Well, not quite Ninety-FOUR, but we're now up to SIX in our family.

Meet Fern!

Yes, she's a guinea pig. Likes: timothy hay, baby carrots, scuttling under furniture, getting scritched behind the ears, hitting the bottle (water, that is) late at night. Dislikes: um... I'll have to get back to you on that. So far, she seems like a pretty agreeable pig.

Fern joined our household immediately following Hannukah, Christmas, and The Day Of My First Review In The Washington Post (not a holiday, technically speaking, but cause for bouncing into the bedroom way too early in the morning and waking up Mike, thus confusing him into believing Santa had come a day early). In case you blinked and missed the blurb, here it is: Erica's Washington Post Review!!!

In other holiday news, our family has been eating a healthy diet of the four food groups this holiday season. That is: the cookie group (gingerbread, pecan puffs, chocolate peppermint bark cookies, frosted sugar cookies... and don't even get me started on Katy Kelly's cookie party! my lord, that woman can write AND bake like nobody's business!), the chocolate group (See's, and those cool Belgian seashell kind), the regular candy group (ribbon candy, candy canes, vanilla tootsie rolls) and, perhaps most importantly, the cake group...

Our smorgasboard of cake started with Franny's peppermint birthday cake (pictured... did I mention that I bake too? guess it is a kids' book writer thing), then moving on to cakes decorated with ice skating rinks (with walls of mini-marshmallows to contain the rink part) and tiny cut-outs of skaters on them, then finishing with a flurry of new year's cakes (at home and at our pals Elizabeth and Rusty's house).

Oh, hey! That's right. Happy New Year!

So as to fight off the ill effects of all that sugar, I've been scrubbing the teeth of our whole household (except Fern) like a mad-woman and I've been trotting around town with my new Nano, hoping that no one will get close enough to overhear me singing along with the Rent soundtrack. Yes, I am a big chili cheesedog. I just can't get enough of those doofy rock operas. So sue me.

Our holiday season was made extra festive by visits from friends and family. Some had so much fun visiting us that they did NOT want to leave. Take Ruby, for example, who successfully convinced Franny and Da Bouj to stage a protest with her by chaining themselves to a pole at Union Station when it came time to say goodbye.

Say it again, girls: "Attica! Attica!" Okay, one more picture. That's great. Now, Ruby, let go of the pole, okay? You too, guys. If I don't have to peel your fingers off we can go home and have some more cake. Atta girl.

Fa la la la la, la la la la.