Yep, Lauren’s been here for a couple of days now, and we’re having fun. We’ve fed her Mexican food and Italian food and Chick-Fil-A and homemade french toast. We’ve introduced her to Fresca and she’s introduced us to Tim Tams, which are delightful.

We’ve painted pottery and made Shrinky-Dinks. We’ve taken her to Michaels twice, where she’s bought lots of yarn that she can’t buy at home; and to my local specialty yarn shop once, where she bought more yarn and I allowed myself to be (1) convinced that I could learn to knit (gulp!) socks, and (2) talked into buying some really gorgeous sock yarn (not pictured).

We made plans to go to the Air & Space Museum, but ended up postponing them because the morning got away from us. We tried to go to Old Town but when we got there we saw all the red shirts and jackets and realized that it was overrun with tourists from Nebraska who are in town for the Holiday Bowl. Normally we’d be quite pleased to see Nebraskans, but in this case they’d taken all the parking spaces and left none for us. We ended up postponing our Old Town trip too, but I did take Lauren to our local post office where she watched me mail packages to A. Erin and Sarah. I’m sure that was very exciting.

Then, after a trip to Ralphs for some groceries, the minivan broke down. When I called my insurance company’s roadside assistance number, I was informed by a recording that due to “severe weather” in my area the wait for service was averaging four hours. You know you’re in Southern California when misty rain is “severe weather.” My mom and Annalie waited for us at the store while Lauren and I walked the half-mile back to my house to get the car so we could go back and get them and the groceries.

Later on in the evening, Lauren realized her credit card had been hacked and someone had bought $700 worth of online gaming with it. She had to cancel it, and tomorrow while I’m seeing about getting the minivan towed and fixed, she’ll be waiting around my house for someone to bring her an emergency replacement Visa because it’s kind of nice to have such a thing for, y’know, emergencies when one is traveling overseas.

The good news is, we’ve been catching Lauren up on Season 2 of Chuck, since Season 3 will be starting in just over a week. That’s why I have not blogged much: we’ve been spending our evenings crocheting & knitting, talking, eating too much junk food, and watching episodes of Chuck. Despite theft and breakdowns and interrupted plans, life is good.

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.