I can't believe 2009 is almost over

First of all, we survived Christmas! Mary got a piggy bank from Santa. She was so happy. She got a dress from Grandmother and of course wanted to wear it right away. She wore it for 3 days straight I think. Ellie was less excited about her gifts, but really liked unwrapping them. I got new flannel sheets for our bed! I love them. I got a cool book on making sock animals. I need to find some funky socks and then make some of them. Not for toys but for me to keep!

This year flew by. I'm already thinking about planning Mary's 4th b-day party and it seems like her birthday was just a couple months ago. I can't believe my baby will be 4! We're trying to figure out what school we'll send her to next year--either back to pre-school for 3 days a week (she currently just goes 2) or if we'll start her in a multi-age pre-k/kindergarten which would be 5 days a week.

Ellie's currently (well, in this moment she's sleeping on my lap) having a word explosion. Not much we can understand yet, but she's very into identifying things. And playing a game we call "where's your fork?" while we eat lunch/dinner. She takes her fork, hides it behind her, waits and if we don't notice she says "fork? fork?" We have to ask her where it is, then she produces it from behind her back with a HUGE smile on her face. And speaking of things I can't believe, in three weeks Ellie will be the same age Mary was when we moved here!!! How crazy is that? The first 16 months of Mary's life took 5 years and the first 16 months of Ellie's life have taken just a couple months, if that.

After Ellie's nap, the girls and I are going to take the Christmas stuff down. I didn't even put much out this year, but thinking of taking it all down and packing it away is overwhelming. I'm ready for it to be gone though, so I can go back to some of the decorating projects I was working on in November.

Speaking of projects, I finished my Christmas knitting at 7pm on Christmas Eve. Time to spare! Now I'm crocheting a baby blanket. It's a fun project. I really hope the recipient loves it.


That's 27 of 143 squares done.....plus sewing them all together and weaving in what will be 572 ends. It goes quickly though. I'm hoping to finish it this month (errr, I mean January!) IF I don't get sidetracked by other projects.