Happy New Year

Happy New Year! We are all getting back to our daily routines now that the holidays are over. We had a nice Christmas at my mother's house with Great Grandma and 'regular' Grandma. We were lucky to see Kevin's family several times through the holidays as well. Eliot is enjoying his new toys and I am still trying to figure out how to rearrange things.

This was the tree at our house Christmas morning. Eliot did his stocking here and then we packed everything up and brought it to Gram's. Unfortunately, he was really sick that day but managed to pull through. Christmas eve, when I was putting him to bed, he kept telling me he didn't want Santa to come, and to make sure the doors and windows were locked. I think the reality that Santa was actually going to come to his house really freaked him out. He was really into the Polar Express this year, too. Now he vacillates between being upset that he is going to miss it and worried that it is actually going to show up.


We have been drinking a lot of hot chocolate lately, too. With the highs in the teens this weekend we will probably drink several more rounds. Time to make some more marshmallows!


Eliot loves reading his new Dahlov Ipcar book, Hardscrabble Harvest. She is an awesome children's writer/illustrator local to Maine. She is in her 90's now and still writing and painting. Check her out if you haven't seen her work. They are so well done and pleasant to read aloud.

The fish tank is up off the ground and clean. It took me a while to get the stand painted, but it's in the house and ready. I just ordered the hardware and substrate. I am looking for some interesting bog wood and stones for it, too. Then the fun part - plants and fish!

I made a new year's resolution/goals list this week, too. It was made in a free form spirit but I thought I should put it here for reference as I ease into 2010:

Be in a craft fair.
Have a photography show.
Make a rug.
Work on a photography website.
Make cheese.
Make wine.
Send Christmas letters.
Work on Christmas all year.
Balsam Pillows.
Keep working on species identification/nature journaling.
Keep working on home school ideas.
Leaf printing on fabric.
Wooden blocks from natural (bark on) wood.
Leaf printing in general, ferns, etc.
Sew from the vintage patterns.
Make coasters.
Fabric mural on Eliot's wall.
Develop fish tank.
Finish Alphabet quilt.