December

Apparently November was uneventful, or perhaps too eventful (Charlie had pneumonia) and so here we are in December.  As early as November, Lucy started sighing and saying, "It just HAS to snow."  After a lot of waiting, it finally did. 

 Poor Charlie was that little boy from the movie the Christmas story who can't move his arms because he was so tightly bundled.  Except in Charlie's case, he couldn't sit up.

 Charlie got very excited when our friend the rooster came to visit.  Someone in our neighborhood has an illegal rooster, and for several weeks he really liked hanging out near our house.  He came to visit on this snowy day.  After he came, Charlie was only interested in getting closer and closer to the rooster.

Despite her Wisconsin heritage, Lucy made it all the way until four years old before her first snowman.

 Charlie enjoys playing a game we call blind man's bluff.  He puts Lucy's hat on which covers his eyes and then walks around running into things and laughing.

 This year, we decided to celebrate St. Lucy's day by having a little party that Lucy helped me organize.  She chose the people she wanted to invite (within reason), wrote and delivered invitations, helped decide what to serve, helped me bake, cleaned the house, and then served guests drinks.  Here is a picture she made of St. Lucy with her mother and father.

Kneading the dough for braided Lucia bread.

Lucy wearing her "Lucia crown" which we made out of paper with the finished Lucia bread.  It was a great night, and a friend of ours even made her a beautiful St. Lucy doll.

 

While James worked on finishing his final papers, Lucy and I worked on a few Christmas presents for friends.  As we started to make granola for Lucy's atrium teacher, Lucy announced "I am going to be really good at this!"

Just reading.

 Playing in a box :-)