She's been taking a weekly sewing class offered by a woman who lives a few blocks from me, and this morning I got to see the fruit of Marebear's labors:

It's falling off one shoulder because she'd hurriedly donned it to show me, and it wasn't zipped up. 

She made it herself, isn't that astonishing?  Well, it's astonishing to me, for I cannot imagine sewing anything that difficult.  I mean....zippers?  Get a grip. 

Two additional notes:

First....hooray!  Jessica called while I was at Elaine's house (listening to a phone interview with Mike Huckabee that was conducted by conference call) to say she and Jason had just left the doctor's office and Jason essentially got a clean bill of health regarding his back!  He may drive again, and pick up stuff up to 25 pounds, though the doctor told him to wait a week before keeping Bridgette all day by himself.  If I remember aright, in four weeks he has another appointment, and it's at that one he should be cleared to resume working. 

Second, I've decided upon the location for Saturday's Shopping Extravaganza, and it's downtown Fort Worth.  I used to love going downtown at Christmas as a child and daresay my poppets will enjoy it as well.

The Second Annual Christmas Shopping Extravaganza is set for this Saturday, seeing as how Brianna will be here anyway, and it's doable for the others.  This time I'm taking Benjamin and Margaret in addition to the others.

I've also cut back the scope and scale of it, deciding the kids will shop with one goal:  A Present for Mama.  I figure that's the gift that is most troublesome, as it's usually Mama who takes them shopping, so we can get this present out of the way. Now I need to decide where to take the herd.  Malls are too big and crowded (though after the tragic event in Omaha today, maybe not so much), but University Park or Plaza or whatever it is doesn't have that many stores, and some of those are a little pricey for little kids.

Well, I'll think of something.

Then the following weekend Elaine and I are taking the same bunch to see Fort Worth Opera's 45 minute production of "Amahl and the Night Visitors", a story about a boy, his mother, and the wise men searching for the Baby Jesus. 

At some point I want to have the three toddlers, Bryson, Hannah, and Cole, over to decorate sugar cookies and so on.  Mustn't leave them out of the holiday fun!

Well. That's too long.

Ha!  Proof positive they can be Wicked Dickens, and no mistake.  A couple of days before Thanksgiving I had a graham cracker crust on my shopping list.  To my horror, SuperTarget wanted $3.69 for one!  Just the Keebler sort in the aluminum foil pan.  Box of graham cracker crumbs?  Over five and a half dollars.

Wound up buying it for maybe $1.79 at Tom Thumb, IIRC.

My, my....what a difference a few days make to the price of a simple pre-made graham cracker crust:

They should be ashamed of themselves. 

I do love it when voters do the right thing....especially when it includes giving a poke in the eye to a wannabe dictator...and that's exactly what the sensible people of Venezuela did. 

They voted down each and every one of Hugo "Don't criticize me or I won't let you buy our oil!" Chavez desired amendments, which would have removed term limits for the presidency, thus setting in place his ability to remain in office indefinitely and made huge strides toward socialism.

That last simply baffles me.  Is there a successful-in-the-long-term socialist nation anywhere on the planet?  I can't think of one.  Even the USSR couldn't manage to hold together longer'n about 80 years, for pity's sake.  China's socialist society is unraveling, albeit slower than the rest of us would like.  Fine, there are certainly countries such as some of the Scandinavian nations that are largely socialist, with cradle-to-the-grave goodies being doled out, but they've not been doing so for more than a very few decades.  Give 'em another 30 years or so and dollars-to-donuts they'll likely have seen their economies go flat and civil unrest take place.  The world economy of the recent past has allowed for "socialist democratic" nations such as Finland to flourish.  If the world economy goes bust, welfare states such as Finland's are going to find themselves sailing in rough waters in boats taking on water.

Fortunately the majority (though a bare majority, granted) of Venezuelans realized the odds of their being able to be a "South American Finland" are somewhere between slim and none, particularly with Chavez manning the rudder.

What a shame yesterday's parliamentary election in Russia didn't give that country's leader a similar poke in the eye. 

Oh well.  Can't win 'em all!  At least the Venezuelans made Chavez look no-how.