Posting is going to be a bit slow for the next week or two. Our house sale in Atlanta fell through (yet again) so we are going to be renting something in Texas in the meantime. We found a lovely rental (brand new to boot) so the ebony household will be busy to say the least. We’ve spent this weekend helping my parents move into their new house- oh yes I forgot to mention my parents moved here on Saturday! I’ve got so many things to blog about that once I return (very positive, warm and fuzzy things).

Until then I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we certainly did. Our first Texas Thanksgiving with family was an overwhelming success. Maybe the excitement of being near family and friends will wear off eventually but for now its been so much fun I can hardly stand it all.

With the holiday season rapidly approaching the festive decorations and music are making appearances everywhere we go. The new wave of lawn ornamentation is really amazing to me. Who knew that one day a 12 foot grinch or 10 foot snowglobe with Santa and Rudolph dancing inside would be as easy to buy as tinsel or a tree. The 12 foot Santa riding a Harley was just a little too much though. Everyone knows the reindeer would get far too jealous to let Santa cavort around on motorcycles.

While I don’t subscribe to the materialism that has become associated with Christmas my favorite memories as a child are just how long I was able to believe in Santa. My parents did a wonderful job putting together a special and magical Christmas for us every year. Early Christmas morning we would awaken to our glittering tree surrounded with so many toys they didn’t even bother to wrap them. I don’t ever remember asking for much because it was always more fun to see what Santa would surprise us with (my one exception was the year I wanted a Cabbage Patch Doll and they did surprise me with my 2 chocolate babies that I still have today- both boys, hmmm did my parents have premonitions?)

EBoy on the other hand does not believe in Santa. Whenever I try to share the magical story of Santa my little boy wants no part of it. Not only will he tell you there’s no Santa, if you insist there is one he will say he doesn’t like him anyway. He sighs and rolls his eyes at mention of letter writing and needing to be good just in case.

No, I don’t want him to be a greedy toy craving maniac but just a little of the wonderment and surprise is something I don’t want to deprive him of. He’s most likely against Santa because he’s completely creeped out by anything in a costume. So the whole Santa beard and outfit is something he’s never really taken too. Maybe he remembers when he was an infant and I let him sit on some strange bearded man’s lap to take pictures.

Whatever it is he never has done the Santa thing so we’re just going to leave it alone. Well except for that blow up Santa on the Harley- nothing screams holiday cheer like a blow up bearded man in leather sitting on your lawn.

I know someday I’ll miss true autumn with the foliage and the nippy weather but for now I’ll take watergun fights in October anytime!

I was quite surprised when someone showed up on my doorstep with this beautiful bouquet of flowers. Of course I thought of how devious my husband had been, planning to surprise me out of the blue with such a pretty arrangement. I then looked at the card on the flowers and umm my name wasn’t on them! Turns out they were for him.

Yeah, I was shocked too. After he saw the flowers he just stared at me until I told him they were his. Opening the card it turns out the flowers were from none other than his new chiropractor!

They just wanted to thank him for his business and wish him a special day. Now that’s some pretty amazing customer service. All the chiropractor I visited sent me is a bill, they could have at least wrapped it nicely in orange and purple paper.

November is shaping up to be a really nice month thus far. Not only did we find out this week that my parents are moving here (within the next 3 weeks! woah!), my inlaws will guaranteed be here for the holidays, and I also found the pediatrician of my dreams.

I took EBoy for a checkup today(we never got around to his 4 year old checkup because of moving) and met the loveliest pediatrician ever. She reinforced the information about bad food ingredients, shared some information about DHA which reinforced our current supplements of EFAs with the boys and even applauded our committment to chiropractic care for our family.

She had a very interesting life story and made her own committment to learning about alternative health and therapies when she was dealing with her personal battle with breast cancer and debilitating back issues. She’d been through years of surgeries and medications only to find out there were natural ways she could have confronted her health and her diet that truely made a difference.

A dietician is on staff for this pediatrician group as well as a naturopath. I haven’t found anyone like this since leaving Seattle so I was so thrilled it took all I had not to just get up and hug the doctor.

EBoy liked the doctor until she surprised him with his 4 year old shots. I had promised that he wasn’t getting shots, but here they go ahead and get the 4 year old shots done because they don’t want to associate shots with kindergarden for children newly entering school.

It took 3 of us to hold him down to get the shots done. I still feel so awful about it, especially since I’ve always had a bit of a shot phobia when it comes to my kids. The only time EBoy ever got sick as a baby was when he received shots. He also screamed every time he would see a paper covered examination table from 3 months on, he never forgot from his first shots.

He’s now done with shots and I’m excited to have a doctor my children can grow and thrive with. EBaby is scheduled to have his checkup and shots once his records arrive from Georgia. I’ll definitely be making EDad attend that appointment with me, shots are way too traumatizing for me to go through alone.