rob, where were you on that one?

so. we've been entertaining ourselves here with a few things. i have started knitting my little niece a blanket. i put my mom to knitting as well so we should have it done before the poor girl gets to college. we went to see no country for old men. a cohen brothers movie. it was fabulous. but not a children's movie. i don't think sebastian and dorian would like it yet. maybe in a few years. :) that was day before yesterday. that was the day my swanky red boots came. i must tell you ladies, you should be glad i left town, because i look so hot in those things. seriously, it was like 60 degrees here so i really looked hot. it could be that i was nearly sweating, but i think it is the boots. and i love them. for the first time in a long time i was warm in december. i almost thought that was impossible.

yesterday we baked cookies and went to see the lights at my town square. it is pretty much my favorite part of coming home for christmas. i love it! so we walked around the square watching camels give rides to kids (which i am against, because, let's face it, camels weren't made to haul little kids in a circle on pavement.) it just makes me sad to see that. but it was there. so were the annual mini pony rides, which i also despise. i know it sounds like this is the worst thing in the world, but i just love those silly lights. it is just almost magical, and no matter the temperature, it makes me feel like christmas. they also had these clowns making balloon things for the kids. that was nice to see. and the kids loved it. it always makes me smile when kids are that happy. these pictures are from last year. but you get the idea. they decorate everything with lights. they even do hogs (our college mascot) all over the place. this makes me laugh, because what could remind the average person more of christmas then a huge well lit hog? i've yet to find it. but it makes me laugh. so this is what you guys all missed by not being here for christmas. as you can see, arkansas goes off. :)

people even decorate their yards with santa's sled being pulled by 8 hogs. see above. our christmas cookies we made--two were decorated with hogs. now that is saying something. after the light viewing. we made our way to this new ice cream store owned by my parents' friend's daughter. she used to babysit me. so i was amazed to see here there with her own child. (they were about to close. that is why she was there.) the ice cream was wonderful. i had chocolate cake batter with snow caps mixed in. dustin had a strawberry and cream shake (which he said was delicious). and my dad got a banana split. in only minutes we all had none left. it was great.

today we woke up in time to go get a quick dozen donuts with my dad from my favorite donut place. this is good for two reasons: 1. we get 12 donuts from a good place. and 2. we did not have to pay. so now we have donuts for a few days. that makes me want to get up. now you may be thinking, "cortneylangford, do you eat anything other than sugar there?" and i am happy to report, "not really." we went to see i am legend today. i had a bit of popcorn (no sugar added). but really, rob, you should have gone with dust to see that because the first half of the movie was too scary for me. ( that is the reason for the title of this blog entry). i should have known it would be too scary, but i went any way. it ended up being a nice story, but man that first half was terrifying. where were you, rob?

for dinner we went to my mom's friend's house. miss patty and mr. mike are their names. they are nice, but dust and i have nothing in common with them really. so it makes for an interesting night. we ate quiche and broccoli cheese soup( no sugar). but we also ate cake. it got really cold tonight. there was snow falling. no accumulation though. because it was 60 earlier in the day. i told you guys we live in the mountains here. supposedly, it will be cold from here on out, but cold here is 30. so that is better than 10. we gave my dad a private concert of the 750's on rock band when we got home. so that was fun. warmaning up the pipes with a few tunes. feels good to be back entertaining the crowds. there are certain songs that i won't sing because they are "quinn songs". so that makes the game a little harder. but luckily, there are enough that i can sing, that we managed. and my dad pretended to be impressed. always nice.

we have been getting ready for christmas. we do themes when we go to my aunt's house. two years ago my uncle made the theme fake teeth. no one else was aware of the theme. so i, having never met him, was a little shocked. last year, i went as a christmas crab and dust went as a christmas dog. my dad teaches drama at a high school here. so we had access to a few costumes. we even made up a song that included every one's name, but i can't remember it anymore. it is a shame, because it was good.

this year for christmas, we are making the theme "redneck christmas" . we are again not telling the family, but i have put little trinkets in tube socks as santa will not deliver "red neck things in tube sox." i welcome any suggestions you may have as far as red neck costumes. we will raid my dad's costume room again, i feel certain. we are going to drive down separately in his truck. so i think costumes are required. i was thinking dust could wear that white sweater and black dicky that randy quaid wears in christamas vacation. and maybe i could find a country outfit at the school. but i think that would be funny. what do you think. love you and miss you all.

clm