HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's not quite here yet, the new year...but I doubt I will be up long enough to celebrate with all of you late night new year welcomers!


So:
Happy New Years to all of you. Here's to hoping this coming year will be full of joy, excitement, new beginnings and success.

I am not jumping on the New Year's Resolution bandwagon, but my biggest hope for this year is that I can anticipate each day with gusto and resolve to help make mine, my children and Jeremiah's lives happy and fulfilling.

Here's to great conversations. Here's to learning and growing. Here's to great food and many sunny days. Here's to many sales and many happy customers.

GOOD NIGHT ALL!

A Holiday Photo Extravaganza!

We had a wonderful holiday! Here's a little photo journey to see what we've been up to this week/weekend.


Here are the girls and Jeremiah and Elijah coming down the steps on Christmas morning. Elijah can't keep his eyes off of the tree and the presents...he looks like he's about to jump out of Jeremiah's arms!




My family on Christmas morning:


This is Jeremiah's brother Craig and Craig's wife Gabby. They're looking at the present we got them for Christmas.



This is a quick snapshot of the littlest kids on our mini car-trip Christmas Eve. I probably shouldn't be snapping pics while driving.


Elijah and his blonde counterpart, his cousin, Landon.


Here are two things I had time to work on, a custom order and a christmas hat for my baby sister:

Merry Christmas To All....

...and to all a goodnight.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with Jeremiah's mom and his brother and his brother's wife. It was relaxing, all of my excellent children behaved well and now they're all in bed. Can life get better than this?

So goodnight blogging world, I'm looking forward to a hectic and crazy Christmas morning. Hope Santa fills all of your stockings with gobs of candy and junk!

A Very Chill Christmas?

Is there such thing as a relaxed holiday? Is that even a possibility?

Just drop in on any phone line across the nation and these are the types of conversations you would hear: Where do we go from 3-4p.m. Christmas eve? Where are we scheduled to appear noon-2pm on Christmas Day? Who will pick up Grandma? Did anyone else get (insert appropriate niece name here) Mario Party for the DS? Will So and So's grandma be mad if we go to breakfast before we go to her house? Will aunt so and so be disappointed if we stay home in our pj's instead of trekking to Hackensack to eat more cookies? Do I need to explain to anyone why this bothers me?

This isn't an irate complaining type post, I'm not being pressured by pissed off grandmas or depressed aunts in Hackensack, but I am feeling the crunch of the season in the strain in many people's voices. I'm hearing some are feeling slighted, some are tired, some worried about money, some just wish it weren't Christmas at all...and isn't that a horrible notion?

I look forward to special occasions because some of the happiest childhood memories I have are of the holidays. My brother Joshua and I singing Christmas songs, making cookies with my Grandma Bert, watching football with my Pappy Jack, playing cards with my cousins, seeing my baby siblings open their first Christmas gifts, or seeing them sit on Santa's lap. (There is a privilege us oldest children have, we get to experience joyous moments over and over and over again through the eyes of our siblings first, and then through the eyes of our children.)

Why is that once you reach adulthood those moments seem fleeting, or less frequent?

I put those childhood moments on par with very different moments of my adulthood. The day I brought Rose home from the hospital, the first time Olivia smiled, when Max finally said Mama, seeing Elijah born, watching him in the ocean for the first time. The first moment I saw Jeremiah after not speaking for ten years, going to sleep with him holding my hand, staying up late talking about things we don't really know anything about. These are moments people should be talking about during the holidays. Times when we shared something special, even intimate. Opening up to each other enough to fully enjoy their company. You notice that not one moment I just recalled had any gift giving in it, no stressed out yelling, no fights on the phone, no grudges started to go on for decades.

Should I stop being sad for everyone else and just hold on to those special memories and the notion that I will have a million more before I die?


O.K.

Merry Christmas, You Jerks!!!!

One Giant Family plus Christmas Decorations equals: INSANITY

Our family isn't anywhere as HUGE as some peoples, I'm fully aware of that...But when you get our four chidren together for an activity it seems like they're multiplied by three, at least.
Olivia insisted we stand apart so she could see more of this christmas tree. Can you stand how adorable Jeremiah looks in his PJs? Ahhh! He's so freaking cute!

Elijah (14 months) wasn't all that happy at this point. He's still adorable.
He's not helping AT ALL here, actually he's pulling the bulb off of the tree. This happened a trillion times more.
Olivia (5, almost 6) was a decorating NAZI. She became bossy and very easily upset with her siblings during the tree beautifying process.

Rosey (8) is always an angel.

Max(3)is emaciated from the flu she still isn't over yet. She really enjoyed decorating though.

New Ultra-Cute Thingies

This is a custom order set I'm working on for a customer right now. She didn't like the first hat(more accurately her husband thought it looked like Darth Vader's helmet), so I made a second and hopefully she loves this one as much as I do.


I made this hat for Jeremiah's niece, Haley. Her mom told me Haley's coat is hot pink and grey, so I took a gamble with this yarn, not knowing what shade of hot pink to get, and it turned out to match EXACTLY! I'll post more pics when I get some of her in it and her coat!


This is a set of hats for sisters. The mom won my giveaway last month and I made these for her daughters, ages 2 and 4. She said she wanted 'girly'! I don't think I could have made them anymore so!


I made this set for sale, but never listed it. I hate my camera and I'm never happy with the photos. I wish I sold more items so I can buy a new camera!!! Yay!! ;P


I'm working on this new 'design'. A 'Little Red Riding Hood'. It's not quite done and I can't get Max to pose for me, and my camera stinks. :D Did I mention I hate my camera? haha.

Give me some feedback, if you have time! And don't forget to check out the store:
Ultra-Cute Crochet

Elijah and Momma

Shared custody is a sort of mixed blessing. I hate being away from my daughters, which is especially painful considering I didn't have to share them at all before, and was with them 24-7. But now I get to spend so much time with Elijah, one on one.

A Thanksgiving Photo Journey: Jackson Style

Jeremiah and Kirk tried to hold Elijah down for pictures, didn't work out that well!



Here is a little snippet of our wonderful thanksgiving.