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Jixipix 2011

| patmcg

I love the jixipix software.  It lets you turn a regular photograph into art.  To me, it makes things look sort of magical and is a reminder that maybe life is more beautiful and serene that it seems when you are sprinting through it.

Anyways, one of our presents to the kids’ grandparents (aka, our parents) this year was a calendar featuring jixipix of the girls for each month.  Here are a few samples.  Many more pictures, including lots left out of the final calendars, are located on shutterfly.

Mutt and Jeff

| patmcg
Here is a photo that everyone seems to particularly enjoy. Grammy has dubbed it, “Mutt and Jeff at the sandbox”. Claire and Molly were just playing around outside late in the afternoon on a day home from school for MLK day.


New Year Rock ‘n’ Roll

| patmcg
Today Claire went to a friend’s house for a New Year’s Day (school is closed) play date. This kid had every musical instrument you could think of. One room was covered in toys as well as a real drum set and various guitars. At first, I assumed the kids had taken over the dad’s old music room, but that was not so. The instruments were intended for the kids.

Anyways, it was a fun time, and I got a couple of interesting pictures of Claire rocking out in her very favorite outfit of late, which just happened to be a great rock ‘n’ roll outfit.

Claire has not shown a lot of interest in actual rock ‘n’ roll music so far, but she has been telling me she wants to be a “church singer”, which I think means singing in a choir.  Still, the choir clothes are not as cool.

Trailer parkin’ it

| patmcg

With the nice weather, everyone in a good mood, and a little time on our hands today, we decided to go out for lunch South Austin style. We went to the South Congress Ave. trailers to eat. It was a little awkward feeding Molly out among the wind and crowds on a picnic table, but everyone had a good time, as you can see.

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Christmas Card 2009

| patmcg

This was a banner year for us… we had Molly, Claire is doing great, we moved to Austin for Kit’s great job, I made some positive adjustments to my job. It doesn’t get any better than that. This may be, on paper, our best year ever.

But in reality great news comes with challenges and keeps us busy, and we did not get around to writing a real Christmas card about our great 2009. So after some hand wringing, we ended up with something very simple.

Now this is nice and simple and sweet, but it’s too bad I did not get to write a real year in review like last year.

Miss Polite

| patmcg

Tonight I noticed a pile of Claire’s toys piled at the top of the stairs leading up to our bedroom.  When I approached Claire about the mess, I was expecting some sort of fight, or maybe a look of shame or guilt.  But her response surprised me.  We had the following conversation, almost verbatim, and without a hint of sarcasm from Claire.

  • Pat: “Hey Claire, there are a lot of toys on the stairs.  That is pretty dangerous.  Somebody could slip on them.”
  • Claire: “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have put them there.”
  • Pat: “That’s okay.  I just wanted to let you know.”
  • Claire: “Okay.  I shouldn’t have put those toys there.  I really should have asked you.”

I don’t normally have conversations that civil with mature adults!  I should savor this moment.  I am sure we will be back to somewhat less mature exchanges again tomorrow.