Family is the Best Gift of All

We had a fabulous time, as always, with L’s brother’s family, finally gathering for our Christmas celebration after postponing their visit twice due to the snow.  Rosemary and Orange (yep, code blog names–I’m still getting used to all this) had a ball with Buddy and Lou.  Buddy adores Orange–they’re the two wild ones of the bunch while Rosemary and Lou tucked themselves away into quiet corners to play.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was late last night.  The kids piled into the playroom on futon and sofa sleeper mattresses to attempt a big slumber party.  They were all exhausted, but Rosemary just wasn’t quite ready to count sheep as she sat “reading” a book out loud with the hall light on.  Buddy was at the end of his rope for the day so he came up to complain about her keeping him up.  Unkie J then proceeded to go downstairs to ask her to read to herself so the other kids could fall asleep.  Her eyes widened in disbelief at her father’s request, and in as serious and convincing of a tone as a 4 year old could muster she replied, “I don’t know how to read.  I’m only talking about the pictures!”  Out of the mouths of babes…

I made the girls super hero capes for Christmas.



Even Jones had a Christmas present–an adorable stuffed baby turtle!




Our Ethiopian Beauty



The infamous kid’s table–we had Ethiopian Red Lentil Stew (spicy–whew!) and Ethiopian Chickpea Stew for dinner