A Horse is a Horse

Remember I said we have 6 Advent Calendars?
Here's the great PopUp Eric Carle one from his book "Dream Snow". The farmer and his 5 animals, etc. It's darling, so cleverly made, so original. My girls love love love it.
Thanks Darlene!
Léna with the book she doesn't let out of her sight, my family's recording of Frosty, last year's Xmas gift....
Another Advent Calendar: Oui Oui (known as "Noddy" in the anglophone world, I just found out!)
Enjoying Aunt Mary's Christmas gift from last year - A Peanut's Nativity Scene. So much fun to play with. And if Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, Madeline, Dora and a Playmobile lady would like to join Snoopy and CharlieBrown, well, the more the merrier.

Like I said, the hills may be alive with the sound of music, and my apartment on the weekends and in the evenings is filled with the recordings from my family and these amazing recordable Hallmark books - "The Night Before Christmas" and "Frosty". It's like my whole family is floating all around the apartment.
She's so sweet. When she's not destroying something.
Now here's the kid that never destroys anything and has the patience of a Samaritan with her sibling:
Below: Estelle has these recorded books memorized, every syllable, every intonation. She likes to place her finger on the photo of each person as they are speaking. Or singing.
Below: Our other advent calendar (not pictured yet) is 24 little boxes that we have filled. I used whatever I could find around sometimes (like post-it notes that Doug gave me after cleaning out). This is a lot of fun when you are 5.
Again, have I mentioned the obsession with the family recorded books? Thomas now can imitate everybody, even Danny who sounds like he's 93.
Here's Estelle drawing Santa a picture.
Getting the finer points down.
Love:

Last Sunday Thomas made me this: pear and almond powder. Heaven.
Mommy, Cindy Lou Who says stop taking pictures of me.
Things to write, places to be, people to see. Outta my way.

Note that after everyone's name, there's a # to show their age. Estelle has just had the epiphany that Mommy's age is 4-1, and Daddy's is 3-4, and doesn't that mean Mommy is bigger? Why yes, dear, that's what that means.
Richard Scary's The Smells of Christmas. Scratch N' Sniff, reproduction of the 1970 favorite. One year Estelle got 2, one from Mary, one from Martha. That was the same year they each gave her a Dressy Bessy. Twins, what can you do?

And lastly, a recent photo of me:
Some of you may know that Thursday I visited my pulmonologist only to be told that nothing had improved on the pneumonia front, despite the pleurisy hurting a bit less. I spent the entire day having tests, blood work, Xrays and Cat scans. It began at 9 a.m. and ended at 7:30 p.m. The verdict: 4th and different (and hopefully final) antibiotic treatment including a visiting nurse coming 2x/day to administer a shot to me. When I picked up the vials at the pharmacy, my pharmacist Eric (who has been following my sad tale of coughing woe since Nov 1st) said 'Wow, they're not messing around any more. That's strong stuff". I needed 20 vials and they only keep 2 in stock, which kind of tells you something. Anyways so far I've had 4. Today the nurse told me that these shots are for horses. I laughed. She peered at me over her bifocals and said something like "No joke, I have almost never given this to people because anyone who gets this is usually hospitalized by the time they need this." And then she basically said something to the effect of it really IS for horses. Neigh. Snort. Neigh. Giddyap....of course of course no one CAN talk to a talking horse - she coughs too much!