One Twelfth of a New Year

The benefit of everyone getting the flu the first week of January is that I have fewer snapshots to post. Add to that the fact that on the heels of the flu I got a nasty infection that kept me from sleeping for 2 and a half weeks, and we've got the easiest monthly posting yet. For February, though, I'm looking forward to increased health and returning to some measure of routine (which may or may not involve snapshots).

Here, short and sweet, are all that limped their way to the camera in the month of January.

Peek-a-bow

The New Batch

It's always smart to have a fresh batch of dishwashers sprouting in the wings for when the current ones get tired out.

Ten minutes later, they were fighting over the dishes, but that's all part of the deal.

Making?!

I had a small space in between the flu and sphenoiditis in which I actually finished a bathmat. Yes, this is big news! This past summer, John's mom bought some bathmats and fabric for me to decorate bathmats for the new house. Did I make them for Mother's Day? No. Did I make them for her 70th birthday? No. Did I make them as a Thank You for All the Amazing Things You've Done gift? No.

BUT.

I did make them before a year had passed, so that's something. :)

As long as I was decorating bathmats, I threw in a couple of potholders for good measure.

Since Sarah and Bryan were going to be in town for Christmas, I had grand plans to make her something, too. I asked her if she'd want a decorated bathmat or perhaps a doodle. She responded, "A doodle, if you have time!" What I asked what she'd want me to doodle, she asked for a family portrait doodle, based on a family picture.

So, I ignored her and made a bathmat.

Just kidding. I made a paint-a-doodle, too. (While making it, I realized it's been almost seven years since I last made one of these little portrait doodles and almost TWELVE years since I doodled a little one of our family....only six children ago. Ulp.)








I took a few liberties. ;)

Look for another doodle a mere seven years from now! And now I can check three Christmas gifts off my list with, oh, about twenty still to go. No big deal.

Not Really Epiphany Party

In lieu of snapshots of our New Year's Eve guests and the feast and/or snapshots of our We-Missed-Epiphany-Because-We-Had-the-Flu-But-Let's-Have-a-Party-Anyway feast and guests, here are the only two pictures I have, pictures of the cake Millie made.

Bûche de Noël. We love you.

(And thanks to Rebecca for the perfect meringue mushrooms. It was the classiest Bûche de Noël yet!)

BIG NEWS

I'd mentioned that John's parents gave us the huge gift of a beautiful, new kitchen this past fall. The men who were doing the labor had a lot on their plates for the last few months, so just last week, it reached completion. Here's a sneak peek until it's clean and the daylight increases enough for nice pictures of the whole shebang. And, while I'm at it, I'll take nice pictures of the miracle patio they materialized from our junk heap carport (which, if you were paying attention, you already saw glimpses of in Susannah's 13th birthday party post!).

And while I'm at that, I should post those pictures of the finished closet-bedrooms.

For now, I keep pinching myself. That sink! It's as big as a bathtub!

A Terrible Demise

I think Millie must have taken these pictures. We may have forgotten to water the tree due to illness, and since I wanted to leave it up until after our Not-Epiphany Party, this is what happened when we finally stripped the poor thing. We really stripped it. There were about a dozen needles left on it by the time it reached the outdoors.

And we had major cleanup.

The younger children gathered seven gallon-size bags from the floor to save for later (for their own secret and subversive purpose), and we threw the rest outside.

December's End

I always avoid posting all the snapshots from the end of December because it seems like such a chore. Dozens upon dozens of pictures from just a handful of days, and most of them low-quality, to boot! The amount of snapshots is telling, though. December's end is always full of pageantry and lots of people we love, and both of those are enough to warrant the excess.

Still, I'm not sad to cross this chore off the list and to heap all the snapshots here in this handy storeroom. Until next year!