A Tale of Two Cities

I would be remiss not to give a short little pictographical sketch of my last two weeks.

Here is our bathroom as of two weeks ago.

My husband is deep in the throes of a remodeling project, the end of which is not yet visible.  But I have faith that someday I will again have a sink in the bathroom.

My husband was kind enough to send me and the girls packing to Chicago to pay a surprise visit to my parents.  It was lovely.  My brother from the Seattle area also flew in to Chicago on business and surprised my dad (he let mom in on the secret) on the same day.  It was so much fun seeing their shocked expressions.  It was fun having all 3 siblings together again; having the two missing spouses and 4 cousins would have been the icing on the cake.  The four girl cousins were good for plenty of laughs and silly giggles.

The girls and I came home on Christmas Eve and had a wonderful celebration of Christ's birth.  Ben got out the visualized flashcards of the nativity to illustrate it more clearly for Grace.  She was fascinated.

Ben gave me a beautiful new camera for Christmas.  I am a little afraid of it, to be honest.  I'm not sure what I am going to do with 8.1 more megapixels than I currently have.  That's right--our old digital was just 4.0 MP.  I think this must be what the lap of luxury feels like.  Pretty cush'. :)

Grace and Daddy made a Christmas tree out of Play-doh.  You can see the obvious pleasure on both faces.  I think Daddy missed his girls while we were in Chicago.

And Leah cracked us up, in more than one way.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!