From Home

...and I'm back.

Monday morning. Back to the old grind. I am glad I have the bright spot of catching up with my dear OL friends to look forward too, because this is not my favouritest of weeks...a bit of post holiday blues, so much to do, hard to get my guys back into the regular routine.

It feels like we've been away, although for days and days we've barely even left the house. It has been the best of holidays...cozy, familial, full of fun and rest, and even a few things accomplished for good measure. There was a little of the inevitable family drama around Christmas, but other than that it has been golden, and has really felt like a "real vacation".

Highlights have included:

-my sisters! How did I get so lucky as to have 3 amazing sisters? I enjoyed every minute of their company this Christmas.
-a winter walk with Elizabeth
-snowball fights
-Christmas plans coming together with unprecedented ease
-our annual Christmas Eve visit from Santa (*cough cough* my dad...still don't know whether the boys have cottoned on to this yet? If so, they are keeping it to themselves)
-a piece of real life magic: the boys outside in their pajamas and winter coats making giant bubbles in the cold, still night before
-a Christmas afternoon nap while everyone played happily with their new stuff
-the boys surrounded by mounds and mounds of Lego, so intense as they built and built
-a Christmas feast to end all feasts
-endless rounds of Settlers of Catan
-wedding dress shopping with Victoria (my second youngest sister who is getting married summer of 2011. I thought I would hate the dress shopping, and we were crammed in with loads of loud, perfume-drenched specimens...but all I could see was her...bee-U-tee-full. I got all verklempt a couple of times, just seeing her so happy).
-art journaling at the kitchen table with Elizabeth (my new neocolour 2 crayons! Whee!)
-lazing in bed with tea
-lazing in bed with tea and the DH's itouch (Settlers of Catan app. FTW!)
-lazing in bed with the DH, cognac and True Blood
-the DH...being married to someone whose company I thoroughly enjoy. The best part of a holiday, no matter where we go or what we do, is just being with him every day. That complete togetherness is such a treat.

I guess "togetherness" would be my word, if I had to choose one, to describe these last two weeks...we have been drawing ourselves together. A family gathering itself to the bosom of hearth and home and really celebrating all things warm and familial...simple things, a loaf of homemade bread, a board game and time to play it, a child's arms wrapped around you and a grinning dimpled face. Simple things, wonderful things.

And now back to our regular programming. *small sigh*

I have been art journaling a lot, and will scan and share my pages ASAP. Milliande is doing fun and inspiring daily art journal vids, that I've been really enjoying. I have also been bread baking, thanks to a new book that I received as a gift from Victoria, and can't wait to share about those adventures too. The boys b-day is just around the corner (Star Wars themed this year!), and there is so much to do and look forward too. I've also been doing the usual taking stock for New Year's...I am welcoming some changes.

So, as 2 very good friends of mine would say...onwards and sideways...