Coyotes, Europe, and Christmas!

It was late when I got home tonight, and when I let Copper out, I could hear all the coyotes again. My house backs up to a lot of undeveloped land, and all the little coyotes have been displaced with all of the recent development. Now, I am not just talking about hearing coyotes far away. I am talking about 5 coyotes hanging out on the other side of my fence! ( I am trusting my neighbor that there are 5. He said he went out to look over the fence and that is how many he saw.) I don't know much about the animals, but I do know that I don't want anything to do with them, and that they are LOUD!
I haven't heard them in a couple of months, and they were letting everyone know that they are back. I am not scared of them anymore, because I have figured out that they can't get in my backyard, and they aren't going to eat me.
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Tonight at dinner we began the beginning stages of planning our next trip!!! We are considering Europe! WOO HOO!!! I love Europe! The summer of my junior year in HS, I went on a 2 month mission trip to Europe. It was AMAZING! Here is a picture of me and my best friend Julia in Switzerland. Yes, that was me wearing my shorts rolled, with big socks, and an Adidas shirt. Yes I was WAY cool!

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I heard on the news this morning that a radio station has already started playing Christmas music. Yes, it is true! Christmas has come early this year!!!! This put me in a holly jolly mood and I couldn't wait to get to my classroom to start playing the fun Christmas music. I am also thinking about putting up my Christmas tree this weekend. But, my cat likes to play with the tree, so I may wait another couple of weeks on that.
Since I am in the Christmas spirit I thought I would share my favorite Christmas picture from when I was a kid. Let me set the scene:
Each year the entire family would travel to my Aunt and Uncle's Lake house for Christmas Eve. We would spend the night playing games, playing, and making cookies to leave out for Santa. All the cousins would sleep in one of the bedrooms, and then the next morning we would wake up and see what Santa left us.
In this picture we were all making the cookies to leave for Santa when out of no where Santa just pops up and knocks on the window. Most normal children would scream for joy at the sight of Santa in the kitchen window. Not me. I was TERRIFIED! I guess I like the idea of a big, jolly man bringing me gifts, but the actual big guy himself was scary!