yea for holidays

the best part of the holidays: having rodney home for over a week.

happy pickle

favorite christmas present

he's the real deal. cast iron!

christmas day

christmas morning

clara attempted to get us all up to see what santa brought her at FOUR FIFTEEN A.M. i heard rodney sweetly say, "no, it's a little too early. try to go back to sleep" and thankfully, she did. we made it to 6 and successfully tore through the goods by 8.

christmas eve

christmas: the tree

we made our annual trek to a family farm in elgin, texas to chop down our christmas tree. this year, we waited until a week before christmas, for fear that the tree would not fare well in the house of pickle. amazingly enough, atticus didn't destroy a single ornament and the tree remained upright through the holidays.

we chose an extremely cold and windy day to get our tree. atticus didn't know what to make of the cold air whipping him around, so he was happy to stay bundled up close to mom.

catching up: our never-ending leaf challenge

catching up: still in november. . . .

catching up: clara looses her first tooth!

waiting for the tooth fairy

catching up: clara's school play debut

native american hoop dance.

catching up: random food-related photos from november

1. clara with joseph and the "clara pizza" at home slice. she won a contest and had a special pizza combo named for her for one day. her choice: extra cheese with artichokes and pepperoni.

2. clara at boggy creek farm in front of a field of gorgeous and delicious winter greens. (i couldn't bring myself to tell her that white shouldn't be worn after labor day.)

3. and 4. atticus and his favorite kitchen activity: pulling everything out of the cabinet so he can crawl inside.

5. the tough job of feeding a crazy little man