"The time has come" the walrus said

I have been patiently waiting for that magical day, free from any commitments or distractions, when I would sit and update every last detail of the past two months. I give up.

Actually - that day came last Sunday. What was supposed to be a long day chock full of meetings became 24 hours snuggled up at home watching the snow blanket New Hampshire. Everything, even our regular church meeting, was cancelled. But, instead of updating my blog I snuggled my kids, watched "The Testaments," had our own church meeting, made cookies (and ate most of them myself) and spent a large part of the day doing a large jigsaw puzzle (which Nathan declared to be a colossal waste of time, but I relished - how often do I have time to do that? Pretty much never. It was bliss.)

So, I am going to try to jump back on the bandwagon little by little. I certainly want to go back and record a little bit about the past two months, but I also don't want my "need" to do that to continue to stop me from posting new stuff.

As a reminder to myself, I would like to post about:
1. Thanksgiving
2. A visit from Uncle "Bennybuddy"
3. Finishing the basement
4. Family and Christmas!!!
5. New York City at Christmas!!!

We are all doing well. Nathan leaves tomorrow to escort his Grandfather to the inauguration. He will be gone for 8 days and 7 nights, which I am not looking forward to, but it will be a neat experience for him. Jonas turned 1 earlier this month (I will post photos - we actually took some!) and he has managed to climb back up onto the growth chart (up to 3% hooray!), but he still can't swallow any solid food, so he is seeing an ENT specialist later this month and having an evaluation for speech/swallow therapy.

I have had company or Nathan home everyday since Dec. 12, literally a whole month now, so tomorrow will be a big adjustment. In some ways it will be good to be back to my own routine, but I will be lonely. Luckily, Nate's sister Lora is going to come hang out with us this weekend, and help with the kids during my Sunday meetings.

We had a wonderful 2008 and look forward to a great 2009. We have some big goals, and hopefully if we aim for the sun we will at least hit the stars, right?

Here are the birthday photos:

He really enjoyed his presents. Thank you Grandmas!

He LOVED the candle!

"What am I supposed to do with this??"

"Aahhh, now I see! This is great!"

Grace displaying her blue tongue (from all of the blue dye in the frosting of the not-at-all-homemade cake I bought at the grocery store)