Final Christmas Celebrations

Hi Readers!

How is your start to 2014? I can't believe we are already 11 days in!  It's been a whirlwind around here. As most of you are also probably experiencing,  December/first part of January has been really weird in the way of weather. Add to that that Christmas and New Year's fell in the middle of the week, it was hard to get together with all of our family to celebrate this year.  What does this mean....for the last month we have had one or two "Christmases" each week.  Last weekend my brother in law and my nephew came for "Christmas".  It was really fun for my boys to get to spend time with them.  My nephew "E" is a year younger than Jack.  360 days younger to be exact.  They always have a lot of fun when they are together.  Alex does such a great job of leading them, and helping.  He's a great big brother.  Here's a couple pictures of them at our sled hill in our yard.

E ready to go, Grandpa and Alex are catching at the bottom

Jack's turn

We had a nice dinner together and opened gifts later that evening.  The boys really liked the new books and new things to color/draw with.  Hopefully E, A, and G enjoyed their gifts, too.  It's always nice to be together with them.  A few pictures from the evening.

Jack, Alex and E figuring out how to put the ball launcher game together

Uncle Adam with Alex, Jack, and E

The beautiful living room fireplace all decorated for Christmas :)

The first week back to work is always the hardest after the holidays--it's a full week, and the magic of the season is gone.  The nice thing for us was, my sister, brother in law Andy, and niece "B", decided to come up this weekend for "Christmas" since they had to miss our Christmas celebration this year due to weather.  "B" just turned 5 months old and is really a lot of fun.  Here's a few pictures from our time together--they are headed home today in freezing rain so we are saying a prayer for them that they make it home safely.

Jack, Alex and B

B, Emily, me, Jack, and Alex

Emily and I

Emily, B, Jack, and Alex-it's the Faces I Love book I made for her :)

So as you can see, I haven't had much time around here for crafting.  I really miss it and am hoping to do some of it today.  I have laundry going, a roast in the crockpot, and Christmas packing up happening.  Six Christmas later..it's time to put all the special treasures away.  I hope you and your families all had a blessed holiday season no matter how many times you celebrated!

I will be back this week with the artichoke dip recipe I promised, my One Little Word progress, and a couple cards I have created.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!  Have a great start to your week.