Armed and Dangerous

We headed out Wednesday to go to my parents' house in the Dallas area to celebrate Christmas. I know it's not "internet savvy" to announce to the whole of the online world that you are out of town, but I'm going to roll that dice. Would-be opportunistic robbers would be surprised to know that I have a houseful of strangers spending the holidays at the Casa de Tacky while we are gone. Our close friends live just a few minutes away and they have lots of company coming, so we're loaning out some bedrooms for a few days. I feel our incandescent Christmas tree star is safe in our absence.

My parents live in the same house we moved into when I was in fourth grade. It's the kind of neighborhood where no one bats an eye when you shoot a snake out of a tree with a shotgun in your backyard during a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. That you're hosting.

Hypothetically speaking, of course.

So shooting a few arrows by the back deck?

No problem.

Well, it may be a problem for cardboard man.

And his 100 point crotch.

Meanwhile, indoors, an all out cat fight was happening over their baby cousin's swing.

The next few days for us will be full of arrows, leaf piles, coloring, playing, cooking, snacking, shopping, wrapping, visiting, and lots and lots of picture taking, with no fewer than three professional photographers in the house at any given moment. I'm hoping to toss a few pictures on the blog as we go along, so I don't have to plow through 800 shots when we get home. Did I say 800? I meant 1400. We've been here 24 hours and my dad has taken 277 pictures already.

We'll consider it a success if we fare better than cardboard man.