My husband is such a good sport

This is something we did last year, but I just now got a disc of the pictures. Cam's sister, Kristin, is a photographer. And the first time she came to our house she fell in love with the fireplace we have downstairs. It's a pretty big fireplace and you can actually stand up in it. And for some reason, there is a shelf thing inside it about where the mantle is that comes out about a foot or so.

Every year Kristin makes her own Christmas cards. I love her Christmas cards. She usually has a niece or nephew in them and I'm always excited every year when I open my mailbox and Kristin's card is in there. That day she was at our house she mentioned our fireplace would make a great back drop for that year's Christmas card. Then it was eventually decided that we would have Cam wear their Grandpa's santa suit and she would take pictures of him in the fireplace as if santa had just come down the chimney. I thought the idea was brilliant, but it was July so we weren't going to do anything about it right away.

Cam and I have a woodburning stove that we were planning on hooking up in that fireplace. When it started to get cold we decided it was time to hook up the woodburner. Then I remembered Kristin's Christmas card idea. I called her and told her that we were going to be putting in the woodburner, and if she still wanted to do the card she better do it quick. Once that thing is in the fireplace, it ain't going nowhere. It weighs like 1,000 pounds and takes 4 guys to move it. She was kind of like "I don't know", and I told her she better do it. It was a great idea and it was now or never. She agreed and below are some of the pictures. Cam was so funny! He would hang off the shelf and well, you'll see. If they look kind of plain it's because we decided not to do a bunch of decorations and stuff around it, she could photoshop those in.



This is Cam having fun hanging from the shelf.

We decided to add a bag of toys in some of them. I can't remember what's in the bag. Probably shoeboxes or something.

Cam was a great sport and did all sorts of poses while hanging from the shelf.

This is one of my favorites. It looks like Santa would fall right on his butt when he lands.

I like this one a lot too. Too bad we didn't think of getting some white Santa gloves for Cam to wear. And that is a pillow in the suit, Cam isn't fat.

We added a big old log that was left at the house for more effect.

We decided that Tosh would make a good addition to some of the pictures. He is so cute!

Of course Pedro had to get in on the action. I really like this one, it looks like the animals are excited to see Santa too.

Kristin did some photoshop magic and added some garland and did some cool lighting things with this one. Don't be surprised if this is my Christmas card one of these years.

This is what ended up being Kristin's Christmas card last year.


Thanks for taking these pictures Kris! I'm going to take you up on your offer and have you photoshop some stuff into a few more so I can print and frame them and use them as Christmas decorations!

Did I sleepwalk, or is it just a strange coincidence?

Last night I had a dream that I didn't think of much until about an hour ago. I dreamt that Cam and I were in the South. I think it was Atlanta, and we were staying at a friend's house. I don't know who they are, because we don't have friends in Atlanta. Anyway, they made us stay in their basement. We spent a couple of nights with no problems, then we discovered there were snakes in their basement. At first there were just a couple of small garden type snakes that we picked up and put out the window. We told the couple about them and they just said something like "yeah, welcome to the South, there are snakes everywhere." I didn't mind so much, because snakes don't bother me at all. (spiders on the other hand would have sent me running as far away as I could go).

After a couple of nights dealing with the small, cute snakes, a Black Mamba suddenly came out from under the stairs. Black Mambas are a very deadly snake. Then there were 3 Black Mambas. Cam and I were standing on the bed throwing things at them, then I grabbed a golf club and starting beating them. Cam found some hedge clippers and cut their heads off. Then we left the house and got a hotel room. Then the dream was over. No big deal, just a weird dream about me and Cam killing snakes.

When we woke up, Cam complained he didn't sleep very well because he kept dreaming about work. Cam hates work dreams. I told him I dreamt about me and him killing snakes, and we laughed.

So enough about the dream. In October Cam and I were at our friends Tonie and Anthony's for a barbecue. They have an 18 year old son named Josh who owns a few snakes. He was just about to acquire a couple of pythons that he was planning on breeding. He asked me and Cam if we could "foster" one of his snakes. It is about a 5 foot albino Burmese Python named Big Al. He needed to make some room for his 2 new snakes. All we had to do is provide a space for the snake and make sure he had water. Josh would come over every couple of weeks to feed him. We said that was fine. Josh brought Big Al over a couple of days later.

You probably know where this is heading. So all morning Cam and I have noticed a faint unpleasant smell in our house. We went through the fridge, nothing in there. We emptied the kitchen garbage, that wasn't it. We couldn't figure out what it was. Cam opened the guest room door, the room we keep Al in, and said "I found the smell". Big Al had died. We don't know what happened. I was in there yesterday around noon to make sure he had water, and he was alive and seemed fine! Josh was just here on Wednesday to feed him. He was fine! He wasn't interested in the rat, because his eyes were a bit cloudy, which means he was in the process of shedding. Snakes don't eat when they are shedding. Josh just told me to call him when Al was done shedding and he would bring over another rat.

So Big Al suddenly died sometime between about noon yesterday and 2pm today. And I just happened to have a dream last night that I was killing snakes. Weird!