new year

i think this is the longest i have gone not blogging for quite a while now. almost a month. time flies when you are incredibly busy.
even with all of the deliberation for this christmas season not to be too rushed, too full, too busy, it still was. i love this time of year. but alas, my blog suffered. the month of december was spent more as a celebration season/month, rather than just one day - that being christmas day. we spent the month doing advent much more actively, incorporating a lot of special quality family time activities, striving to have the month be about expectancy of Jesus' birthday and what He came to do for us.

also things with my etsy shop are picking up, praise be to the Lord! only He could have anything i do move in the right direction. i had two markets in december, and a bridal boutique in richmond offered to sell my clutches out of their shop. so i am stepping into that a bit unsure, tentatively and prayerfully seeing how it goes. what kind of time will it require and such.
the last two weeks have been spent with my family. they took us to beaver creek colorado where the girls spent their first christmas skiing, and then to tyler where the kids spent a few days on the golf course.
sam flying in style, took the pants off and watched peter pan on a princess dvd player.

look how excited sam was when we first landed.

i went snow skiing for my first time as a five year old as well. they spent their first half day in ski school then up the mountain they went. by the end of three days, abby was tackling greens on her own, not wanting any help from anyone. she wanted to be in the lead, she was doing little jumps, going up on small hills, etc.
miss emma was a bit more cautious. she had a pretty good fall on day one so she wanted to be holding on to mommy's pole and snowplowing in between my skiis the whole second day. russ took her alone on our last day and she learned how to stop, so by the end of day three she left confident and excited that she could ski down the slope on her own.

little man braved the cold a few times, but much preferred to hang in the hotel with nana, taking hot baths and having some quality time.

i got a little skiing in with just russ and my brother Joe, a six year lapse in my normal annual ski trips showed that i have digressed quite a bit. took a couple topples over random roots sticking out of some black runs that i was ill prepared for. russ, however, seems to be gaining the upper hand in the ski department, and my bro still looks as though he could compete he is so graceful and quick.

that's all folks. i'll be back to my regular two to three blogs a week now hopefully. back to memory keeping this new year.