The Birthday Girl

Granny reading card from Thomas, which came with a 4 pound glass paperweight. Thomas obviously thought such a gift exactly what someone needs who is limited to two small bags on the international flight home. Simon treated her to his famous vegetable torte which was delicious, or so I thought--we're not allowed to discuss it ("I used inferior cheeses! Stop TALKING about it!").
But the REAL question is: Is there such a thing as having TOO MANY knitting books?

Santa Visits Frederick's School

Just before the end of the year, Santa visited Frederick's school.  We were asked before the day whether or not we would order photos of the event.  We were skeptical that Frederick would enjoy sitting on a stranger's knee but, as you can see from the photo our worries were ill founded. The thing in Frederick's right hand is a big sleigh bell stick, which he is clearly enjoying ringing.  According to his teacher, Frederick's classmates held it daintily with two fingers and wondered what to do with it.  Frederick, having benefited from several years of bell ringing in his music lessons with Mr. Mike, knew exactly what it was all about. 

What Happened?

Every morning Frederick wakes up around 6:30 or 7, gets out of bed and stands in the hallway, waiting for me to take him to the bathroom. Once in there he does his toilet business and we head back to his room where he reads books, listens to a cd of his favorite music and he waits for everyone else to get up and start the day. The other day I heard his door open and noticed, as usual, that it was around 6:30 in the morning. I could see him outlined in our doorway but not much else since it is still pitch black at that time of day. When we went into the bathroom I flipped on the light switch. We both looked at him and noticed that he was, unlike when he went to bed the night before, stark naked. Frederick looked at me, completely stunned, and asked, "What happened?"

And This Came a Few Days Ago

More mysterious instructions:

Here is the puzzle. (Frederick's letters are hard to see, but it reads: "Frederick, Ready, set, go! Into the tee pee Love, Emily"):

And when did this take place? Not recently, since there has been snow and ice on the ground for a few days now.

More on Frederick's Secret Life

A letter came in the mail a while ago with this secret code inside. Frederick quickly decoded the strange message:

Then this was inside:

And this as well:

Thanksgiving Weekend

We've made it through 12 weeks of the semester, and have only two to go. This weekend we have a 5 day break from school, just enough time to learn to really enjoy not working, but not long enough to fully recover and get prepared for the final stretch before exams. Frederick is glad to be home. Today Emily came over and, after she said, "It's Saturday! You don't have to go to school!" He shouted, "Whoopee!" and ran into the back yard.

Thomas only wakes up to shift from his bed, where he plays his DSi, to his computer, where he is rediscovering Roller Coaster Tycoon. He spent the past 8 weeks earning a computer game, Roller Coaster Triple Pack of Thrills!. I ordered it on Monday after work and since then we have heard a repeating loop of these phrases: "Is it here yet? Will it come today? Has the mail come yet? Where do you think it is right now?" alternating with a repeating loop of these phrases: "It's never coming. It's never going to be here. I'm never going to get to play it." Thank the Nintendo gods that it arrived in the mail today. Thomas squealed with delight and then retreated back to his room. (Which stinks of feet.)
Not to mention the turtle smell. Here are two of them, basking. I've been waiting four months to get a picture of these guys roasting themselves on their rock or floating log. They eat more than their weight in food every day, and constantly beg for more. When they aren't begging, they are dozing under the heat lamp. You can see that the one on the left has his legs completely tucked up into his shell. That is a sign of a truly happy turtle (or so the turtle experts on the web pages say). (Simon announced the other day that he "really doesn't like the turtles." Well, he could have said something before we got the damn things! We're stuck with them now.)

Frederick's secret life

A letter arrived for Frederick the other day, and in it was this photograph. As Jami said, it was like that gag (as featured in the film Amelie) where a person loses his or her garden gnome only to receive pictures of it at various famous places around the world. So, apparently he's quite the sailor...

What's the Moral of the Story?

John died yesterday evening. It was very quiet and rather sad, but not depressing if that makes sense. I wanted to find pictures of him that I had that I thought looked nice, and these pictures make me the happiest.  Sturge, me and John probably winter 1968. 
John, me and Sturge with unknown puppies, Autumn 1971:
Don't we look fabulous?  The world is our oyster.