Naughty, naughty!

Madison knows the Grinch very well. His soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots. Seriously, he's a three decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce. She's seen the Grinch a few times this season and instinctively wags her finger at the green guy, telling him "naughty, naughty!" Of course, he never seems to get it - at least not until the end of the cartoon. He's just the type that's into mischief, and maybe that's why we all relate to him so well. He nauseates us with a nauseous super-naus. Yet year after year, we all like to watch the Grinch to see the trouble he gets into.

SPEAKING of WHICH, you'd best keep your eyes on Madison! Mommy was sewing in the basement and letting Madison play around with her new Nativity set, but our little angel decided to sneak off and upstairs to the living room for a bit. Mommy didn't realize why until it was too late: Madison was after a small plate filled with M&M's! She emptied that thing fast - and had chocolate all over her cheeks. No more sweets for you, little girl: you've had enough chocolate to last you until Christmas!

Tonight Mommy and Daddy went to another Christmas party, and Madison got to spend some time with Nana and Ye-Ye. Yep, that's him to the left there. Or, at least the puppet version. Ye-Ye means "grandfather" in Chinese, and this evening Madison went over to spend some time next door with her grandparents. Always resourceful, Ye-Ye had some paper bag puppet crafts to make from Ni-Hao Kai-Lan, and tonight they glued them together. The example you see there in this photo is identical to the kind Madison made this evening. They watched movies and played with dolls and just had a good time together as always. Madison loves going over there. Simply say the word "Ye-Ye" or "Nana" and she'll start packing her gear, excited to be going over. Once we go over, Madison will just about be pushing us out the door so that we're on our way.

It was another late night again. There's only eight more sleeps 'til Christmas, and still lots of fun on the schedule for all of us. And a lot of shopping still left to do. It's all fun, though there might be a bit of stress here or there between planning a Christmas play and finishing shopping and wrapping and scheduling time for Christmas activities. It's still - as Andy Williams says - the most wonderful time of the year.

It's just that, to quote the great magician Professor Hinkle, we're "busy, busy, busy!"