December 31st recap

We packed the last day of 2009 full of… PEOPLE!  It was a wonderful day, full of connecting with people that we love.

My friend Emily was in town and made time in her vacation to visit us.


She brought her three adorable children.  The boys had fun with the Wii, and we all made some miniature gingerbread houses.










I couldn’t get a smile out of her little one, but she is SOOOO cute!






It was the sort of visit that I love cleaning up after.


The early afternoon brought the wedding reception for a friend of mine who I really admire.  (forgot the camera) A small break in the day’s schedule gave me time to savor our greatest blessing of 2009:




She’s been with us for 4.5 months, and I don’t know what I’d do without her.




She absolutely melts my heart.




We had dinner reservations with 5 other couples at Rodizio Grill, which meant lots of great visiting and getting to know a few people better.  (forgot the camera again) We raced home after dinner for a game night with my brother, his wife and baby, and my sister and her husband.  We played a fun game, ate too many snacks and treats, and counted down the end of the year together.


The kids loved the sparklers their aunt and uncle provided, and then we all headed for bed.


I had a lot of things that I was going to do this year, and  a few things I intended to wrap up before it ended, but I think that it’s probably best that instead I spent it with people, building relationships, enjoying family.  In the end, that’s all that really matters, anyway.  It was a great way to wish 2009 goodbye.

Vintage Blocks

It’s been snowing for 36 hours straight.  I’ve been doing laundry for 36 hours straight.  Okay, I slept for 6 hours last night, but it really is all I’ve done for two days now and guess what?  I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface!  Seriously, there are a lot of dirty clothes in this house!

Rather than feel discouraged about how much more there is to do, I’m taking a break to post about the neatest thing that I found at an antiques store early in December.

It was this set of 5 vintage blocks.


Aren’t they neat!  They are all free-standing,from 7.5 to 8.5 inches tall.

We have a mailman, a conductor, a milkman (he actually looks rather boyish), a policeman, and a fireman.


Guess what else?  They have backs!


How cool is that?!?  You could build a whole room’s decor around these guys.

I have never seen anything like this.  I am so curious about who made them, how old they are, etc.  Wouldn’t it be fun to  have a whole set of them?  Or a family?  Talk about durable!  My little ones would play with them a ton.  In fact, they will play with them a ton as soon as I’m ready to surrender them to the large bucket of blocks that we keep in our family room.  For now, they’re standing at attention on the bookshelf in my office, just because I like them so much.


If you’ve ever seen anything like them, PLEEEASE tell me what you know about them!  I’d love to find more!

For now, it’s back to the laundry room for me.  I hope you’re doing something much more fun!

Hopeful Homemaker

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