All Was Calm, All Was Bright

Our Tree

Cousins
(If you look very closely on the right side, you'll see the fused glass magnetic puzzle that my sister made for our guys)

We had a lovely Christmas, and I hope you did too. I'd planned to post the above pictures late Christmas Eve, but still had some packing to do for our trip to Louisiana, so now they're here. Happy New Year! And thank you, Felicia, for your Christmas wishes.

In early December I was so busy patting myself on the back for not getting sick, and having healthy children, that of course that all had to change. Nothing serious, but enough to keep us hopping all month (including one child with an abscessed tooth on Dec. 21, and of course my little trip to the hospital for dehydration on New Year's Day courtesy not of over imbibing, but a lengthy stomach virus) and we're all fine (or nearly so) now.

I need to take some pictures of the knitting I've been doing (hint: we're bulking up), and in its stead we have the teacher totes I managed to crank out at the very last minute.

Here are two of the three that got finished.

In a pinch, they're reversible.

I'm working up a tutorial for the totes, so feel free to remind me about it if I don't get it up by late next week.

I've finally figured out that after a Fall full of birthdays, soccer, Halloween, and Thanksgiving that by December I'm running out of steam. Hopefully I'll remember this next year and plan accordingly. I really enjoy making things as Christmas gifts, and that takes more time and planning than I've been able to manage. One really great gift that I did make was a book of photographs of our family that I published using blurb. They provide free book editing software, you lay out the book and upload it, then it's published and bound for you.

Finally, congratulations to Jolene on the arrival of Baby Joe!