And Of Course ...

And, of course, all the ordinary still went on during the holiday months. 

For example, Mette and Summer asked to play out front for a minute one cold day. When I agreed, they ran towards the door with Mette shouting, "If we see a thief we'll slap and spank them! But not if it's a neighbor that we know."

And eight-year-old  Anders (who, it turns out, heard someone in sacrament meeting say how they were usually "a man of few words" and thought that sounded dignified) told me: "Sometimes I try not talking for awhile so I can be 'a man of few words'. But then I wonder why I wanted to be a man of few words and I just start talking again."

And Starling! Though she was only just approaching nine months in these photos, she will be TEN months on the 23rd! I have been thinking of her as still closer to a newborn person than a … one year old person. But, shrug, TEN MONTHS! Sometimes I think about Summer and Mette and CANNOT imagine that I was less than three months away from birthing another baby when Summer was this age! How did we survive that? Starling is so clearly just A BABY! But, of course, she's all grown up too. Dear dear little tiny baby Star. All day long I kiss her and tell her she's the most wonderful thing to ever have happened. Of course I've felt that with each of my babies. But it makes it no less true in this case! THE MOST WONDERFUL THING! THIS HUMAN! My goodness I adore her. Almost too much it feels!

And oh! But wait! In all of this quickly scribbling down -- short hand -- all of Christmas, did I forget Christmas morning? I think I did! Well. That's crazy. Always such a fun and happy morning. Some high-light gifts this year? Minky blankets for the older girls (they always stole mine), a soldering iron for Jesse, Some mythical Schleich sea and mountain creatures for Anders, Schleich dinosaurs for Hansie, and some silly little floppy boards with sticky mermaids and fairies with interchangeable outfits that were on the cheap end but occupied the two younger girls more than any of their other gifts.

There were other things too. Pillow Pets for Hans, Mette and Summer to take to the cabin and of course new games. (They've had fun playing Daisy's Cataan, but I've preferred to mostly join in Goldie's The Game of Things because it's so simple and straight forward and funny.) There were also a few busts. A letterboard thing for Goldie to hang in her room … that neglected to contain the "included" letters, some overalls for Penny that were too small, and a music box for Penny to replace the special one the little kids broke … that came with a broken part. Haha. It was a fun and happy morning.