Let the Countdown Begin

We spent the weekend at Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta, Georgia...an early birthday trip to celebrate Derek's upcoming 11th on Thursday. We often take little weekend getaways for the boys' birthdays, rather than having a big party, because we don't like other people, especially kids.

That's a joke. We like kids okay, just not enough to feed them cake.

Anyhow...we started the tradition when Derek was probably 5 or 6, and it's been a wonderful way to mark the passage of a new year, to spend some time together as a family, and to have a little getaway from the normal grind. We mainly started it to be sure that Derek's birthday didn't get swallowed up by Christmas, and so far it seems to have worked pretty well.

We've felt sorry for him all these years, but he told me the other day that he was the luckiest kid he knows, because he gets THREE WHOLE DAYS OF PRESENTS IN A ROW!

I love that kid.
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Because it isn't enough to get ready for Christmas and a birthday, I'm also baking about a bazillion cookies, wrapping the rest of the presents, cleaning the bathrooms (I keep forgetting those) and picking up our new puppy today.

Yes.

I did say that.

All I can tell you right now is that he's going to be ginormous, and his name is Jasper.

You'll have to wait until later to see photos.

He's very fuzzy, which makes it incredibly hard to focus my camera upon him.

What?

Raikki needed a Christmas present, too...