Whew! I think I’m finally ready to get back to a reasonable schedule again. I think I needed a few decent nights’ sleep again, which maybe-not-so-surprisingly I haven’t had lately, but feel optimistic this morning nevertheless. 😉

So, let’s try to do some Christmas catch-up.

Pretty

Silhouettes on the mantel. I’d had a display like this in the Old Haus but hadn’t updated since Princess was the baby. The #2 picture is Jacob and the #8 is Posy Pea’s ultrasound.

The calm before the storm.

Happy

Back in September I hinted to Santa that an upgrade on some of the kitchen set food was in order for the little ones. It helped that Magic Cabin had them on sale. The problem was storage. We had the blue kitchen set (my mom found it for $3 at an upscale neighborhood yard sale!) but it didn’t have much more space after the food and dishes were in. My father-in-law is a genius at woodworking (something that Haus Meister luckily inherited), and so I went to him one day this fall and asked if he had any spare wood laying around that he could bang together into a play refrigerator for the grandkids. I was sanguine about this because both he and Haus Meister usually do have spare wood laying around from projects completed/projects planned/projects we’re in the process of completing/projects we know we’re going to plan for/etc. What I wasn’t expecting was an absolute work of ART.

Let me amend that. I knew my father-in-law was definitely capable of producing such a work. I had just specified a box with a door and shelves. He way surpassed anything I’ve seen in any toy catalog.

For one thing, he built a battery-powered light into it with a switch on the bottom that turns it on when you open the door, just like a real refrigerator. The shelves were perfect for the food (old and new) and everything was rounded, painted, sanded, etc. to look perfectly accurate. On the top of the outer door and inside under the light he added charms from a bracelet shaped like a crown that looks like a brand logo (but perfect for the princesses that use this). He even thoughtfully added the black basket at the bottom shelf for all the fruit and vegetables.

And now things are organized over here, more or less. In fact, it’s more organized than our real kitchen.

Until she gets at it, of course. Miss M keeps trying to persuade me that the tea set goes into the refrigerator while the teapot goes into our main bathtub. But she loves the toy refrigerator.

We keep hinting to my father-in-law that he totally needs to open a toy shop. It’s going to be hard to top this gift. Whew.

Funny

Meanwhile, from my sister to me….

A Pride and Prejudice board book. This was the funniest thing. And I just noticed that the Sense and Sensibility version will be released in February. There’s my 2013 gift, Kiddo! 😉

In other humor news…

LEGO antics and…

Zita the Spacegirl, books 1 & 2. Zita is now a household name, along with One, Strong-strong, and Mouse.

Real

What happens when you try to pose kids next to the church nativity scene?

and this is how we’ve all been feeling this past week.

But it’s been fun.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY today to this literary giant whose writings have added so much to our lives….