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A tasty buffet of snow.
(12/1/22)
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It's a thin layer of snow, but
there's still enough for a few snowballs or a tiny snowman.
(12/1/22)
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Carefully molding the tiny snow
sculpture into a cat. (12/1/22)
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A polar bear in their natural
element. (12/1/22)
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Time for a snowball fight.
(12/1/22)
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The snowfall may have been light,
but we squeezed in the whole snow day experience. (12/1/22)
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Back home and warming up with some
hot chocolate. (12/1/22)
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Marvelling
and laughing at the advances in AI-generated-text as ChatGPT tells us
stories about a Bengal cat named Luna. Piper is not
impressed.
(12/1/22)
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Squirrel ate your Christmas lights?
(12/5/22)
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Better head to Jerry's.
(12/5/22)
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Lee plays video games; Lane
volunteers at the animal shelter, holding a guinea pig named Ostrich.
(12/8/22)
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Lee stops by the Authors &
Artists Fair to help me sell a few books. (12/10/22)
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Upstart Crow's Stage Door production
of Elf.
(12/10/22)
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Walter is not impressed by his
singing, dancing son. (12/10/22)
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But
of course, after some wonderful comedic chemistry with his boss, Walter
is saning and dancing along. Character arc accomplished!
(12/10/22)
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A nice afternoon trip to the
library. (12/11/22)
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A very cold day at the beach.
(12/14/22)
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Very cold, but still fun.
(12/14/22)
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Today, we stuck to the shore to stay
warmer. (12/15/22)
|
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Lane finds out that they'll get to
touch a jellyfish tomorrow. (12/15/22)
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Cozy by the fire, waiting for the
flames to die down and be just right for toasting s'mores.
(12/15/22)
|
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This otter smashed a crab against the window right next to Lee. (12/16/22)
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The jellyfish felt denser than expected, but tended to slip away as you touched them, making them feel elusive. (12/16/22)
|
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This seal kept swimming by, upside down. (12/16/22)
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This
sea lion, Rosa, came to check our faces and give us side-eye, just like
Avery. We think she's Avery's Ocean Sister. (12/16/22)
|
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Photographing the tiny fish in the shark tunnels. (12/16/22)
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Santa explains that they have plenty of Legos at the South Pole; then he compliments Lane's vest. (12/16/22)
|
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One doesn't often run into Santa Claus at the aquarium. (12/16/22)
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After dark, the aquarium transforms into a sparkling winter wonderland. (12/16/22)
|
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A magical day of jellyfish and glowing lights. (12/16/22)
|
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The kids wrapping presents together. (12/20/22)
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Lane
arranged for us all to cut out and then decorate sugar cookies.
Well, actually, they were going to be shortbread, but the dough
just looked too perfect to use them for decorating. (12/21/22)
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Really pushing down on that cookie cutter. (12/21/22)
|
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Learning about mondegreens and eggcorns while continuing to work on cookies. (12/21/22)
|
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Lane made a lovely snowman. Lee's cookie seems to have been decapitated. (12/21/22)
|
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The kids feign shock and horror at the decapitated cookie. (12/21/22)
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A
puzzle containing both of the kids' special interests: cats and
fish. Also, working a puzzle one one half of the table while
people cut out cookies on the other half makes for an oddly festive
seasonal activity. (12/22/22)
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We made it out ice skating! (12/23/22)
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Lee
gets an early Christmas present after Christmas Eve dinner -- they're
informed that when they get up in the morning, there will be a whole
host of new cat-themed video games available in their Steam account.
Hopefully, this will keep our one morning person from waking
everyone else up too early. (12/24/22)
|
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The kids acting as comes naturally to them involves a lot more biting than I would have expected at their ages. (12/24/22)
|
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We can be a chaotic group, but sometimes everything still comes together perfectly for a moment like this. (12/24/22)
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It's wonderful having a family who can make music together. (12/24/22)
|
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Drawing a Christmas tree while watching Claymation Christmas. (12/24/22)
|
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Santa brought Legos (which Lee broke into right away) and a new vest as promised, but also a set of five Magic: The Gathering decks for the family. Oh, and bubble tape. That was very important to Lee. (12/25/22)
|
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There's nothing else quite like Christmas morning. (12/25/22)
|
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All five of us together, reveling in new toys and gifts. (12/25/22)
|
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Surprises and delights. (12/25/22)
|
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It's over the top, and it's wonderful. (12/25/22)
|
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Lane said this was the best Christmas yet. (12/25/22)
|
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After watching The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus and Love Actually, we all learned how to play Magic, some of us for the first time and some of us for the first time in a quarter century. (12/25/22)
|
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Picking out Magic cards with cats on them. (12/29/22)
|
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Picking out the prettiest islands. (12/29/22)
|
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There were far too many Magic cards to choose from, so we bought them all and brought them home. (12/29/22)
|
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A very closely matched game. (12/30/22)
|
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We built a tiny city out of cardboard. (12/31/22)
|
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Yes, we watched Speed. (12/31/22)
|
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Avery is not impressed. Lane is asleep. (12/31/22)
|
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This is more Avery's speed. (12/31/22)
|
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Lots of chaos and shouting. (12/31/22)
|
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So much shouting. (12/31/22)
|
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Kicking off the new year with a flash of brightness. (12/31/22)
|
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Sparks and smoke. (12/31/22)
|
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Smoke and sparks. (12/31/22)
|
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Measuring out the days with cats. (12/31/22)
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