For anyone who has ever called me "Scrooge"

This podcast is a great explanation of how I feel about Christmas gifts-doesn't it drive you nuts to know that you are probably spending $50 to give someone $10 of happiness? I think I called Liz at least 4 times to make sure I was at least getting close to an 80% value of happiness in my gift-giving.

The Faces of CaMacy

When the girls were first born, we would often get asked if they were identical. As newborns they looked similar:

Higlight text to see if you can guess which is which --> | Camy left, Macy right |

And they did look similar, as most newborns do. There were a few tell tale signs. For me ears were first way I could keep them seperate, then noses, then smiles. Then personalities got a chance to come through. If I am sitting on the floor and one jumps on my back I can tell which one it is by their approach and style of landing. Although knowledge this does not preclude me from the parenting trait of calling out the wrong name when trying to audibly intervene in unfolding mischief.

Three years later, we still get questions if they are identical. Friends try to guess which one is Macy or Camy. The 50/50 odds never seem to be in their favor. It's tough. I am able to keep their children seperate becuase one is a head taller than the other and has dark instead of blond hair. Camy and Macy don't even stand still long enough for one to figure out which is which.

I remember an exercise I participated in when I was growing up where I was presented with two oranges. My group and I were asked to describe the two fruits. We set out analyzing and came up with a list. The moderator then noted that all of the points we made were describing how the oranges were different from one another. We did not note how much they had in common. The point of the exercise was to highlight the inclination we have to highlight differences rather than appreciate what we have in common.

As I was trying to manage the hundreds of pictures that end up on our camera, I noticed a few pictures that I liked in particular. I noted them, and pulled them into a program together. Soon I had a pretty good collection of shots of Camy and Macy. They do have their differences. Now as I look back at baby pictures, it is much easier to distinguish the two girls. So many features that were then invisible are not readily apparent after seeing how they have grown up. But it is the things we share in common that are important.

Here are some of the pictures from the last few months of Macy that I liked:

And here are some of Camy:

Visit to Tilden Park

Last Monday, we went to Tilden Park with Grana & Tibu.

Tibu demonstrated the open-hand feeding method, which may or may not be better than just being bit. Macy thought it was very humorous.

They even tried feeding a few animals:

Then we walked over the play structures nearby:

And then we went to the carousel:

Trip to Santa Cruz

We traveled down to Santa Cruz the week before Christmas. We went to the beach, rode a diesel train, ate food, and saw the Muppet Movie. Below are some pictures of the same.

Camy enjoyed drawing in the sand.

Macy worked on a sandman.

The girls also enjoyed riding on a train:

This was the canopy of trees as we rode up and down the hill:

We also got the girls to stand in one place long enough to snap this picture:

Picutres of Edna are rare. She is usually behind the camera. So I was mostly on point this trip, and we have some pictures with her in it: