OK, so I started a blog on blogger some time ago, but never really got it off the ground. In fact, the first post was the last post. But, this weekend, I had a lot of time to think (4 day weekends will do that to ya, I guess). I had the idea that I wanted a blog setup that I could easily attach labels to so that later, I could track down posts based on topic. It struck me then, that I didn't know if blogger could do this already. I didn't see an easy way to do this in the original blogger software, so I decided to try out the blogger beta, and lo and behold, a label bar at the bottom of the composition window! So, once again, I will try to get in the habit of doing at least a weekly post to a blog.
Why a weekly post? Well, I've noticed that since I have left school, my writing skills have deteriorated somewhat. Over the past 5 or 6 years, I haven't had many opportunities to write. A white paper here, a power point presentation there (which I'd hardly call writing). It wasn't like when I was in school, where I could expect to write 3-4 papers each semester. So, in an attempt to get back what I have lost, I have decided I need to take more opportunities to write, and I think a Blog is a good way to get things started.
OK, so on to the fun stuff. Talking about my kids. This weekend, we had our first snow. Megan, my second child, was the first to notice the falling snow, and she was very excited! She couldn't wait to go outside and play, but that wasn't the main reason for her enthusiasm. No, for some reason, in her mind, she has equated snow with Christmas. She was sure that because it was snowing, that it was also Christmas. She asked a couple of times where Santa was, and where the presents were. It was sooo cute. Once Sierra noticed the snow, she had to be out in it. So we bundled up Sierra and Megan and sent them outside. I stayed in where it was warm. Between the two of them, they made a snowman all by themselves. I was very impressed, and that was enough to get me outside. I felt a little guilty for not going outside with them earlier and doing the parent thing (you know, take pictures of everything), so I went outside with no coat and in sandals to take a picture of their snowman. I'll post the pics later (when I've pulled them off the camera).
Speaking of Christmas, this time of year reminds me how smart my kids are. Sierra, in particular, is very hard to fool. Last year, as my wife and I were wrapping presents, she reminded me to take care to wrap the "Santa" gifts in a different wrapping paper than the ones we were giving. However, neither of us thought about the to/from labels. As we were opening presents on Christmas morning, Sierra pointed out that "Santa" had used the same labels as our family! Totally didn't expect that kind of reasoning from my 5 year old daughter... We had to think quickly and tried to play it off a bit. Well, she's getting an early start this year. My wife sat down with her on Sunday to make a list of what she'd like for Christmas. She wanted to send it to Santa. She brought the list to show me after they were done, and I pointed out that it was likely that Santa would only give her one or 2 things off the list, and that she might get other things from my wife and I. My daughter looked at me and said "How will Santa know what you got me?" Wow, caught me off guard there! I made up something about it being the same way he knows if a kid has been bad or good. I think she bought it, whew!
