Nope, these aren’t mine. They’re my parents’ cards; my mom worked late into the night last night to get them ready to send out. Since it’s already December 23, I’m going to go ahead and make the call that once again I’m not sending Christmas cards this year. Other years I have felt guilty about it, but this year not so much.

Simon thinks that this hot chocolate mix is lick-the-container good.

Rebecca continues to inspire me (in more ways than I could ever say, but for the present post I’m specifically referring to photography). After dinner tonight we spent a good while (not long enough) playing with camera settings (and hoo boy do I have a lot to learn!). Part of my problem is that I don’t even know what I don’t know. But as we talked about aperture and light metering and white balance, I started to get really excited. So I think I might be on the verge of a genuine kick (imagine that 133 days into my photo project and almost 2 years into having a really nice camera that I know NOTHING about).

Just one of the ways we say “I love you” around here.

We learned today that beans are a very satisfying alternative to water for playing and general mess making. Although I don’t love sweeping, I do prefer it to mopping up with towels and changing the toddler’s clothes. (Many thanks to RT for the idea!)

Last night we had no cable service and no Internet: the perfect excuse to spend the evening in Middle-Earth.

Peppermint ice cream for Rebecca’s birthday (better late than never?).

Today marks the pregnancy milestone that I was probably most looking forward to (well, besides actually meeting this baby). I’m at 34 weeks, which means that as of 11:37 this morning, I am officially farther along than I ever got with Simon (he was born at 11:36). Although Simon is doing great and has had no problems to speak of, for obvious reasons we are incredibly thankful that so far we have no signs of such an early delivery. We are ever so anxious to meet the little one, but at the same time we would be delighted to wait about six more weeks.

This picture isn’t the best quality; I had to do lots of adjustments because I had my camera on the wrong, wrong, wrong settings. But it should give you an idea of just how desperate I was this morning to keep the little one happy. We blessedly did get out of the house this afternoon for a glorious trip to Super Target with Rebecca and Liv. Oh sweet, sweet freedom from the confines of the house. (I don’t know that I’ve ever had cabin fever as bad as I did this week.) You’d think I would have brought my camera for the ride, but really I was just too giddy at being OUT OUT OUT of the house.

For all of you who might be jealous out there: yes, the snow is beautiful. Very beautiful. But if it makes you feel any better, I haven’t left the house since Sunday, and I’m feeling claustrophobic (in my home and in my body). We’re out of eggs and nearly out of milk and diapers. Jason spent an hour trying to the car out of the alley. No go, so he’s home today (actually, I’m incredibly thankful for that; it’ll keep me sane a few more hours).