Listening to the Quiet

It's after 10pm here and the house feels larger but emptier now. For the last couple of days we've had 5 adults, 2 dogs and a baby in the place and it's been noisy and chaotic and fun.

Wed. afternoon, J-Man woke me to tell me I was being put on call and didn't have to get up yet. Good thing, as my alarm had been buzzing for 20 minutes and I hadn't heard a thing. But then DD came in about 15 minutes later, and I was too excited to go back to sleep. Isabella had to model her new Christmas sweater:

After supper, J-Man went to bed and DD and I participated in a long-standing Christmas Eve tradition: wrapping presents. I had more to do than she, so I was up til 1am before collapsing into bed, still not finished.

The phone rang at 2am. Of course. I got called in.
As it turns out, 2 of the 3 admissions ER was promising us were cancelled, so they really could have made it without me, but who knew? So I finished wrapping when I got home and then we unwrapped them all again 5 hours later.

Tandi got yet another ball, and guarded it carefully, unwilling to share more with Isabella than she had to:

She didn't like sharing her moose either:


J-Man and I went a little overboard on DD this year, but when you only have one, and she's working her heart out--that's what you do.

We tried for a low-clutter Christmas this year, since she is in such a tiny apartment. Beside gift cards, and a few wearables, we bought her a Kindle from Amazon so she can read to her heart's content without trying to find more room to store books. She was totally surprised and thrilled.

DD and J-Man conspired and bought me a purple iPod with my name engraved on it! Now, I'm sure most of you are yawning over this one, but, unlike J-Man, I'm not constantly panting after the newest electronic toys. (Remember the 20-yr-old Bernina? And the 8-yr-old computer we finally replaced?) But it's been fun trying to figure it out, and in a week I'm sure I'll be wondering how I ever did without one!

That night and the next morning I busted my butt cleaning out the sewing room for brother and his wife--and their 8-month-old grandson. He was such a hoot! He loved Isabella--thought she might be good enough to eat:

Looks mighty pleased with himself, doesn't he?


Isabella had to howl about it, egged on by my SIL, of course:


This little man only took power naps--20-30 minute sleeps and that was after fighting it for at least 15 minutes. But he was so good-natured you couldn't be upset with him.

Do you think the grandparents doted on him just a bit?




Then again, so did DD; after all, they have practically the same color hair:


We ate, we laughed, we shopped a little, we ate some more, we played with the baby and pulled the dogs apart when jealousy got the best of them, and now it's all over til next year.

I pulled out the 11 quilting magazines I haven't had time to read yet, but didn't even thumb through them. It's awfully quiet here now. I think I can hear my thoughts echoing.

There'll be time enough to put the rooms back together later. For now, I want to remember these past few days.

Sleep tight tonight, baby boy.