Long Nights

December has indeed been a month of long, dark nights. I am happy, for so many reasons, to be adding daylight back to our lives in tiny increments. I gave up on posting for a while because I just could not put into words all the things I needed to say. 

William's brother, Jim, passed away unexpectedly last week.  In the midst of our personal mourning, the tragedy in Newtown, CT. 

I felt like I was unable to come here and share cute pictures and anecdotes until I figured out how to air my feelings about these tragedies. But, no.  I have decided that these are not necessarily things I need to delve into in the public realm of the blogosphere.  Just know that we have been hugging these girls a lot and that helps. So, we will get back to posting pictures and stories for your dose of virtual hugs.

 

 It's a Christmas Miracle!  After several encounters with different Santas, this guy was apparently the real deal.  Previously, the closest we'd gotten was for Lillian to high-five the jolly old elf while Naomi huddled in our arms.  But this one?  They just walked up to him.  He asked if they wanted to sit on his lap and up they scrambled, all smiling like they'd done this a million times before.

We were at the Botanical Gardens to take this year's Christmas photos.  Which also went remarkably well, as you may have seen on our cards. Tiffany's great at very efficient shots, getting it done before everyone loses it.  Below are some of the configurations that didn't make it to the card.



Our happy little polygamist family. Thinking about doing a reality show.

  Christmas itself proved to be the shining light in the darkest part of the season, just as it should be.

Nana, Papa and Grandma came out to spend the day and help the girls contribute to what might be next year's wrapping paper shortage. Here is the first part of the carnage:

 Among the favorite gifts? A camera.  As soon as Lillian figures out how to stop taking pictures of her own eyeball, I'm hiring her as the full time photographer for the blog.

Never a Dull Moment

This might have been my longest absence ever from the blogosphere.  Fear not, dear readers, we have been packing in as much fun and fraught times as I think I can handle in that time.  Where to begin?

The girls had a positively delightful birthday party the weekend after you last heard from me.  We had to postpone it due to our week without power, but waiting made it even lovelier.  Nana schlepped in all the supplies--streamers, goody bags for the guests, soup, games, balloons, plates, forks, ribbon sticks, the dollhouse we gave to the girls.  I bought a veggie tray. 

I left said veggie tray in the refrigerator and did not remember it until I tried to put away the leftovers from the soup Nana made.

Here is a teeming hoard of children who were way excited about the fishing for letters game that Nana made from scratch and brought for everyone to play.

 Here is Naomi, victoriously claiming a letter.

We opened wonderful gifts from guests and family.  Naomi was extraordinarily happy about this dog guitar.

Lillian would like you to check out her boots.

Everyone was excited about cake.

So that all went well.  Really.  And then the girls went back to school and Naomi was walking across the room and she stumbled and fell.  No big deal.  Except she refused to put any weight on it.  At all. Remember, this is the girl who literally laughed in the face of pain as her lip swelled up when she fell in the driveway. So I left work in a frenzy, took her to the pediatrician, then to the med center to get xrays.  Those came back clear but we had an appointment with an orthopedic specialist for the following Monday if she didn't improve. After a weekend of beautiful weather, she couldn't even be enticed to walk at the zoo. Instead, she rolled wherever she wanted to go.  Needless to say, we kept our appointment.

Naomi ended up in a hot pink cast, but only for 10 days.  She handled it like a trooper, only asking to take it off once. In fact, once she got used to it, she refused even the discussion of having it taken off.  Lots of folks signed the cast, which made it even better.  So good that she cried when it was being cut off, yelling, "My people!  My people names!" Thankfully, we were able to bring it home and William epoxied it back together and she's bringing it to school for Show and Tell tomorrow.

In that 10 days, we had Thanksgiving and that was lovely and peaceful and everything that it should be.The girls helped Granny make the stuffing.  Lillian discovered that French Chocolate Silk cream pie really is the best thing ever and tried to steal it from Brad. Both girls were markedly disappointed that Brad did not sing before dinner on Saturday as he had on Thursday.

These are stories that I intend to come back to, but it's after 10 pm and my brain is made of mush.  Oh, and William had a kidney stone inside those 10 days, too, and he was in miserable awful pain for, like, 72 hours and we were in the emergency room and percoset is great and that's all better now.

I'm really glad our power is on.

Mush.