My Boys Asked Santa if He Drinks Beer

On Saturday, our awesome little library received a call from Santa Claus asking if he could stop in and say hello to all the good little boys and girls in our town. Our librarian sweetly told him that cookies and good boys and girls would await him. On Saturday morning, Santa flew his reindeer into town, bedded them down at one of the farms and hitched a ride with a farmer just to say hello to all the good boys and girls at the library.

Then he met my boys.

Our boys have never sat on Santa's lap. They are not sure about the whole Santa thing and the last two years we have just sort of gone along with the fun, not really mentioning Santa but not saying Santa isn't real either.

Well, S4 is convinced. Santa is real. He knows this because

A. Santa has a real beard (Not like the one on Elf who has a fake beard).

B. He has Santa's signature. Really, he does.

It was fun to see Santa walk in, watch all the boys and girls eyes get huge and run up to him to hug him and just be in awe that Santa was THERE, in the SAME ROOM as them...in the library they visit EVERY Saturday for story hour!

Because shyness soon swept over the kids, Santa began to flip through a book that was laying out on one of the study tables. My youngest two (only three of them came along, S1 was busy helping Daddy with wood) were sneaking alongside Santa, not saying a whole lot.

Yet.

This was the book Santa looked at....

Santa mentioned he remembered drinking Coke out of a glass bottle but he supposed that these little boys next to him didn't remember that.

S3 chirped right up. "No, but you can drink beer out of a bottle."

I.

Nearly.

Died.

"Yah!" S4 agreed, "You can! WE can't drink beer but sometimes our Daddy can."

"Yah, but not so much anymore." S3 added. "Do YOU drink beer, Santa?"

They.

Did.

Although I wanted to haul them out and....wait, no, I wanted to NOT claim them.

Do you drink beer, Santa?

Santa realized he probably needed to find a seat and sit down and try to leave this conversation. But the boys kept up with him, continuing to chatter away at Santa. He finally told them that, "No, Santa does not drink beer. It would be a crazy ride with the reindeer if he did and that just would not be good."

I hurriedly tried to get the boys to color pictures and let the other kids get some time with Santa. It took some doing. But I think I might have seen a look of relief in Santa's eyes. And maybe even a "I'll be sure to bring a little something special for you dealing with these boys all the time" wink. (well, I can hope!)

Then S3 asked for a BB gun. I hoped Santa said no...he didn't say yes so that is good. Santa did tell him he seemed young, he couldn't be shooting helpless animals or brothers. S3 informed him you CAN shoot birds. Santa told him he couldn't. S3 disagreed. I am pretty sure it won't be under the tree from Santa.

And then S4 asked for a "Piddow Pet" and if he can't find one, they are at Target. Lots and lot of them. Then S4 let him know there would be cookies and chocolate milk and white milk waiting for him and special sparkly oatmeal for his reindeer he arrived.

If he gets here.

And there won't be beer.

Review of the Dinosaur Hunter by Homer Hickam

I have been waiting to read this book. Everyone I told I was anxiously awaiting its arrival said "Who is the author?"

Homer Hickam.

You probably know him. Remember the movie October Sky? That was him. I recently read his book Red Helmet. And if you have seen an author talking about the Chilean Mine Disaster...or any tragic mine disaster...it's usually him. Or, if you have seen an author talking about our space program...it's probably him.

See, you DO know who he is!

So, I was very excited for this book to come out in our area. I looked every time I was out. But to be honest, the only places I have time to look for books is when I am out grocery shopping. I haven't seen it yet. So when Alicia at the local library I love so much pulled it out of the box of new books for me, I felt it was Christmas early.

I am the very first person from our local library to read this book. I feel honored.

First of all, do you see how pretty it is?

Can one call a book pretty?

I think you can.

Because it is.

And not too thick either! I started the book on the day I got it...and then was able to finish it later that weekend when my wonderful Husband let me read it ALL AFTERNOON AND EVENING. Not like he had to twist my arm to read it...he just let me take it easy and took over the boys for me. THAT was the best gift!

Because this book is a gift. It tells the story of Mike, a former CA cop turned cowboy in Montana. It is his story about the summer a Dinosaur hunter came to the ranch he worked on and the events (and murders) that then occurred.

Immediately upon first starting this book, I was reminded of the hours I have spent reading Louis L'Amour books. That alone was enough to make me feel like I was just hearing the story of an old friend.

The simple way Homer uses his words is powerful. In the beginning I read "See you," Jeanette said as Ray carefully edged down the road, trying to keep his boots out of the mud. "See you," Ray said over his shoulder. There were never wasted words on the Square C. To translate, what Jeanette and Ray had just said was: "I love you, I will always love you, and I would die for you in a heartbeat." I said "See you," which meant the same to both of them.

And I cracked up at Homer's constant humor. This one had me snickering for a bit (because it is sad but true) "There, predictably, a Chinese fire drill was goin on (as we used to call confusion and turmoil before we all became politically correct and the Chinese bought our country)...."

But page 163 was where my favorite part of the book began, because there is where Mike visits the library, where he meets the impressive and lovely Mary Dutton Parker. And we all know that there are cool smart and pretty librarians out there.....okay, I may be prejudice on this! Mary is a character written after the Mary we all know and love over here, Mary is the Farmer's Wife at Cohagen Chronicles. For this reason alone I would love this book.

