Here is our christmas tree 2011! Unfortunately my cell phone did not focus or expose it accurately, but if you use your imagination you can see it in all its noble fir glory.

Beatrice is enchanted with snowmen, santa claus, and rudolph the red nosed reindeer. A friend at church gave us a snowman night light to give to her, and naturally she was delighted. I made the mistake of showing her how to flip the switch to turn on the light; though it is clearly designed to require more force than a small child can easily exert, she insisted on trying the switch on her own. I fear that my “safest parent of 2011″ prize may be in jeopardy.

We are going to a lot of appointments now that kelly is in the final trimester of pregnancy, and beatrice and i sometimes find ourselves sharing a waiting room. One of her favorite waiting room games is to place one of her ducks on a table or behind some brochures and then exclaim “he’s hiding! he’s hiding!”. (in this case, the duck hid so well that daddy forgot to pack him and had to run back to get him!)

Here is what it looks like at dusk in the new place. I am quite fond of it!

We had a christmas party with some friends, and we celebrated mostly by eating only delicious snack and finger foods! Beatrice and kelly shared an ice cream cone. Beatrice was, of course, delighted.

One of the finishing touches on my home-made kindle cover. I gently twisted an xacto knife through the back cover of the book and made a couple of holes, then threaded elastic through the holes to make a journal-style loop that keeps the cover closed.

I gave beatrice some apples and peanut butter for dessert and for awhile she pretended to eat them both while mostly just using the apple as a peanut butter transportation device. Then, when the apple was gone, she shunned all pretext and just started scraping the bowl of peanut butter with her spoon. it’s a good thing she’s not allergic to peanuts.

Here is the view from my new office! I am delighted. It beats the pants off my old view (a parking lot at ground level : natural light is nice but having headlights shining into your eyeballs does not count). The whole building is considerably nicer and i’m excited to be working there.

Beatrice loves papa roy. When we had dinner tonight with Kelly’s family, she wanted to sit next to him on the couch. She patted him and said “papa! Hi papa roy!”. (she also wanted to know where his pipe was.)

This is the wall between my office and the one next to it, an office occupied by a man named george with whom i have been having a bit of a competition: a point is awarded to the one who arrives first each day. Since we will no longer be neighbors in the new building, the score on friday must be considered final, and i am afraid i must congratulate george on his victory.