9 1/2 years is a thing people celebrate, right?

Joel and I went to Hawai'i! People kept asking if we were on our honeymoon, we must look so young and romantical without our kids, so we finally decided that we WERE, or also that it was our 10-year anniversary trip because that's coming up and because LOOOOOOOOOL this trip was expensive. But I climbed down into the crater of a volcano and swam with manta rays and rode a horse through an almost unbearably scenic valley and also ordered the spiciest thing I could find and ate my food as soon as it reached the table and sometimes we just had wasabi peas and a roadside pineapple for lunch. Like you do.

More about this trip anon once I scam all the good pictures off of Joel's phone, but our suitcase just arrived and the towels that I threw in there slightly dampish, thinking I'd be washing them in less than 24 hours, are heinous and I need to see to them. My kids are coming off a 10-day-long high of being with my parents and hanging out with their cousin every day. They are convinced they got the better end of the deal (who wants to go to Hawai'i when you could go to the MALL AND VISIT THE BUILD-A-BEAR STORE). It was basically a flawless trip except that Geneva got bit by a dog, which was frankly horrifying for everyone involved but is over now and she is fine, if distinctly prize-fightery.

We are bustling into Christmas now, with the Christmas parade last night and remember how I lived in the prairies for three years? Anyway. We had to leave the parade early last night because we were SO. COLD. Rain is a hell of a weather. But it's clear today and we have our sights set on some light displays tonight and the girls each have their own tree this year, which they spend TENS of minutes decorating and undecorating and redecorating.

Come at me, holidays.