This picture conveys the feeling of this past week. After a great Thanksgiving with family and friends, we anticipated a low-key Christmas. In fact it was a season of sharing as we passed the same illness from person to person. Everyone has had a turn now. Sara's came late Christmas eve as we prepared for Santa to visit. She was able to get up for the kids to open presents, but then was back to bed for the full day.

We celebrated Boxing day by getting everything but the Christmas Spirit boxed up for a season of storage. Saturday took us to the Ritzman's for an evening of dinner, games, and movies. You can see that Amy was too tired to make it up the stairs. Incredibly temperatures hit 75deg. We referred to it as a cold summer day.

There are many pictures that exist of me and my siblings lined up on the stairs ready to descend on Christmas morning. I've posted two of my children in the same pose. Paul felt that I exceeded proper decorum by taking more than one, and displayed his frustration.

Sara is mostly recovered, the house is mostly in order, and I am mostly ready for the last week of this year. Time to start settling on some resolutions and a path to their fulfillment.

Paul started Nursery today as an official 18mo old. It meant that I didn't spend 2 hours in the foyer with him. Strange sensation to sit through classes-- all but the last 10 minutes when Paul required some special attention. The church dumpster says specifically 'No Hazardous Materials' but I threw the Diaper in anyway.

3rd hour left me pondering the question-- what is the distinction between faith and hope?

As a parting shot-- I think this is my first official post to this blog. Hopefully it will trigger some friends and family to revisit their blogs and provide some updates. The holidays can be a tricky time.