A Very Belated Merry Christmas

So I was joking with a friend that it would probably be February before I got my Christmas pictures up on the blog. That was supposed to be a joke, and yet here I am sneaking them in under the wire. It is not entirely my fault! Really. We have been having some issues with the internet after moving the computer to a wireless connection. And it seems that it hated Blogger the most. And I have better things to do than battle with this contraption, so therefore that is why it took a month to get these pictures up. Enjoy, especially those of you who kindly harassed me for them :).

"Mine" A new favorite word that can mean both Matthew and the truest sense of that evil word, mine.

Our Christmas snow storm and the fabulous Daddy who will go out and play for hours.

This is the safest way that Matthew decided he should touch snow: through the glass or on a plate. He was not keen of having any more to do with it up close and personal.

Grace and "Snowy" that she and Daddy made. Quite creative, I thought (the decorations, not the name).

If only he always kept the crayons on the paper, this would be such a sweet activity... but alas, I have found his artistic evidence on my wall, closet door, the inside of the play kitchen...

On Christmas Eve we sang carols in a room lit only by candles, and read a Christmas book while eating cookies. Is it not clear why this is every kid's favorite holiday? This includes big kids.

One who looks like she is going on twelve. And another who is in the "cheesey smile" phase.

What a way to ring in the New Year

You know, in a way it is encouraging to know that things can only get better in the New Year. We started out the New Year with two sick parents and one sick kid, and one kid who I kind of wished was sick so that he would be zonked out like the rest of us. Turns out Grace had bronchitis, which she shared with me, and at the same time Erik got the flu which turned into a two week ordeal with some breathing complications. I knew he was knocked off his feet when the man who has never taken a sick day from work in his life took five. We were bad enough off that we had to call reinforcements to fly in and help us since the sick adults were greatly outnumbered.

In the meantime, our Christmas decorations stayed up later than they ever had, laundry grew roots on the floor, and the dust was thick enough to be able to be seen from across the room. And our rather nice microwave decided to die, to the tune of $400 in parts alone. Um, instead we'll get a new one for less than that, thank you. I can't tell you how good it has been for all of us to be back to normal this week, getting things done and playing catch up on house work (yes, it was enjoyable to catch up on housework!).

So if you haven't seen us in a while it isn't because we don't like you. :) We are just now returning to the land of the living!