Stuffing the Shoes

 On December 6th, they awoke to find that St. Nicholas still stuffs their shoes with clearance goodies.  Thriftiness is next to saintliness, you know.

Piper prepared a bedhead coif specially for the occasion.

Molly and Mom O., you'll probably recognize these activity books, too.  St. Nicholas thanks you for your help. ;)

And So He Grows

Sometime in December...

Aidan Raphael was neglected on the floor.

What's that?  Yes, I did say you were neglected.

Oh, come now.  I still love you, baby.

(Too bad, Mama.  I'm crawling off to hire your replacement.)

Or maybe I'll fly.  Yeah.  I believe I can fly.  I believe I can touch the sky.

(Think about it every night and day.)

p.s. Ten points for you, Rebecca.  When I noticed this shirt of Aidan's was getting way too small, I looked at the tag.  NB.  A big newborn, to be sure, but still, newborn.

Stinker, or, Giving Credit Where It's Due

On Hallowe'en, I may have sewn Piper's skunk costume frantically, but I have this Etsy seller to thank for the mask turning out.  (Yes, I entirely copied.  No, I am not ashamed.)  It's two layers of black felt cut out and sewn together, with an elastic strap sewn in and identifying skunk marks topstitched on.  

There may be more copying in my future.  (Did you SEE the other masks in that shop?  So cool.) And, no, I'm not ashamed about my plans, and neither is this girl.

Giving Thanks

Many of my brothers and sisters did a lot of driving in November-- from their homes to Nanticoke to Rochester to Nanticoke to their homes, and all over again several times.  Two weeks after Dad's funeral, they turned themselves toward Nanticoke again, and I pulled out the camera for a few pictures.  Before people arrived, Zeke sat on the table and stole things,

 

 ...including, but not limited to, these easy Thanksgiving favors that Deborah arrived in time to whip up for me.  (You should all be so lucky to have a Debbie-helper-elf when company's coming.)

Everyone watched bird-loving Gussie while Gussie bird-watched.  His enthusiasm for and impressive knowledge of our feathered friends is contagious.

Some of the family on Thanksgiving Day-- slow and sober.  But thankful.

Soggy the Snowman

Annika took a picture of the season's first snowman.  

It was so wet that day, both they and he were half liquid.

With a Pocketful of Chores

 I mentioned that when Mopsy was in Rochester with Dad, the girls and I did chores for her until my brother Joel came home to take over.

One of those evenings, I brought my camera.

Dad loved his dog Huck, who was a placid, wise-eyed hound dog.  He talked to him as if Huck were able to converse right back, but after Huck died suddenly and painfully in the last year after getting a bone splinter lodged in his intestinal tract, Dad found it hard to transfer those affections to Huck's hyper predecessor.  

 

And when I write "hyper," I really mean "the craziest, slobberiest, jump-up-ing-est pup you ever did see."

And when I write "We took Ruger for a walk," I really mean "We went for walk in the fields while Ruger tore around at a million miles an hour."

It's okay.  He'd run back to us every few minutes, jump onto someone, knock them down, and then take off again, full tilt, into the sunset.



In the meantime, my girls kept a wary eye out.

Hey, scroll back up to the top and look at that picture of Ruger bounding through the goldenrod with his tongue hanging out....

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Okay, now look at Annika.  Ruger's strong personality is contagious, I guess. (Either that, or Annika and Ruger share some traits.  Annika is not slobbery, though.)

I took this picture to show Dad when I visited him in Rochester.  (But God moved him along the day before my would-be visit.)  I'm wearing one of his Carhartts, but because it was hunting season, I also dug one of his orange hats out of the closet.  Pleased that I was uncharacteristically responsible in his honor, I intended to show off my caution.

One bright tree left.

Rose Red brought home some turkey feathers.  (I love her.)

They found dried puffballs to puff.

The last picture I took that night was a small flock of wild geese sounding their lonesome way home.

Leftovers

 Dear baby and I, blinded by the flash. (He is the sweetest and has just begun gingerly giving kisses to my cheek while cuddling close.)







After months of wondering when the big day would ever come, and despairing that it ever would, Piper lost her first tooth.  The tooth fairy (ME) left notes under two pillows that night: one for Pip's first baby tooth and one for Mildred's last.  (Her last....sob.)







Speaking of my baby-tooth-less girl, she grows so.  In lieu of making any gifts for others before Christmas, I took pictures of some of the gifts Mildred made.  Somehow, it made me feel better.

While she sometimes asks me to take a picture of her, sometimes she also makes it clear that she'd rather not be in front of the lens.  Like so.






I respect this and her, generally....except when I want to take pictures of the cool stuff she's made!  Seriously, next best thing to making cool things yourself...



 


Look at that girl suffer long, will you?


 


It's so satisfying to see her enjoy creating things that I can't make myself.  I love the diversity that God breathes into people, even those in the same family environment.


Like knitting with toothpicks, for one.  (I don't think my fingers will ever do that.)

HA!  I did take a picture of the note!  Dude, these yellow foam creatures made their way into the garbage can pretty quickly...

Backdrop for the following snapshot: we'd just unloaded everyone and everything from a long day at church, and I had unbraided my hair from a fancy something-or-other.  Upon glimpsing my frizzy tresses, Susannah said, "Ooh, you look so pretty.  You look JUST like that lady on the television show at Grandma Owen's house-- you know, the one with all of the children."  We aren't television watchers, so it took me a minute to realize she was talking about MRS. JIM BOB DUGGER.  (And now you're all going to enter me into every Frumpy Mom Makeover show you can find.)

 

Millie made Luci this little elf bonnet for Christmas.  I now want one for myself. 

 

Annika gave these ceramic ducks to Lucinda for Christmas.  Luci loves them, of course, and has them converse in duck language when she's bored. 

The following pictures deserve a post all their own.  When we bought our car-home, it had a fridge inside, one that was useless during our off-grid summer but that we began using in our mansion a year later when our bigger fridge gave up the ghost.  We grew used to the size, the duct-taped shelves, etc., etc., so a few months ago when John's mom mentioned that she'd like to give us a new fridge, I put my foot down.  I STAMPED it.  HARD.  The fridge worked fine!  It kept food cold!  It was cute! She doesn't listen very well, as you can see by the shiny, new rocketship that's now in our kitchen.  We went from a five-foot fridge to the moon!

 

Also worth mentioning (tho' I have no accompanying photo) is the fact that she also thought 2 years was 2 years too long to go without a dryer.  NO! I said.  I STAMPED my foot.  HARD.  It saves money!  I'm being thrifty!  It's not even any harder than using a dryer!  Our stove will miss those racks!  They're buddies!

I mentioned she doesn't listen very well, right?   (Please don't tell her, but I've since swallowed my words.  Using a dryer in the wintertime is a bajillion times easier.)

Moving on, with great thanks for these robot-machines, 

here's Ezekiel taking his afternoon nap.