I'm Dreaming of a Brown Christmas

Well, wouldn't you know it. Today is Christmas Eve day and besides
getting into the festive spirit, we headed off for Logan's life-saving
swimming lessons (not to be confused with his normal swimming lessons).
Dad and Logan got to the town pool first and were surprised to see about
10 people there, 7 of which were lifeguards. It was extremely windy
and a large dust storm had engulfed itself upon the town. You couldn't
even see the close-by MacDonnell mountain ranges as there was a strong
brown hazy fog throughout. We got in the pool and had fun for awhile,
albeit the wind and dust blocked enough of the sun to make it quite
chilly out! Amazing when considering that the previous week saw
temperatures averaging at least 100 degrees fahrenheit. Logan still
enjoyed himself immensely through chattering teeth and loved to go under
the water to touch his hands & bum on the bottom of the pool. About 40
minutes later (and now in the toddler pool) Dad kept Logan occupied by
throwing his watch to the other side and chasing Logan to go get it
first. This was a desperate attempt to keep him warm and active to
hopefully last through the swimming class with Mom. Unfortunately it
wasn't to be... by the time we got in the big pool and started the
lesson, Logan only lasted about 5 minutes before hugging Daddy for dear
life and pleading to get out. Oh well, Logan was the only 'big kid'
attending the lesson anyway and everyone else had 1 year olds, so Logan
wouldn't have learned anything new anyhow. Off to the men's room to get
out of the wind and into warm clothes, Logan then semi-successfully
completed using the urinal. I say semi because Logan indicated he was
all done, but then subsequently turned opposite the urinal, spread his
legs, and went some more on the floor. After cleaning him up and
letting Logan push the button to flush as per the usual, Dad started to
put Logan's pants on. As he was doing so, Logan said, "You know
Daddy." "Yes, what is it Logan?" Dad replied. "You are a very good
Dad." Well, in the way that it was said and in the way it was
impulsive and sincere sounding, it just warmed the cockles of Daddy's
heart and made him really proud. Yes, indeed, if we couldn't have a
white Christmas, then by golly we'd have a GREAT BROWN CHRISTMAS!

Not intentionally leaving out our Delenn from the day's news, but she's continuing to be the normal chatterbox of excited high-pitched coos and caws. It's a real delight to watch, especially when it normally includes a lot of smiles :-) She even did a great job for us while taking the 'kid-abhorrent' Christmas photos, some of which you can see below.

For the rest of the Christmas Eve day, our highlights will include our
traditional christmas cookie decorating, playing games, and eating a
wonderful Turkey dinner.