Christmas Vacation

has come and gone. The kids are back in school, the tree is stripped and bare and lying by the side of our house like the sad, crispy fire hazard that it is. Our mantle will stay the way it is until the 6th. I love the way it looks with a fire crackling away underneath it. It reminds me of how lovely the last couple of weeks were.

Santa did indeed come and eat his cookies and drink his milk, leaving gifts in their place.

There was a lot of this.

And this.

And a good amount of goofiness.

Speaking of goofiness, Luke cleaned out our garage and discovered in the process that Kateri still fits in her old baby sling...and apparently still loves it.

There was a lot of snuggling on the couch and staying in PJs half the day and plenty of time to read and play games together and watch movies without having to worry about homework or carpools or any of that. It was heavenly. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if we could have seen all of our absent family, but it seems like they all had lovely Christmases of their own, and we had a great time with Nona and Travis and Cole, so we are grateful for that.

There was even a snowy adventure at the end, but that needs its own post.

So, we are starting the new year feeling recharged and refreshed and excited for 2011, despite the obscenely large pile of laundry that I am ignoring to type this post.

Happy New Year everyone!