First Day of Christmas: 2021

I took the first picture of Christmas Day when Zeke came down much earlier than he was supposed to. I'd finished all the stockings, presents, and cookies, but I hadn't yet finished cleaning the house, so I imprisoned him in the library while I finished up. He didn't seem to mind.



A few hours later, the whole house was awake!

For the last couple of years, I've made strata in addition to the once-a-year sugar cereal offering, so we only put a dent in this beautiful barricade. It's funny, but because it rarely seems like a good idea to pump my family full of crispy, sugar air for breakfast, we still have one box* of Christmas sugar cereal left in the basement! (*Update: We just opened it last week, right before Thanksgiving. It was pretty stale.)

We do not have any cookies leftover from last year, however. 

Aidan asked for a picture with his cookie counterpart before he took a bite...

Ransom's was nearly life-size.

This was the day that Ransom discovered with great delight that he could climb on the coffee table. It only took him a couple of weeks before he learned he could jump from the coffee table to the couch, but since he was too young to really jump, it ended up being more of an aerial flop from one place to another.  

My favorite part of the gift-giving is always stocking-upending and watching the children open their gifts from each other. This year, we did a "Secret Smurf" drawing of names, so the Smurfs all opened their presents from each other.

Speaking of that Soozy-doozy....

For Mom Owen: The boys were pretending they didn't know what these gifts were, mostly to avoid disappointment in case the nerf-gun-shaped packages turned out to be sweaters shaped like nerf guns, instead, but, look! No disappointment at all. They were ecstatic.

Ransom, who adores nutcrackers almost as much as his creepy mama, got a miniature nutcracker of his very own. 

Also for Mom Owen: we relaxed for the greater part of the day and didn't open most of your gifts until an hour before company arrived that evening.  Behold the staggering pile of wrapping paper that resulted!

 

In My Favorite Rocketship

Our friend Evan gave everyone gifts for Christmas in 2020, gifts which were both spectacular and a complete surprise. He gave Zeke and Aidan 2 rockets, but they were going to wait until a clear, windless spring day to launch them, and then summer came, and then fall, so they actually sent the first rocket skyward on a clear, mildly windy wintry day in 2021. The rocket was an explosive success, and it flew so high and so far that it landed somewhere in a neighboring field, never to be found again (tho' the boys searched long). The second explosive charge needed a rocket, so Zeke spent half a day with cardboard, glue, and paint in order to build a replacement.

It looked pretty cool when he was done, and we all traipsed out to the field to watch the launch attempt. 

Alas, it failed. The electrical fuse did not work, and Zeke couldn't figure out the problem.

At least it wasn't a multi-million dollar enterprise, right? And nothing exploded, taking important fingers with it.  AND we all got some fresh air on a chilly winter day. (Re.: Aidan in shorts; I don't know why.)

Strange Pictures Phrom My Phone: December 2021

I read this WHILE WEARING A BATHROBE!!!

Perhaps the only picture I have from our New Year's Eve feasty carnage....

 

Fertile Ground

 

I was super grumpy this afternoon and evening-- like SUPER grumpy, like my-children-wished-I-would-stamp-myself-into-a-hole-in-the-ground-with-Rumpelstiltskin grumpy.

That's a lot of "likes," but it's true.

Due to something unexpected, I spent nearly 2 hours of prime midday sunlight doing something other than planting garlic or finishing a chunk of the outdoor chores I hoped to pack into this last beautiful day. (God keeps trying to teach me that crossing off to-dos is worth less than kindness. I'm still learning.)

Anyway, although this sounds like I'm using my blog as a confessional, I'm not. Mostly that preamble serves to explain why I didn't see the humor of planting my cell phone until just now. 

Millie (the girl who insisted I write a real-time post letting my reader-- hi Debbie!-- know this event) just read this over my shoulder, chuckled, and said, "You are VERY wordy. It doesn't need all that!"

I'm tired. She's right.

I sowed my cell phone while planting garlic with a headlamp. When I discovered it was missing, Millie called it, and we followed the muffled sound to a row of garlic. There it was, planted neatly into the row, waiting for spring cell shoots and a summertime harvest of a clump of FIVE cell phones.

She's right. Too wordy. I'm tired.

THE END.

Hurrah!

 

My sister-in-law Sarah (the Great Sugar Cereal Benefactress) has a new book published! 

Brave Water is available through the Voyage Comics website or Amazon, and you can enter a giveaway here!  It ends soon, though, so act with speed!

Real Time: Fervent Prayers

 

My mother prays for Ransom every day. He won't turn two for several months but one wouldn't know it to see the daily destruction he engineers.  So she prays for his safety, both because he regularly does things like this and because his mother takes pictures of him doing it. 

Truth

 

If John had a photo-blog, these are the sorts of pictures he'd post.
Since he doesn't, I have to post them, instead.

Cadence portrait: 

Lark portrait: 

Easily better than the last 50 posts combined.

You're welcome.