Holly Jolly Sister Torture

Last night, I suggested to Kate that we put on our Christmas jammies and go out for a drive to look at Christmas lights. I admit, I had an ulterior motive in that I was a church widow last night (i.e. Matt had a couple meetings, so I was on my own for the whole evening) and hoped that the drive would lull Kate to sleep and make for an easy bedtime.

No such luck, but we did have fun. I built it up for Kate, saying "We're going to wear our jammies in the car. Isn't that CRAZY??!!" And she kept saying "it's CRAZY!" throughout the whole experience. I drove until long after the thrill had worn off, still hoping she would fall asleep, so we saw quite a few neighborhoods in our area. We found the Griswolds of south Davidson county, who must save all year just to pay their December electric bill. Man, that was a lot of lights.

Before we left, I wanted to take pics of the girls in their Christmas jammies. Kate loves to hold Claire (and hug and kiss her in aggressive, smothering fashion) but it always makes me nervous. Here's how last night's shoot went down:

"Hi Clairy-Beary! Let me hold you!"

"Look at the camera!"

 "Mommy! Claire's crying!"

"What do you mean, hold our bears in their Christmas jammies? Now I can't squeeze my sister within an inch of her life!"

"Okay, I guess this works. Whaddayaknow? She stopped crying!"

"Well that didn't last long. Don't cry, Claire!"

And since Kate's jammies were obscured by Claire, here's Santa Monkey in all its glory.

And since I know you were dying to see it, here's that crazy house! There's a street that goes right behind their house too, and the back was just as covered in lights and electric flotsam as the front! Maybe I'll take a pic of the back when I take Matt to see this phenomenon.