Christmas 6: Christmas Dinner

Christmas 5: Advent crafts

Christmas 4: Reading with Grandpa

Christmas 3: More Pictures

Christmas 2

The last sit of pictures were Thanksgiving and tree lighting. These are some more from around then:

 Possibly our tastiest Thanksgiving yet.

 Emily is... the Dark Knight!

These are all Thanksgiving pictures. What a great time. The turkey was delicious and many hands made things easier.

Catching up! Christmas 1

It's been an exciting few weeks. This is our first Christmas home since 2008, and we've been really enjoying it. We're on our third batch of visitors in the last month: my parents, Emily's parents and aunt and cousin, and now my brother and Holland and Hope. It's really been a blast. The kids are loving all the extra attention. When David arrived Wednesday, Eli seemed a little alarmed about all the Pee-pool ('people'), but he's happily readjusted. I thought here I'd post some different pictures, beginning with Christmas and then maybe skipping around.

Good Days

I'm enjoying my third and presumably last solo trip of the year. Earlier was P-burgh, rhymes with Retroit, and now here I am in the windy city. What I've liked about the trip is the blend of family, friends, library, and conference. It's a great blend. I spent two evenings with my aunt, uncle and cousins (yeah!). I felt a little bit like I had the mythic conversations with my grandma that my dad always had. It was a nice chance to catch up and to hear more about what they are up. I have "older" cousins and "younger" cousins, and it was also nice to see what the younger ones are up to, from teaching to engineering to studying. It's been asserted that Mary has my propensity for generating new plans--this may well be the case. Here's to dreaming.... I also had a good archives day. No major finds, but I learned more about the school where I work and it may be useful down the road. Catching up with friends was really nice. This group has been one of my major touchstones in growing into church work and just being an adult. I feel like we came from a similar place and there are some similar trajectories. Tomorrow is my panel. I think I've found three mini niches at this conference. Last time it was hard to fit in and I wasn't really sure what to do, but this time I've found several groups where I can follow the contribution and, down the road, perhaps contribute something. More to report soon, probably back to baby updates and sharing.

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