Goin' Out in a Hail of Bullets

Here's how I spent the last week of 2006:

• Monday, 12/25 - Merry Christmas to all, and to Peach, six pairs of new shoes. Count em, six. That's one of the beauties of being a kid - when you've outgrown one pair of shoes, you've probably outgrown them all. Can you imagine? Add that score to the highly coveted Easy Bake Oven and a host of other goodies, and you've got one happy (now) seven year old. For Olive, it's Little People City over here, y'all. She got the school, the school bus, and the illusive reindeer she was lacking from her Christmas set. We've also added to our ever-growing herd of horses a black stallion and stable and our first Breyer horse, complete with a fully decked-out cowgirl she named "Cowgirl Nanny."
• Tuesday, 12/26 - We headed to the Houston area for Christmas with my mom's family.
• Wednesday, 12/27 - Peach got her ears pierced.
• Thursday, 12/28 - I took Peach and my cousin's two boys to see "Night at the Museum." Not bad.
• Friday, 12/29 - We celebrated the birth of my cousin's new twins and then fought the rain and freakass lightning all the way back home. Four and a half hours, man. My knuckles are still white.
• Saturday, 12/30 - Peach turned seven. She started the day with a tiny chocolate cake in bed and then moved on to a treasure hunt orchestrated by T-Bone. She loves mystery books, so he got her stuck on this series, and ever since, he has been scouring the Internets to complete her collection. Last year, he wrote 56(!) clues for the inaugural hunt, which ended with a huge box full of about 20 of the books. This year, he (thankfully) kept it under 20 clues and added five more books. Peach loved it. We spent the rest of the day playing with all the new Christmas stuff and opening more new birthday stuff. A proper party usually follows in the early spring.
• Sunday, 12/31 - The road goes on forever, and the party never ends. Not in December around here, anyway. TODAY is the 9th anniversary of our gettin' hitched in a precious little church in San Antonio on a crisp New Year's Eve. Right in the middle of the city-wide free-for-all fiesta that the powers that be just so happened to revive that year for the first time in forever. Thanks, guys. It actually all turned out quite fabulous, if my blissful memory serves, but y'all will have to wait until next year for the full story (and it's a good one). Happy Anniversary, T-Bone. You hunka burnin' love, you.