Beyond Binkies, Code and Make-Believe

Across the Miles - Music Video Links

A dear friend sent this to me. I thought you would enjoy some of these links They are not necessarily my favorite videos, but a bunch of them are a lot of fun and definitely on my top list.  They are in no particular order - I just lined them up a bit and here they are:

Albino Burmese Python Cake for Our Son

 Our son is five tomorrow.  He's also into snakes. He didn't ask for anything for his birthday other than a visit to Reptile World and an Albino Burmese Python birthday cake.  You heard me.  It's all he asked for; of course I made it for him.  Hear me out:

Sometimes they just touch my heart

On his own, our near five year old wanted to write a name poem for his sister.  She had done it for all of us and he liked the words chose.

He forgot to add the word "mean" next to never, but not bad.  They go from this to, "I'm never, ever, ever in the whole wide world talking to you AGAIN POOP HEAD!"

This made her night; mine, too.

Merry Christmas from Our White board

The lizards got crickets, the kids played with the broken camera.

Santa came through for everyone. Mom and dad did pretty well, too.  We were awakened at 7:30 - predetermined time the night before - to, "The lizards got crickets!  The lizards got crickets!"  Our children put out stockings for their pet anoles and fish.  They figured their dog wasn't a kid anymore, so he didn't need one.  The also figured the bird is on the naughty list because he squawks so much.

The meaning of the Twelve Days of Christmas

You have heard, "Fiiiivvveeee, go-ooooold RINGS...." since you were a child. 

What in the world do leaping lords, French hens,
swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out
of the pear tree have to do with Christmas?

But, do you know how the song came to be?  Here's a bit of Roman Catholic history for you:

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly.
Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.

It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church.

Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

Grandma B's Banana Bread / Cranberry Bread.

This is a recipe from my childhood.  My friends, Lori & Lisa Malland had a grandma that lived with them.  She was always cooking up something good.  At 10, I knew to ask her for this recipe.  I love it so much that I have a cranberry bread variation for the holidays. My children LOVE this recipe.

6 fish, 2 anoles, 2 birds and an old dog.

Alison, we're catching up; but chickens will not be part of this equation.  After church, we dropped Savannah off at her religious education class.  This gave us 50 minutes to kill.  We needed pet supplies, so we ended up at the convenient and always-loon-filled PetSmart.  What a collection of shoppers this place always has. 

We procured the supplies for our annoying parakeets.  I'd prefer to buy them little knapsacks and wish them well, but the children won't permit it.  We walked through the bird section longing for the quieter finches or perhaps just buying sound proofing for our own cage. Past the birds were the rodents.  Those are easy to talk my son out of because they are nearly all nocturnal and all are smelly, and they bite.  Whew!

Then, we passed the reptiles. Snakes aren't even a consideration in our house.  My husband is beyond loathing them and I don't like the idea of feeding them frozen rodents.  But lizards - they have legs, they eat worms and crickets, they are not noisy and pretty mellow.  Our son lost his mind. He can read now and narrowed it down to three within about 3 minutes:  Water Dragon, Leopard Gecko and Anoles.

Last night's lesson: don't mix finger puppets and halogen

Our son had difficulty falling asleep. I was worn out from being called back to his room and invited him to sit by me while I read in bed.  He leaped into our room.  I had to shower. By the time I came out there was a teary-eyed boy standing at the bathroom door bearing something that looked like a dead mouse.

Lactose Free Banana Split - For Marne

My best friend is Lactose Intolerant. I think of this as my duty to her - to come up with dessert alternatives.  This is for you Marne La Forge.

2 bananas sliced into wheels

1/3 cup chopped raw almonds or pecans

3 tablespoons Two Brothers MINT Chocolate Sauce - heated

5 tablespoons Mrs. Richardson's butterscotch caramel - heated

combine.

Eat.

Is it that time of the month already? I'm thinkin' it is.