Another Snow Day

Dear Boys,

There was a lot of talk yesterday about the approaching blizzard, so much talk that it wasn't until half-way through the day that I realized that Matthew thought that a big LIZARD was coming to Michigan.  Poor guy, you were trying to be brave, but we could see you were nervous.  We got that all cleared up though and this is what we woke up to after a night of snowfall...

That's the sun on the left, by the way.  When it does manage to shine through the almost continuous cloud cover, we try to soak up as much as possible.  But it's been warm enough inside for dough to rise on the counter...

And I made these rice-filled, microwavable boot warmers...

And of course, there's hot chocolate...

I also made this little crown for a new big sister...

Now to brave the snow and get to the post office to mail it off!

The MI Sun in January

Dear Winter Boys,

This is pretty much all we get for sun these days.

So we'll make do with these sunnyish things...

That?  Why, that's the chameleon Joe made at school.  I love it.

Images from December

Dear Boys,

Here are some pictures of how we spent our December days, they were very busy indeed...

In my effort to start some family traditions, I picked out this German candle pyramid to bring out after Thanksgiving.  You were all charmed.  The apple candle holder is from Joseph's Advent spiral at school.

Matthew, I also finished embroidering your stocking, which took me two years to finish.  And I also made one for Danny, embroidering to appear in 1-2 years.

We ate the world's smallest clementine on a surprise, and in my opinion, not very well deserved (there really wasn't THAT much snow) snow day.  Even though it was kind of an over-reaction, it was still exciting to have a snow day and it felt very old-fashioned.

My super awesome neighbor Ann introduced me to Rose Windows, so fun!

We also made our fair share of Christmas cookies...

Matthew, I was expecting mayhem with the sprinkles.  Cookies with piles and piles of sprinkles.  But look how carefully you decorated these gingerbread men...

A careful line of buttons down the front and ONE shake of sprinkles on each limb.  Very loving and tender.  I think you did that tree one there at the top center of the picture, because it looks pretty similar to the men.

These little houses were for Matthew for Christmas, but I accidentally sent them to our old house, then assumed they were lost in the mail, but they arrived!