Well, the excitement is starting to build here in our house.  The tree is up - we're going to decorate it and finish the house this morning.  And this afternoon, we're going to start our marathon cookie-baking session - I'm going to make these two tried and true recipes:



and I'm going to try out a couple of new recipes as well.  I'll let you know how they turn out. 

Yesterday, we had one of those twilight zone moments here.  When I was a little girl, younger even than Gracie is now, my sister, who was younger than Abigail is, got her foot caught in the chain of a bicycle.  I was panicked and ran into the house, screaming for my mother to come and rescue my sister.  When my mother ran outside, my sister was sitting on the bike, just as calm as still water.  It turned out it was just her pants' leg that was caught in the chain - her foot was fine.  Yesterday morning, Gracie was riding her bike in the front yard, waiting for her ride to the park (yes, she went to the park with one of her friends and her friends' mother - for the first time EVER, I let her go to a playdate without me!  What is the world coming to? - Honestly, the only reason I didn't go was because Abigail had (still has) a fever and a cough and I didn't want to expose the world to her germs and I didn't want to diappoint Gracie and tell her she couldn't go to the park).  Anyway, she was out there waiting and I was standing in the living room, with the front door open, when I heard her start screaming.  "Mommy!  My foot is stuck!  My foot is stuck!  Help!  Help!"  And I hear Abigail, clucking along, trying to comfort her.  "I hep you Gwacie!  I hep you!".  I went running out and discovered that her foot wasn't stuck - her pant leg was simply wrapped (rather tightly) around the pedal of the bike.  It was a moment of deja' vu as I remembered the story of my sister and her pant leg.  And do you know what was even odder?  It was the exact same bike - Gracie and Abigail have my Schwinn Little Tiger bike that I had when I was a girl...the same bike that my sister had her mishap on...

Once I realized Gracie was fine, I went back and grabbed the camera...In one of those strange twists of fate, I'm kind of glad that Gracie got her foot stuck, because it reminded me that I need to take pictures of the bike....it doesn't look bad to be more than 35 years old and it is a family heirloom....