Birthday Week & Christmas Lights

There was frost on the ground this morning, and I was halfway to work before it finally warmed up inside the hybrid. I was actually grateful. It made me feel a little less ridiculous for doing this: on a weekend we also did yardwork in shorts.

According to Walters Family Tradition, I was late with the tree. We always used to put ours up the day after Halloween. Now, Mom & Dad's- and I think maybe Sara's- have become year-round fixtures. What can I say? Christmas lights are cheerful. Ours had me feeling a little nostalgic too, since it was Finley's birthday week and I couldn't help but remember all the Christmas tree-lit night feedings (only!) a year ago.

Finley reveled in the rest of her birthday week. She played with her new toys every night, partially overcame her fear of the walker, and tried to read all of her books at the same time. Thursday I had to speak at an insanely boring conference on force structure (my briefing threatened to put me to sleep!) but at least I managed to sneak out early enough to pick her up and take her to the park before it got dark. 

She managed to convince us she needed another cupcake too, and I thought I had her outsmarted by going with minis this time- until Seth (obviously on Finley's team) put one of each flavor in front of her "so she can pick which one she wants," and she grabbed them both and stuffed them in her mouth before either of us could react. Winning.

We also got a very cool "double birthday" call from the Misawa Walters- since Ben & Lisa are 14 hours ahead of us, it was Tyler's birthday too! 

Friday night we fought traffic to make it down for a final birthday celebration, and one I had been super excited about. Because I'm an honorary Carron ("0% Korean!" as Grace always gloats, reminding me that she's "a quarter Korean"), Finley got to don Grace's old hanbok for the fortune telling ritual. It was hilarious and awesome. She picked the pencil, which supposedly means she will be smart- although the way she was jabbing it about, she was more likely selecting a weapon.

We had a quiet weekend at home after the festivities. I was battling a cold along with the "poor me"s, since being sick while pregnant (read: unable to take any decent cold meds) just seems like adding insult to injury. We took Finley on a hilarious Christmas decoration shopping trip to Target, and an ill-fated late afternoon trip to the zoo (most of the animals had retired for the night, so we bailed and went out for BBQ. Although she did really dig the elephants.) And we had a nice long fall walk and watched Army lose to Air Force purely out of loyalty while longsuffering Dad deer hunted (having buttered up sick and cranky Mom by helping out with tons of chores and some seriously thorough yardwork first.)

The photo of the week was probably Finley's favorite part of the weekend. I call it "that look on your face when you're the first kid at the park on Saturday morning."