But it's not the only reason I like this book.

The story had me guessing until the end, I appreciate stories like that. Homer did such a superb job making his characters real that when the end happened, you wondered why you didn't figure it out sooner...they all did just what you knew they were capable of.

It is a delightful read, it made my wish to visit Montana stronger. Homer fell in love with this state, with these wonderful people he met there and it is obvious his love of the area and the way of life.

When the book ended, I felt I had said goodbye to good friends. I wanted to sit in a folding chair with ol' Mike and clink our gin and tonic and watch the sun rise and the sun set talking about ranching, dinosaur's and life.

The only bad part about having read this book is that now I MUST own it. I would have liked the read no matter what, I think, being bias with the friendship I have with Mary and the times I have been blessed to chat with Homer on Facebook and Twitter....but I did not expect to love this book as much as I did.

Read it. Winter is a great time to curl up with a great book. But if you are getting toward the end, know you will be completely unable to put it down and you may even tear up (honestly, I cried).

And when you are done with that, read Red Helmet. It's another one of those books I need to own too.

I was not asked to write this.

The opinion is totally my own.

I just wanted to share it with you,

Thank you, Homer, for writing this book. For spotlighting Montana and

the wonderful people and way of life they live there.

I knew this book would be good.

But it was wonderful...better than I could have imagined.

Thank you.

My Dogs....

Clearly my dogs have it so rough.

As you can so clearly see from this picture.

This is Josie, totally unladylike. Also Sadie, ignoring Josie.

Also, notice my ultra cool water bottle I'd be lost without and Jake's hot cocoa cup...probably needs to be filled

Also, I need to clean.

Badly,

Not that it bothers the dogs.

Welcome to my life.

I NEED a Fashionista

Really.

A live in full time fashionista. And a barista. And a housekeepira. And a chefista.

That'd be grand.

Anyway, today was dress up day. Sure, I could have been sensible and worn warm clothes on this 22 degree day but I wanted to wear a dress. A summer dress. Because I like summer thankyouverymuch.

But I needed some warmth with the dress so I figured I would wear my slip under the blue dress with a pink henley shirt under it and big wool socks with boots. Cute?

I wasn't sure.

And since I don't have a full length mirror so it's a scary stand on a chair and scrunch your body down tricky move....

....I asked S1 how it looked. He thought it was a trick question and answered first with "Yah, it's fine" in a I-have-no-idea-why-she-asked-me-this tone then in a sicky sweet voice, "Sure...you look nice all the time, Moma."

I knew that was a lie so I may have rolled my eyes, put on my super warm coat I got for FIVE dollars at a garage sale and decided I'd ask the first grade teacher at school.

S3's teacher is super sweet and I think she has gotten used to my...well, oddities.

She's probably questioning my sanity today.

When I got out of the suburban at school and the awful coldness of the morning hit me, I wrapped my long mid calf length coat around me and trudged up the sidewalk to the school. The wind was blowing at my coat and I thought in passing that I didn't recall my dress being so short.

Of course, it wouldn't seem short in summer, I reasoned.

And I continued on until I realized that, GASP, my SLIP was showing...not my cute knee length dress!

Picture this horror for a brief moment.

I am walking up the sidewalk in front of my boys school, surrounded by my boys, in full view of every parent in the drop off line.

And I look like I have neglige on under my coat and that I am not dressed in the least.

And there is no where to hide.

I desperately tried to pull my coat tighter and still hold on to the youngest boys hands...um, that doesn't work.

I whispered to S1 "My slip is showing!"

He did not get it. And wondered when the coffee would finally hit me so I acted somewhat sane again, I think.

We got into school and I considered hopping into the office to "adjust" myself but the office was teeming busy. So I darted in the little girls bathroom two forever long busy hallways away and yanked my dress that had gotten stuck on the back of my coat somehow and was literally as high as my panties.

I am sure there are parents out there who dropped their young children off at school thinking what a floozy I was.

Cuz I totally looked like it.

Totally.

I got into the cozy warm and friendly first grade room where I asked KJ if the outfit looked all right and she totally liked the dress and shirt and thought I may want to change the boots for my taller ones....

And then I spilled how awful the dress riding up incident had been.

And she may have laughed at me. A little.

I made it down the halls without flashing anyone else to get the boys settled in their classes and return home where I was sure I should just change my whole outfit so no one could say "Hey, didn't I see you this morning...um, oh, nevermind."

But if I DID totally change my outfit, it would look like I had gone to school wearing nothing but a sexy little black neglige to run on home in.

So I wore the dress and the boots KJ suggested and it did look cute.

But I don't think I'll be wearing it again for a very long time.

Wheelhorse Snow Power

Yesterday we got our first snow fall of the season. It wasn't too much, but it wasn't too little. And these boys of ours...well, they just could not wait to get out and enjoy it!

We are down to one pair of gloves for each boy...and then S4 left his at school so he actually has a pair of socks on.

S3 laughs hysterically whenever he sees this video replayed. He's in it, he knows what happens and he still laughs hysterically whenever he watches it.

And he has watched it a lot.

S2's butt was really dragging on the ground.

And this is S1's tractor, his pride and joy, and it was his idea to pull his brothers on his sled around the farm.

He learned going down hills wasn't a great idea.

Enjoy our first snow joy - four country boys style.