Meet Esiason!

After the Santa Parade we all went back to my Uncle's house for lunch...and the kids got to meet their new cousin Esiason. He's around 14 months and he's my cousin's son, so I guess that means he's my second cousin. Can't remember how that works. Anyway, the kids all played together and everyone got to sit on Great Grandma's lap. She of course enjoyed seeing all the kids. We're going to have her over for Thanksgiving this year, so she'll enjoy spending the day with the kids. Hard to believe she's 97. She's not as active as she used to be but she's still alert and cognitive. By the way, the last picture is Megan sitting in the dog's bed.

Santa Parade

Saturday morning we went downtown and saw the "Santa Parade." It's one of our usual "small town parades" where you see the local high school band, a guy dressed as Santa, all the local high school girls who are "Miss Small Town USA," and of course all the local merchants. We met my Aunt and Uncle there, as well as my cousin and his family. It was fun, and the kids had a great time seeing all the people and floats...and of course grabbing all the candy.

From The Shelf

THE TWILIGHT ZONE: 19 ORIGINAL STORIES ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY - I'm a big fan of the original Twilight Zone shows. Even though the original series is over 50 years old several of the stories still hold up. In fact, I still set my DVR to record Twilight Zone episodes so I can catch all my old favorites. (My all time favorite is the episode with William Shatner who's a passenger on an airplane and he sees a gremlin messing with the engines on the plane's wing.)
So as a fan you I was obviously interested when I came upon this anthology of "Twilight Zone-esque" short stories. This book is a collection of new stories by current writers, and all the stories follow the traditional formula for all Twilight Zone tales...strange happenings with an unexpected twist at the end. This was a fun read, and I was impressed with a lot of the stories here. Stories like "A HAUNTED HOUSE OF HER OWN," "ANTS," and "TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES" really grab the personality of the original series. You would swear you're reading the script for one of the original episodes. Anyway, this was a fun read.

Thanksgiving Party at School

Ben's kindergarten class had a "Thanksgiving party" today. The idea was for all the kids to bring a dish that represents where they were born or where they're from (heritage). So we brought a bowl full of red beans and rice, which wasn't what Ben wanted to bring but oh well...(he wanted to bring spaghetti.) Anyway, it was fun, and Megan had a good time eating with Ben and Miles. The funny thing was at the end of the party when the teacher (Miss Wolanin) did a short reading lesson. When all the kids would raise their hands to answer Megan would join them and raise her hand as well. It really cracked me up.

Tunes For Tots

Today Megan and I went to an activity at the Center For The Arts called "Tunes For Tots." This is a program put on by the Midland Center For The Arts about every other month, and it's kind of like mini-concerts for toddlers. Sometimes they feature percussion instruments, sometimes woodwinds, violins, etc. Today's feature instrument was the bass, and they had two musicians there playing all kinds of different bass instruments. It was fun, and Megan enjoyed singing all the songs. We'll definitely do it again sometime.

Hiking at Whiting Forest

Yesterday Jenny and Ben met our friends the Bells and the Manchesters for a "Mommy & Me" hike at Whiting Forest. As I said in another post, the weather has been incredibly mild lately, so the ladies took the kids out for an afternoon nature hike. Jenny said the weather was perfect, and the kids all had a great time as you can see. One of Ben's favorite things to do is hike and be in the woods...so he was definitely in his element. Jenny said Ben was blowing his hiking whistle and trying to keep all the kids together in a group whenever someone would get too far ahead. I guess he thought he was the scout leader since he was the only one with a backpack on. Anyway, the kids all had a blast.

Bonus Park Time

For the past week or two we've been blessed up here with abnormally mild weather. I wouldn't say warm per-se, but it's been in the 50's and even low 60's. I've been describing the weather to friends as a "Texas winter." Anyway, we've been grabbing every good weather day while we can, cause the snows are gonna come. So we've been spending a lot of time at the park. Friday we met Parker and his mom Erin for a play date. I'm not saying "going to the park" is news or anything, but a visit to the park in the middle of November is.

An Early Christmas Greeting

Here's an early Christmas greeting from the Frame family! Enjoy...

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Maraka!

Megan likes to watch "Dora" once in a while like any other toddler girl. What's funny is everytime I see the Dora cartoon I can't help but think of the old Saturday Night Live cartoon "Maraka." For those of you who don't remember this one "Maraka" is a cartoon parody of Dora. The way it mimics Dora's random use of foreign language, her random questions, and her commands at the viewer just makes me laugh everytime. Some of you who aren't familiar with Dora might not appreciate the hilarity of this parody...but it's very funny.

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

Ben's Day Off

Today was Ben's day off from school. It was one of those "teacher in-service" days. So the kids and I went over to see our friends the Manchesters. Andy's house is just north of town and is nestled in the woods. The kids had fun playing around with Nicholas and William's toys, and then all of us went for a hike in Andy's woods. Best of all...believe it or not we're going through a warm spell right now. For the past 3 days the highs have been close to 60. It's been great. Anyway, it was a fun day off for Ben.