AutobiograPhy

This gives a pretty good sense of the things I've been thinking about over the past year and a half:

That starts with the letter "p," I mean. Except all those "poly-" prefix words, which I apparently don't feel the need to google because they're already too proximate.

You Can Sometimes Get What You Want

Skylar wrote a series of letters to Santa. I'm not sure what she wrote in all of them, but a number of them apparently featured this request:

This was a rough draft. She knows I had it in my office, awaiting the day when I would get around to scanning it. "Why do you have to take a picture of everything, dad?" she asked me when she saw it sitting on my computer desk, doing her best exasperated tone. But I think she was secretly pleased at the depth of my documentary impulse.

Anyway, Santa must have received the final version of this missive, because he stumbled into our front room with a giant plush lion on his back. Skylar was delighted to discover it this morning and proceeded to talk about it on the phone with both sets of grandparents. Kim managed to get a nice shot of her moment of morning hairdo-enhanced bliss:

It was a great Christmas for all of us, the mellowest one that the three of us have had here in Tucson. I only wish I didn't have to leave in five hours. . .

On the Other Hand. . .

Yes, it was ridiculously warm today, making it hard to get in the holiday spirit. But the weather was so nice that we could take Bean to the junior high school athletic fields to try out her new soccer ball and baseball glove.

She has been showing interest in playing sports all of a sudden, perhaps because her friends are doing it. Needless to say, I welcome this development. I wondered, though, whether she'd find her first experience of softball too daunting, given how hard it has been for her to get comfortable in basketball and soccer. Not a chance.

Indeed, she shows signs of being a natural. Despite an unorthodox motion, she managed to get the ball into my glove with surprising accuracy and a satisfying slap. She can bring it!

She also hit the ball cleanly on her first swing, though my good advice seemed to confuse her after that. Still, the experiment in America's pastime was a rousing success. And this photo of her having fun makes me happier than words can express. So maybe there is something to be said for 80+ degree Christmas days.