The Catch-up in pictures (and words)

***first a quick random item: sometimes when I sit down to my laptop at my desk (which also doubles as my sewing table) I look under the table, feeling with my foot for the sewing machine pedal--as if I need to use it, in order to make my laptop work....odd, I know.**

Well, we've returned from the holidays feeling about as stuffed and satisfied as these little cheeks are with fluffy, white marshmallows. The girls never recovered in time from their colds, and in all reality were probably at their worst while we were away. But we still managed to leave with the full, satisfied feeling after a good weekend with family.

Emma quietly summed up our car ride to my mom's house in her notebook:

"Daddy crying because he can't find a place to get a cup of coffee."
(it made for a high-stress first hour of our roadtrip)

"Daddy happy because he finally found a cup of coffee at the gas station."
(But a very BAD cup of coffee.)

Meanwhile she also left this note for us when we got home.

For those of you who need a translation (like her own mother did)--the sign says, "BUY GOLDFISH". I guessed it was a stove and a fish, but silly me, ha!--it's a cash register and a goldfish! Isn't it funny how even her images for the two words are drawn backwards-with the cash register (buy) on the right, and the fish (goldfish) on the left--just like we all discussed at the end of this post.
She's been hounding us about this for weeks, and I imagine Santa will get involved.

The background of this picture is part of my next project. But instead of writing a giant post today, I'll save that for tomorrow.
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and you're joyously looking forward to the holidays ahead. I'm feeling very inspired by yesterday's Pay-It-Forward show on Oprah and a short little snippet I read in a magazine about a women who sewed tote bags and filled them with toiletries for women in her local homeless shelter. Yesterday was the first time I have made it through an entire oprah show in a long time. I couldn't peel myself away from all the inspiring acts of generousity. Then a quick trip to target this morning brought all of that consumer-driven, spending-overload smack in my face. I really want to find a way to bring  that spirit of  giving, generosity, and love into our holiday, especially for my children.