Omaha got its first significant snowfall on Christmas Day since 1941 this year, with about 12 inches of snow! It’s magical and all, but the city is pretty much shut down. Many flights out of Omaha were cancelled today, which makes me nervous because we’re supposed to fly home tomorrow, and I have to pick up a certain Australian at the airport in L.A. on Monday.

I know it’ll all work out, but I really hope our flight doesn’t get cancelled. Flying at Christmastime is crazy enough without adding cancelled flights to the mix on top of the added security we’ll have because of that guy who attempted to blow up a flight to Detroit. I’m very thankful that my mom is coming home with us for a short visit so it won’t be just me and Annalie navigating the insanity at the airports.

Don’t mind me, I’m just being a tiny bit Scrooge-ish because it was a weird day. Christmas worship was cancelled, the city was snowed in, and I was missing Troy extra today. But even with all that it was a good day. Annalie had a blast opening and playing with her presents. We watched movies and lounged in our pajamas and ate too many cookies. I made another big batch of sugar-and-spice candied nuts, and homemade mac & cheese for dinner.

And I finished the babette! In a stroke of serendipity, I had just enough black yarn to do a border. I wish I could give the blanket to Ben and Angie in person but with the snow and us leaving tomorrow that’s not likely. I’ll just wash it, wrap it, and leave it here for them to pick up once the roads are clear.

Day 4 – a cabinet full of origami

Taken on the landing of the staircase at my cousin T’s house. I think these are all from a page-a-day origami calendar that her kids had a couple of years ago.

This is representative of the whole house, in that six kids ages 4 to 16 live there, and evidence of their creativity and curiosity is everywhere. In addition to this cabinet full of origami, there is a door in the upstairs hallway that is papered with pages from a word-a-day calendar, and the shelves above the kitchen sink hold framed photos as well as kid-produced art of varying levels of competence, not to mention that there is usually at least one kid in the middle of an art project at the dining-room table or baking pie or cookies in the kitchen.

T and her husband do a great job of involving their kids in many aspects of taking care of their home, and T incorporates many of the kids’ art projects into her decorating both permanent and seasonal (on this visit, I particularly loved the painted-white, glitter-covered pinecone in a Christmas cupcake paper on the counter in the downstairs bathroom, clearly some child’s preschool holiday craft). If I scattered Annalie’s art projects around our house I have the feeling it would just look cluttered, but at T’s house somehow it all works in the most fantastic way. Their house is beautiful and warm and welcoming, a house full of kids and activity and a little bit of chaos and a lot of love. It’s one of my favorite places to be.

Day 145 for Troy

As long as I’m posting my 7 Days photos, I might as well post my photos for Troy too. And yes, I realize this is very similar to Day 139, but I don’t care.

Matching candy-cane pj’s and cute kids trump repetitive photos any day.

Day 5 – Silver where? Wheatfields, of course.

Joe, Kassie, Katrina and I were all very relieved when the forecasted ice pellets and freezing rain did not materialize that morning. We just had plain old rain, which we were quite happy to brave for brunch at Wheatfields with good friends.

We took up two long tables in the otherwise-deserted sundeck, which was nice when we started taking silly self-portraits with our silverware (the day’s theme was silver.

I think the common characteristic among all my friends is that we make each other laugh, and these friends are no exception. We laughed and laughed that day, in between geeking out over cameras and tickling kids and debating the presence of apricots in the delicious quiche. It was awesome.

Joe’s Day 5 photo
Kassie’s Day 5 photo and her blog post Pole Girl, Dip Punk, Betho and me
Katrina’s Day 5 photo and her blog post Fun with Friends

Day 146 for Troy

Annalie decorated the mirror with two sets of clings…one is a Nativity set and one is Peanuts. They go together, right?

Day 6 – almost done with the Babette

I’ve been working on this blanket for my niece AK for a couple of months. It’s the wonderful Babette Blanket pattern. I used the colors of the aurora borealis as inspiration. (That gives you a really good hint to her first name.)

I’m about two-thirds done with stitching the squares together. I hope I am able to finish the rest before we go back home. Then I’ll wash and block it. I’m pretty happy with how it’s turned out so far.

Day 147 for Troy

At Christmas Eve worship tonight, my parents’ pastor announced that the Christmas Day service was cancelled, since we’re supposed to get 12-15 inches of snow tonight. I’ve only known him to cancel services two other times in 30 years, but it looks like he made the right decision because while we were in church it snowed about three inches. My mom took this photo in our front yard, You can just about see the snow fort my dad and Annalie made earlier today.

Merry Christmas to you all! May your holidays be filled with good surprises, kids in matching jammies, yummy food, and joy. Especially joy.

I posted photos of two ornaments I’d painted and then blogged about them a couple of weeks ago. Bex expressed a wish to own the star-shaped one, so I put it in my Etsy shop and she promptly bought it. I brought it to Omaha with me so I could mail it as soon as I got here. Ha.

After a week in Omaha, I remembered the star. I finally mailed it TODAY, at 5:15pm, just before the post office closed. And I had to buy bubble wrap while I was there because my mom had run out.

Bex, your ornament should arrive in 2-3 days! Unless the box gets “accidentally” damaged and someone from the USPS takes a liking to it.

We had lunch today with my friend Stephanie—the same Stephanie with whom we went to the zoo after we first moved to California. She happened to be passing through Omaha on her way to spend Christmas with family in central Nebraska, so we arranged to meet for lunch at Wheatfields. It was great to see her, as always.

I splurged and let Annalie get hot cocoa. Boy was I glad I did that, because this was what the waitress brought out to her!

I wish I had gotten a photo of when the waitress first set the cocoa down in front of her. Annalie’s jaw dropped, and she was so happy and excited! I love how kids can really appreciate the simple things. The thoughtful waitress had even added a few ice cubes to the cocoa to cool it down, so Annalie didn’t have to wait to drink it.

The cocoa made up for Annalie’s disappointment that we didn’t get to sit in the sun deck by the fountain, as we usually do. So did the fact that we were sitting next to a gingerbread Dr. Seuss town. Yep, someone recreated Whoville from How the Grinch Stole Christmas in gingerbread, frosting, and candy! I especially love the gumballs (or giant jawbreakers or whatever they are) that were used in various places.

If you look at the biggest size of the second photo you can see a little Grinch towards the bottom, with a Wheatfields restaurant on the right, and a movie theater that’s playing It’s a Wonderful Life. I kind of wanted to take more photos, but everyone was waiting for me. Anyway, as long as the weather cooperates we’ll be going back to Wheatfields on Wednesday for brunch with a bunch of friends. Maybe I’ll get the chance to take more photos then.

This was my alternate 7 Days shot. Scooters is an Omaha-based coffee company that has really good coffee at their many drive-thru locations. Today my mom and I stopped there after lunch for lattes.

Annalie got a GloDoodle at our early family Christmas on Sunday, and she’s been playing with it a lot. Can you tell we miss Troy? We do. Thank goodness we have snow and beloved restaurants and friends and family, especially a sweet new baby, to distract us.