By the Light of the Silvery Moon

I'm sure some of y'all noticed the incredibly bright moon we had last night... lovely wasn't it?  Except that the horses noticed it too and took advantage of the extra bright night light to attempt a pasture break.  Unfortunately, Fantine and Alise made the bid for freedom without clueing in Aimee and Aimee was most indignant!  She's the one that alerted authorities (that would be us) to the escape attempt. 

They tried it once more during the night and so Jim was back up with them again, only to discover Maddy Belle and Skye in the front yard as well.  Belle is reknown for her inability to see/think clearly in the dark, so I have no doubt that she was reacting to the ruckus with Aimee and just ran through the fence.  She's dippy that way and Maddy and Skye are sharp enough to take advantage of any opportunity.

I did find it amusing that it was a perfectly horrid night, sleepwise, for Jim and the kids slept through it all.  Sometime during Jim's second round up, Xander climbed into bed with me, followed shortly there after by Sophie.  Jim ended up just sleeping in Xander's bed with Beckett until about 9am when we all decided to wake up at pretty much the same time. 

Scrambled eggs, fried ham, toasted challah (with Nutella!! Mmm!!!!) and freshly ground coffee has got us all feeling pretty spiffy (ok, so the kids had juice, but I did share my nutella toast with Beckett and Xander).

Since Christmas is a little overwhelming for Sophie and since things are a little wonky this year anyway, we decided to go ahead and give the kids one of their presents last night.  We got them the spinning see saw from Magic Cabin (I was already planning to order it before it was shown on the Martha Stewart Show... after I saw it on there I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get it... and according to the service person I ended up having to speak with (over a different matter) it was a semi-close thing, although now I see they are available).

It's really cool because it can be set up in the house, assuming you have the room for it.  Luckily, one side of our living room has been designated a play zone and it's pretty much furniture free.  Xander and Sophie played for about 4 hours straight on it last night and first thing this morning they were right back on it.  It's not loud at all, althought it does get an occasional squeak/creak sound but that's not bad.  It's been a great way to bleed off some of Sophie's overbounding energy and it's had a most interesting side effect.

Sophie sings while she seesaws.

Sings lots and lots!  I was able to video her singing "I got you babe" (well most of it, I'll have to get the whole thing when I'm home alone and no one can accidently interupt her) then "What You Want" (from Legally Blonde), "Transylvannia Mania" (from Young Frankenstein), "Book of Days" (by Enya), Salaam Namaste and the Xanadu medly (unfortunately my camera ran out of space before the end of that one... it was too funny!!).  I'm going to try to get her to do them again in better lighting and I'll post them here... it's really too funny!

Xander just bounces along with her and when she prompts him with a line he delivers beautifully then keeps on bouncing along... it's hilarious!  They've had such a good time playing together!  They've even been sweet about letting Beckett have a turn too and he's only fallen off once, and that was mostly his own fault as he tried to dismount at a less than opportune moment.

Anyway, while I'm still not over the moon (silvery or otherwise) about tonight, I am looking forward to Christmas morning with everyone all together.