Well, it's that time of year again. Ben and I have decided to ring in the New Year by not doing anything because Im not feeling great. It's been a lot of years since I haven't done anything for the New Year, but it might be nice. Or I might go to sleep before midnight. we'll see.

This year was better than last year. It was still stressful, but there were a lot of fun things too. Let's take a random sampling of pictures from the year. (Flurry ended up being featured prominently, but it's because she doesn't mind getting her picture taken. And really, she's just super cute.)

January: I received a Lego Ice Cube maker for Christmas and color some of the ice cubes. I also colored my hands.

February: snow!

March: the laundry never stops. Luckily Flurry was making it a little more interesting this day.

April: Flurry got her cast off! It took another month until she seemed fully healed though.

May: Flurry sleeps! I love it when she covers her eyes with her paw. It's so cute.

June: picnic! Look at all of that delicious food.

July: cereal-luck. Come share your favorite cereal.

August: we visited NYC with Dusty and Laura

September: Ben and I went on a trip to St. Lucia. Here's Ben on our way to a zip-line in a rain forest.

October: we bought a pound of dice

November: we went to Holland for Thanksgiving

December: Flurry had a huge photo shoot as we tried to get a good one for the Christmas card.

Friday: we're home

We're home! We made it a lot farther last night than we were planning, so that was nice today. However, we're still exhausted from the trip. Hopefully some warcraft will help.

Various days: pictures

Well, I had meant to put this picture on before but forgot.

AAHH!! The Christmas monster is going to get Nathan and Liz.




It was Ben's Dad's birthday yesterday. We went out for a delicious dinner. I had perch almondine and it was amazing. Then ice cream pie with a special chocolate sauce. yum. well, I only have a good picture of Ben.



finally, I made my own donuts. They turned out rather well, although they made me rather thirsty.

Ben says hi

yesterday: skiing

first a picture that I forgot two days ago...all of us in our Christmas shirts. Ben's shrunk though, so I'll be inheriting it.




Then yesterday I went skiing. We chose to just stay on the easiest hill since most of us were learning, so Ben decided to try snowboarding.

Here's Travis teaching Jacob.



Ben looking like he knows what he's doing.




Ben in his normal position in the beginning (by the end he got much better)



Brothers




Us

Today: funny things

last night there was an animal alphabet spinning wheel and for N the animal was newt. Someone asked the question...is newt really the best N animal? So seven of us think. And think. Ben and Kate came up with some off the wall animal that I don't know what it is and Judd got nightingale. Ben finally looked it up on his phone and there are only about six animals that start with N and newt really is the most common. too bad it doesn't make a sound.

Then at breakfast Nathan ordered the vegetarian skillet with a side of sausage. While I completely understand why he did it, it did seem rather funny to order both of those things.

Christmas: Merry merry Christmas

Today was a busy but good day. We ended up spending time and opening presents with both sides of the family...something that has never happened before.

The day started out by packing up the car and hearing some runners with jingle bells go by. It was a nice way to start.

then we opened presents with Ben's family. I don't have any great pictures, but here is one cute on from afterwards.




Then this evening was spent with my side of the family. I got to give Nathan and Liz their quilt!



Here are the pictures I took at home last week. the first one is the front and the second one is the back.







I also got a donut maker today! I'm super excited to try it out. And Ben got me a 2-4 player card game that we played tonight. at first while he was explaining the rules I was a little bit leery, but it quickly started to make sense and was a lot of fun.

And throughout the times I remember the reason that we celebrate Christmas. This year I've thought a little bit more about the wisemen. They are often mentioned in the Christmas story, but never seem to get a lot of attention. Maybe because they didn't show up for three more years. But they were men of learning (I.e., smart) and they still chose to come and worship Jesus. So while I can identify with the shepards in some aspects, I can also identify with the wisemen and are glad for both sides of the spectrum.