I haven’t been motivated to get the camera out lately, but here is a picture of stockings I made for our family 6 years ago when my son was just a year old. I always thought I would get around to decorating them a little more, but every year that I get them out I appreciate their simplicity.

So, at this rate I may not ever get around to embellishing them. I am starting to fear that doing so would end up dating them, and they are fun the way they are. You wouldn’t believe how much fun the kids have showing guests all of the different stocking shapes. Except for a nasty cold, we have really been enjoying the holidays. Fun times with friends and family! Greatly anticipated visit from my brother… it is always too short. I am afraid that by the time my kids are grown and I have more time to spend with him, he will probably have young children of his own, and the tables will be turned. For now, we will take what time we can get. I love that my kids adore him as much as I do!

We have also been enjoying this wonderful Christmas special. If you haven’t seen Creature Comforts: Merry Christmas Everybody!, it is fabulous! Happy New Year, everyone! I will see you again sometime next year!

Here is a quick picture of my family. I am feeling very thankful that we are all still here.

The Boy had an encounter with some poison ivy… not too big of a deal, until it turned into a staph infection. He was at the doctor’s office three days in a row. Each time leaving with a few more prescriptions and a list of scary things to go IMMEDIATELY to the emergency room for. The Man actually had tickets purchased to fly out of town for a few days and the weekend, and ended up staying home. While a staph infection isn’t uncommon, if things go bad, they can go very, very bad and it just was not a good time to be half way across the country. The doctor’s were worried about it being a resistant staph since he wasn’t improving, but waiting for the cultures to return could be too late, so they put him on two different antibiotics, antibiotic ointment, he tried two different anti-itch medications, and they topped it off with steroids and a steroid cream. I am now on a first name basis with my pharmacist! Hopefully, she will forget me, because I am hoping it will be a really long time before I have to go back in there again! We went to the doctor on Monday and it was such a relief to have the doctor actually say, “Well, it looks like he is out of danger.” Man, you couldn’t make a mother happier! Of course, I still don’t think it is an accurate statement considering he is still in danger because he is both a child and boy. He might just do something like slide off the back of the couch backwards onto his head… yes, he did that today! Or try to sit on a rope and fall backwards onto his head… yes, that was a few days ago. This last week has been a reminder that every day with this family is precious.

Sorry, I have been rather inarticulate lately. During a crisis, the first thing that goes are my words, as my husband can tell you. And I have been thinking a lot lately about priorities… again. But that is for a later post.