Eat more cookies

and they call it a “vacation.”

We have just slept in 9 different places over the past couple of weeks, and visited with 10 cousins - plus 4 “friend” cousins.

We have consumed Fritos, Muchos, Funjuns, gummi bears, Coke, vanilla Coke, Mountain Dew, 200mg caffeine tablets, M&Ms, Milky Ways, Snickers, Skittles . . .

There are at least 56 McDonald’s restaurants on Interstate highways between Lamar, PA and Tulsa, OK. By my reckoning, this works out to approximately 1 McDonald’s every 23 miles.

I spent the morning at Audubon Nature Camp, where I talked about birds and birding with 5 groups of 10 kids. That’s 50 more kids in Stillwater who know a scissortail when they see one and a Great Crested Flycatcher when they hear one. Not too shabby!

photo by Susan Walker

Once school finished a few weeks ago, we set the kids up to watch the first three Indiana Jones movies. Our kids love adventure movies and Han Solo, so we figured they’d get into them. They did, especially Temple of Doom - at 9 and 6 they’re the right demographic for Short Round. I taught them how to say “Truck? What truck?” They now really hate the Nazis, who are much more violent in these movies than the ones they already knew from The Sound of Music. The also like to count how many times in each movie someone says “Indyyyyyyyy!” and they’ve been imitating Marcus’ great line in the tank from #3: “Henry - the pen! Well don’t you see? The pen is mightier than the sword!”

So we took them to #4 on Saturday. They had a blast, of course, and now they know about the Cold War and spying and a lot of stuff like that. Fantasy though they are, these movies have given us a nice segue to talk about real history with them.

The movie was fun, as expected. The special effects were great, with one notable exception I’ll get to in a second. The location shots were pretty awesome. Shia Lebouf’s “Mutt” was a gritty and likable character.

But whoa - the script and the dialogue left quite a bit to be desired. I actually found myself doing something I’ve never done while watching an Indiana Jones movie - I yawned.

The biggest disappointment, however, had to be the stupid crystal skull itself. It looked like a football shaped wad of aluminum foil, wrapped in Saran Wrap, and covered with cheap plastic. For the amount of money they spent on this film, why the heck didn’t they just pay to have an actual crystal skull made?

Basketball is now well underway.  James’ Bulls played a tough game against some stiff kindergarten and 1st grade competition Saturday morning.  I sat on the bottom row of seats next to two OSU head coaches (football and women’s basketball), the head of student athlete affairs, and former Cowboy guard sensation JamesOn Curry.  All in all, it was great exposure for a standout like our own James, who scored twice!  Here he is in action:          Katie’s Jaguars (2nd and 3rd grade) totally dominated their opponent (the Dominators).  She plays a bit more like her dad so far:  scoreless but good defense and a couple of key rebounds.  No pictures of Katie in action, as the photographers were busy coaching! 

 . . . and a fun time was had by all.

Our “midnight” mass on Christmas Eve started at 10, but be still didn’t manage to nestle snug in our beds ’til nearly 1 in the morning. We were thrilled to have the kids sleep in ’til 8:30, at which point James burst into our room and yelled something to the effect of “Wake up!! It’s Christmas!”

So we got up, opened some presents, had some breakfast, assembled things, took Ginger for a long walk, had a snowball fight, shot some hoops outside, went to dinner with friends, ate too much, drank too much, sang some songs, came home, and camped out in the living room before a crackling fire. Not too shabby.

We really got in the spirit this year thanks to Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” which we read by the fire over several days the past week. At 9 and 6, the kids are just getting old enough to sit in rapt attention at the tale, and it’s a tradition we hope to continue for many years to come.

Merry Christmas, and God bless us, everyone.

What better reward for a couple of kids who got their flu shots without incident than to take them to the movies?

A great way to gauge a movie is to determine if the commercials and previews show the best parts. If they do, then the movie will be lame. If they don’t, you’re in for a treat. The latter was definitely the case for us with Disney’s Enchanted. It was funny, sweet, and exciting.

The humor was both self-deprecating to storybook fantasy (and its Disney adaptations) and the classic “fish out of water aspect” of placing those fantasy characters in the Big Apple. The chipmunk Pip was a spunky hero, more likeable than I expected.

Giselle’s innocence and optimism were exquisitely portrayed by Amy Adams. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been to truly act like a Disney princess on screen, rather than “merely” voice one. In the audience, I was putty in her hands from the moment she appeared on screen.

The ladies will likely appreciate the opporunity to see Prince Edward (Stillwater native and Oklahoma State University alum [?] James Marsden) on screen, both dashing and comical at the same time. And that dude can sing!

Speaking of singing, one great surprise for us was the “You’ve got to Show Her” number. It just kept building and building from its spare and simple start. Great stuff! Disney fans will also recognize snippets of music from previous films, as well as cameos by former princesses Ariel, Belle, and Pocahontas.

And Susan Sarandon? Yeah, she’s still got it.

So if you need a pick-me-up - if you could use a good laugh, if you like to walk out the theatre singing and tapping your feet - go let yourself be enchanted by Enchanted.

Like the g-force one enjoys on a tilt-a-whirl at the county fair, we’ve just been whipped this week from sunny and 82 degrees on Tuesday to impromptu snowball fights Friday night. Great fun! Our snow began falling just after dark last night, and lasted ’til about 10 pm. The heavy 2-3″ we got was perfect packing snow, and cast quite a magical ambience to sleepy Stillwater on a holiday weekend. By 11 this morning, it was mostly gone, but the kids are hopeful we’ll get a bit more today. We’ll see . . .

. . . freedom and family.

I am thankful for school and aminals.

I am thankful for food and air.

I am thankful for grandparents and friends.

James, age 6

the change is abrupt

when south winds shift to the north

juncos come to feast

On Monday we celebrated a special night in the O’Connell family, as Tim and Katie got to perform onstage together as part of a 170-person chorus for the gala concert “Oklahoma at 100“. The program was a feast of great music by Oklahoma composers, plus a couple of songs from the musical “Oklahoma!” One highlight was singing with guest soloist, 18-year soprano with the Metropolitan Opera, and Enid native, Leona Mitchell.

The concert was great, but the best part was getting to share the pre-performance backstage chaos with Katie. Katie’s favorite part was hamming it up on stage in front of hundreds of people. We’re looking forward to many more performances in the future.

Some of the singers on Monday night - we’re both about one person out of this shot: