And another version of this pose...

A lot of people have written to ask how we got the sand/snowman so perfectly round. I have a confession to make. That's not real sand. He's made of white styrofoam topiary balls held together with wooden rods. Then they were spray-painted with sand-fleck stone paint to match. The foam rubber carrot and googly eyes are hot-glued on and the corncob pipe was inserted into the styrofoam. Voilá!

Next in the perfect timing department...tampabay.com has come out with an article about "being a holiday photo pro with children". There's some really good tips there!

Here's a great link just in time for the holidays — ATTN: Any Solider.

We provide suggestions on What to Send and How to Send letters and packages. Then you select one or more soldiers from the Where to Send page. You will notice the soldier's address includes the line, "ATTN: Any Soldier". The soldiers are volunteers for this effort, they will see the "Attn" line, and will put your letters and packages into the hands of soldiers who don't get much or any mail. This effort is 110% voluntary. You send your support, and maybe some stuff, directly to whatever unit or units you want, you don't send us anything.

And one final question — has anyone else out there tasted Pepsi Holiday Spice yet? I'm a Coca Cola girl myself, so that should have been my first warning. But this stuff makes Crystal Pepsi look like a grand idea. Bleh! There is a recipe section although I really don't know if I'm that brave. Thank the heavens my husband had two cleansing swigs of The Real Thing™ on standby after convincing me to try it!