Blast you, Facebook

The whole Facebook thing has really been detrimental to my blog.  And I apologize to anyone who has visited lately to find no updates.  So much has happened in the past month.  We took a trip to Kyoto; My sister came to visit for a week; Max had his end-of-school-year Christmas Pageant; we celebrated Thanksgiving with a potluck party with some of Rich's colleagues.  It's now December 5th.  It was Max's last day of school today so he is on "vacation" now for a whole month.  

We've begun Christmas shopping and sent a few gifts back with Carrie for the family.  I bought a large (artificial) Christmas tree and once we get the thing together, I'll post some pictures.  

We've been watching Max really blossom with his speech. He's speaking in sentences most of the time now - not always grammatically perfect, but he loves to talk and loves to find out what things are called.  He recognizes almost all his letters and points to letters on signs, the TV and the computer screen and keyboard. 

Next up, I'm planning to try to make Christmas cookies and invite some of Max's little friends over to decorate.  That should be interesting.  

We leave for Saipan on December 23rd so will have a quiet Christmas at the beach.  While I'm excited about the vacation, I'd much rather be huddling with family in the cold of the Northeast US.