Wasn't expecting this...

Life seemed to get back to normal pretty quickly around here after Christmas. Clay's family left long before dawn on the 26th so Claire could get back to work and all Christmas decorations were down by Wednesday evening. My mother had her gall bladder removed Thursday morning and then came here to recover for a couple of days. We rested some, shopped some, and just enjoyed Clay being on vacation.

We rung in the New Year with a few friends, and sadly we kept checking the clock to see how much longer we had to go before we could go to bed! Jbird woke up about 11:00 PM and wouldn't go back to sleep... so the three of us sat upstairs in our friends' playroom watching the ball drop in silence. Hard to believe this is the year we turn 30, celebrate 8 years of marriage, and welcome another member to our family. We loaded up shortly after midnight and crashed at home. Due to a sick child, Clay got to go to the Cotton Bowl the next day for free. It was a great holiday, and Jbird and I were sad to see Clay go back to work Tuesday. And as we said at Thanksgiving, we have blinked and it is now January. We have less than 8 weeks until Elizabeth arrives...and it all still seems a little surreal.

Now on to the story that led to the title... Wednesday after Christmas I was walking to Jbird's room and something caught my eye out the front door (we have a window that runs almost the entire length of the door). I stopped to look and here is what I saw...

I could not believe one animal was eating another animal ON MY SIDEWALK - just steps from the door! I just started saying Clay's name, but he couldn't hear me back in our bathroom. I ran to get him knowing he would WANT to see this. After a moment of examination, he realized it was a falcon feasting on his fresh prey. Of course Clay grabbed the camera for a shot or two, but the first flash scared the falcon off. He snatched his prey (apparently he was hungry) and flew to one of our trees. Clay went out to get another shot, but the falcon got spooked again and flew off with his meal in his talons.

I can honestly say I wasn't expecting this...