OK, you know the drill by now. I am here to apologize for once again promising to blog and then promptly disappearing for months on end. You will be kind and forgive me, saying things like "We totally understand! Life is busy! We love it when you post whenever you can!" I'll feel chagrined and vow to do better. Then it doesn't happen. I could give you all sorts of reasons but that's just wasting our time, now isn't it? You'd much rather get the quick review of the past three months, so here goes:
Christmas was delightfully fun and almost perfectly paced. We introduced the Old Hen and her Rooster to some local traditions and then enjoyed the holiday in their new home with a full family. It was lovely.
My big take-away from this past Christmas is seeing how the holiday is beginning to shift and that there will still be so much to delight in once they are no longer believers (at the moment they still are). I saw how the focus will shift from the magical elements and towards a more intentional, creative gifting. This year FunkyB worked so hard on creating her own series of books for her sister along with a bird book for Papi Chulo. She spent night after night for weeks and weeks writing and illustrating these books. It was clear how much she cares for them and how proud she was of her work.
I for one scaled back only slightly on the elving frenzy, opting to not handstitch ornaments for them this year in exchange for making them stuffies and a giant teepee.
Meanwhile, downstairs Papi Chulo was playing with the wood pile and made us a fabulous new game of Kubb which I'll have to share another time (have to leave myself some incentive to come back!)
We brought in the new year quietly with a much appreciated low-key month. Our winter has been unusually mild which has elicited mixed reactions here. We certainly enjoy the sunshine and balmy temperatures but some of us have been pining for snow and of course the warmer weather leaves us a bit more worried about the larger global issues. But let's not go there. Instead let's look at pretty things:
I just finished putting away those Valentines decorations. We had a jolly time gluing and glittering and decorating hearts with the Old Hen one afternoon.
And then spent the Valentine weekend with Nana and Grandpa who brought plenty of sunshine from So Cal. The highlight of the weekend was a glorious morning flying kites.
So that's it. There'll be more to come, maybe sooner, maybe later. You know the drill.