Silent Night at the Mall

The girls had the opportunity to play Christmas carols at the mall. This was Roxy's first time to play a grand piano. She looked so small and so young sliding on to the piano bench. Roxy played Jingle Bells and We Three Kings. Darby has played in front of audiences before, so this was just another day at the mall for her. Darby played Silent Night and Angels We Have Heard On High.

The most amazing part of the whole event, other than the girls being completely lovely, was that Scott went to a mall, at Christmastime, and he did not get a rash and he did not bleed from his eye sockets and his throat did not swell shut. He really is NOT allergic to the mall!

Having a Monday Moment

Of all my responsibilities, momming was the toughest this morning. I went off on one of my kids this morning (trust me, she deserved it) and the "going off" drove my other kid to tears because she does not like it when anyone gets in trouble. I'm looking for a Monday Morning happy pill. I am also hoping that both of my kids are over my early Monday Moment. Note to daughters: do the right thing, turn in your work on time, and don't mess with momma. I have weak moments, too.

Scott's Bah Humbug Parade

I don't know what it is, but I love parades. We attended a huge Christmas parade this morning in downtown Atlanta, just a few blocks from the Georgia Dome. We are not familiar with this part of town. But as you might expect, we drove straight to the crack houses. That parade started at 9:30 and we did not get out and wave to anyone. When in these unfortunate circumstances, I follow my mother's advice: just don't look at anyone so you don't see anything and they don't see you. Mom's advice always works for me.

We finally found our parade, along with a couple hundred thousand other people. It was on Peachtree street, and there are only about 100 Peachtree streets in downtown, so yea for us that we found it. It was a fun parade and it was cold and wintry and we had a lot of laughs. I say we, meaning the three females of the Fantastic Franks' fam. One of us, with that different chromosome, does not like driving, parking, sitting/standing, looking at weirdo people, waving to bands and dogs dressed like elves, soaking up the bizarre culture that is downtown Atlanta. Christmas? Bah humbug. Give that boy some coal.

We finished up our excursion with a tour of more abandoned buildings and slave traficking sites and then we made it to the Dwarf House. The Dwarf House is the original Chic-Fil-A, established in 1946. Pretty good eats in there. The girls hung out and ate at the soda counter while the adults enjoyed the sweetest tea in the South.

We thought about crashing the SEC championship game when we heard there were 500 trailers camped out a couple of blocks away. There should be some good tailgatin' goin' on down there, but I don't think Scott could take any more festive fun. Scott can just relive the whole experience by viewing the 108 pictures taken by Darby.

A Brilliant Idea!

Darby thinks that I should post Roxy's and her Christmas list on my blog, so everyone will know what they want for Christmas. The list grows by the minute because we receive 5 catalogs a day. While the actual list is infinite, I will summarize each list for you:

Roxy - everything from the American Girl catalog
- everything from Constructive Playthings
- everything from Mindware
- every Little Pet Shop ever
- every Build a Bear accessory ever
- everything at Limited Too

Darby - everything from the Museum Store catalog
- everything from Mindware
- Nintendo DS Lite with every game, including the recipe program
- about 1,000 books that look interesting
- about a dozen new Wii games
- a guitar

I'm so glad that my daughters appreciate the simple things in life...

Sheree's Dishwashing Music

I listen to music as often as possible. Right now I have a new playlist, Christmas themed, of course.

Andrews Sisters - Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Kay Starr - The Man With the Bag
Zee Avi - No Christmas for Me
The Weepies - All That I Want
Smashing Pumpkins - Christmastime
Brandi Carlile - The Heartache Can Wait
Bruce - Santa Claus is Coming to Town
The Kinks - Father Christmas
The Eagles - Please Come Home for Christmas
Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby
Judy Garland - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Rapping Roxy

The first grade has their music program tonight. This should be memorable...Santa is "the man"...Roxy practicing her home girl slouch...

Attention: The Lawn Ornaments Are Gone!

I had made a prediction that my neighbors would leave their Halloween lawn ornamentation out through December. I have been glancing at witches, six scarecrows, pumpkins, and glow-in-the-dark bones since September. I even told Scott that if they went away for Thanksgiving, I would pick them all up and stack them by their house for them. But low and behold, they picked them all up yesterday. No more bones, no more flying witches in the trees, nada.

This could only mean one thing - they have Christmas lawn ornaments to put out soon. Another prediction - let's see if I'm right. I polled the families in my small group last night about whether any of them go all out on the outdoor Christmas decor. That is something that is so big out here in Georgia. You feel somewhat inadequate if you don't have some giant inflatable snowglobe on the lawn. From my small group, we had only one giant snowglobe family, but we did have one family that puts out a giant inflatable Home Depot truck, decorated for Christmas. I haven't seen anything like that yet, so they might be in for a driveby.

This year the Franks' house will just say no to the giant snowglobe and Home Depot truck - I'm sure I will get to enjoy my neighbors' decor for a while...