The Daredevil Emerges

... at the sledding hill. And, not shockingly, the Daredevil would be Gracie. In response to her big sister's pleas of "No, no, we're high enough!", Gracie yelled "Higher, Faster, Higher, Daddy!"

Yup, like we didn't see that coming. At least her Aunt Steffanie will have someone to ride the roller coasters with in a few years, right? Then she can get it out of her system and avoid all the future teenage nastiness with fast cars and the boys who drive them. Right.

The girls learned quickly the fastest and easiest way up the hill, of course.

They also quickly learned, however, that payback is a bitch.

Despite Mommy's frozen toes, the girls loved the ups and downs and ups and downs, and after awhile were able to coax Daddy off of the sled so they could have some parent-free fun.

And of course, some of that speacial sister-to-sister bonding that happens when the nosies are pink and the toesies are frozen.

He Finally Did It ! ! ! !

Not that I would ever admit to being picky, because that is *so* not in my nature (the admitting) , but in the past the husband has proved less than fabulously successful in picking out gifts for me.

He tries harder than most, he really does, and he has come up with brilliant ideas in the past. It isn't his fault that the super-cool floor washing robot didn't actually get the floors clean. Perhaps in a few years the technology will be vastly improved and the little robot will do more than shoot water and suck it up, leaving no more little footprints in its wake.

The vacuum that I got last year was well-received, even if the most important part of the gift, the promising to use it *for* me, was forgotten by the first week in January. Sigh.

But this year, THIS year, I got the best present ever! In collaboration with my brilliant Caelin, he finally got the reaction he has tried for for SOOOO many years: tears under the tree. I'm blaming it on hormones ('cause we women-folk can do that), but when I opened the gift that I am about to share with you all, I actually cried.

Okay, here it is. Now, it was a set of 3 photos that I received, but it was this one that got me.


Isn't she just gorgeous? Sure, the cheesy photoshopping with the fairies is cute and all, but look at her face. Just look at it.


In all the kajillion photos that I have taken of this child, none have shown her like this. This is my girl. Her pure, sweet nature. Her gorgeous smile. It is just so. Her.


So, husband, you finally did it. Let's give him all a fantabulous hand! Maybe next year, I'll get a picture of *both* my girls, but this year, honey, you did great! Thank you.

As the dust clears...

My apologies for having had to step away from the blog so long. After a wonderful and happy Christmas in which the girls were spoiled *rotten*, and during which we enjoyed spending lots of time with our family and friends, we were quite blindsided by some disheartening events in my family beyond our control.

In the end, as the dust settles in the aftermath, my girls and husband are great. I'm still sorting a lot out, but I'll get there too, I know.

I'll be back soon with some recent pictures of the girls, and I'll share with you what I think was my best Christmas gift *ever*.