choices.