It’s been a while. Here are some photos from December and January (including Christmas).

Toy Hamster, hard legos, a toy angel cuddly, goggly eyes (the craft glue-on kind), cuddly reindeer, toy robot.

Jason took the kids to see a living nativity at a church downtown Christmas Eve. They even had camels with the wise men.

Christmas Ever dinner with Ham, roasted potatoes, orange rolls, smoked salmon with cream cheese on baguette, cranberry sprite, strawberries and brussels sprouts with bacon. Nabby and Oliver loved the smoked salmon, rolls and drink.

Santa brought Oliver what he asked for; a chemistry/lab set.

And he left Abigail what she asked for; a toy hamster.

Phoebe opened her stocking while she waited for Dad to bring her some clean p.j.s

New year’s eve we went out for indian food. Oliver drank most of his giant mango lassie by himself.

Phoebe tried some naan.

Still new years eve. We could walk around in the street (on Main) and look at ice sculptures because the traffic was blocked off for a party later.

The kids made these noise makers and hats at the library.

We’ve had the humidifier on a lot because the furnace dries everything out.

Jason made five trips out of town in January for job interviews. Transportation was a nasty battle all month. Digging the car out of snow banks, getting a jump start from the neighbors a couple times (the battery was too cold to work), waiting at the airport (once for 7 hours with postponed flights), walking home from the main bus station at night (-15) with no hat because his scheduled taxi couldn’t make it through the streets. The polar vortex held nothing back.

I was alone home with the kids for most of the month and spent all my free time shoveling snow.  Ann Arbor received 37 inches of snow in January and the average temp was 17.  I remember the weather man one night saying it would feel like -35 or -40 in the morning. One Sunday the sacrament prep counter water pipe burst in the chapel and flooded part of the church. We spent a lot of time playing with legos from Christmas because sub zero weather turned out to not be great for sledding…or for snowmen. We had many many hours to wile away inside the house. I watched Snowball Express twice and Oliver thought it was funny for the first time this year! He kept asking me to say “Standarules Plumbarmacy” and then he’d raise one eyebrow and chuckle to himself.

Oliver and Nabby are so sweet to Phoebe. They entertained her for hours some days when Jason was interviewing out of town.

This is Oliver marching around the house singing “The Phoebe band is coming! The Phoebe band is coming! Da da da daaa!” And each time Phoebe sees him she squeals in delight with her hands in the air.

Oliver had the idea and made this doll swing all by himself for Nabby.

Just hanging out at home together.

Nabby put little soft toys in this pair of underpants for Pheobe? The underwear was very clean and she said it was a good way to carry them.

There’s no hill under there. It’s ALL snow. And it’s as tall as the car.

Look! There’s the grass. We dug for a good while to find it. The hard pack is icy.