DEC. 22 UPDATE: Catching up on photos

Online shopping has kept me from blogging for a while. (I'm only half joking. I had a little too much fun shopping on Etsy this year. It was way too easy to personalize gifts that way.)

And it's way past my bedtime, but I thought I'd at least catch up on uploading photos for you all.

Erik is still as smiley as ever. He really wants to grab and chew things lately. No tooth coming in yet, that I can see, but I can't imagine it will be long.


We've had several good storms since I last wrote. This photo was taken inside the granary after the Dec. 14 blizzard. Snow was whipped around and driven into every possible crevice -- including, as pictured here, through the point where the siding meets the eaves. Not really a good thing. We'll ask the Prairie Builders construction company owner about that soon.


This window was not quite latched, and the snow found that crevice, too.


Snow was piled up pretty good in front of the door to the tractor shed.


Visibility wasn't very good for much of that Sunday blizzard. This is the view from the kitchen window.

SOFIA IS THREE! We had a nice little party on Dec. 13 before the storm hit, and everyone made it home safely. We had a Santa Lucia-themed cake -- this particular Santa Lucia doll just happens to have three candles. Who could have planned it better? (Actually, the theme was a last-minute diversion, just because I didn't want to have a Barbie-themed party.)


Since the blizzard day, the weather has been COLD. Wind chill warnings for many days. But on Saturday morning, even though another blizzard was forecast, it was pleasant enough to head outside for a bit of sledding ...


... as long as we stayed out of the wind. Doesn't that just look cold? We didn't venture past the trees on our little walk.


The wind is going to be a bit of a problem for us -- the north wind creates a nice drift right in front of the front door. And the wind just whips around that corner -- we'll have to consider planting trees.

Oh, and how's the house coming? Well, Dave hasn't been putting in the longest hours when the wind chill is 35 below. The slacker. (Note: There was sarcasm in the previous sentence.) And winter brings its own to-do list: Snow-blowing the road, plugging in the tractor, plugging in the car, etc. But he's still managed to get quite a bit of wiring done. If we had a stretch of decent weather, I'd say what he has left on the wiring is just a weekend's worth of work.

And we'll soon be off for a few days of Christmassing! As long as the weather holds, and it looks like it should be OK for our drive to St. Paul on Wednesday and our drive to Iowa on Friday.

Merry Christmas, everyone! May your holiday fill you with gratitude and peace.