Us Right Now & Weekly Update – December 31

jake
This was a quiet week for all of us. Even for Jake. After a leisurely Christmas and day after, he only went to work for about a day and a half this whole week. It was such a joy and pleasure to have him around all week. The kids didn’t want to leave his side and I got to have snuggle time with him every day. He even got to play some video games and enjoy his new computer. We’re all calm and rested as we welcome the new year.

karen
I had a lovely week. I had originally planned to work one or two days this week but at the last minute just decided to take the whole thing off. I wanted to rest and be with my family and really take some considerable down time before the craziness of January set in. My work is about to get extra-hectic so I figured I should get some rest while I can. And I am so glad I did. It was a week of snuggling, doing art, reading, laughing, and simply enjoying out lives together. I am deeply grateful for 2011 and ready to tackle 2012 with open arms.

david
David also had a great week. He got the most toys for Christmas and set to build his lego sets immediately. There were a few sets and it took him two days to finish everything. All, Lego Star Wars, of course. He then read his books and started writing in his notebooks. He also used the watercolor paper and waterbrush this week. He even got to sort a lot of legos using his advent calendar plastic. I don’t know if he’s ready to go back to school yet but he certainly had a lovely time off.

nathaniel
It didn’t take much for Nathaniel to get into the Christmas spirit. When he realized he could finally open the presents that had been sitting under the tree for weeks, he was super-thrilled. He opened each gift with great abandon and spent time playing with the toys as the rest of us took our turns. Each time it was his turn, he was thrilled all over again and overjoyed to get yet another present. I think this was a lovely one for the little boy.

Here are some of my favorite captured moments from the last week of 2011:

opening the first presents of Christmas on the eve:

Christmas morning breakfast:

stocking fun for the little one:

and stocking fun for the big one:

opening presents:

playing with new toys:

building legos. there was a lot of building legos this year:

I got Nathaniel some I Spy books and they immediately became his favorite:

playing choo-choo with Daddy.

I love all the expressions he makes:

David finally finished his awesome lego, He did it all by himself:

another fun Nathaniel expression. David reading wikipedia and Nathaniel getting upset cause David won’t lookup trucks:

finally settling down and leaving David alone:

putting together one of the Star Wars models Daddy got David.

despite his expression this is David working on his Book of Good Memories.

coloring with his new waterbrush and paper.

reading another new Christmas present with Daddy. This year, I went to a local library sale and got a lot of great books for $1-2 each. This wonderful book was $3. They made for some wonderful presents for both kids.

Nathaniel loved his legos, too. He got some lego cars.

giving mommy a smile.

my amazing boy and his stunning eyes.

we used the plastic from the lego advent calendar to store sorted legos. I used Nathaniel’s to store my art supplies.

Friday there was some Wii-playing. Despite what this might look like, Nathaniel’s remote didn’t even have batteries in it.

“big tower, take picture” he told me. So I did. Then as I snapped, he decided it was an airplane and made some airplane noises.

today was family photos. Nathaniel insisted on sitting on daddy so we compromised on his sitting on David.

which David loved (but my depth of field didn’t.)

and here we go. Another week gone. Another year gone.

Thank you for coming here and supporting me. Thank you for being a part of my journey and sharing yours with me. I have so much gratitude for this past year. And I welcome 2012 with open arms. Wishing and hoping for a wonderful year and the mindfulness to savor it fully.

Happy 2012 everyone!!

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Us Right Now is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.