I don't know what it is about Tuesdays lately, but I spent the entire day yesterday in bed. Not all of it sleeping, I got through an entire book, but I was just so exhausted.

I had a really nice Christmas. It was awesome having the whole family together, although I never did see the video of Emily suprising Mom. I hear there was some hiding and quite a few tears, though. I left my camera at home [doh!], so I'm depending on others for my pictures.

I made figgy pudding Friday from a recipe I heard on NPR. It was really good, like fruitcake, only less dense. Mom hates dried fruit, so she only tried a little of the cake part and gave me this compliment: "I think it would be delicious if I liked it." Dad ate most of it, and I got quite a few compliments. It might become a tradition, especially since it means Mom won't have to make fruitcake any more.


(credit: Emily)

Saturday was Ervin family Christmas, and Sunday and Monday were mostly lazing around, I think. Christmas Eve was at Uncle Tim and Aunt Joyce's this year, since Grandma is having some health problems right now, and wasn't feeling up to it. (We're hoping this month's surgery will solve her most serious problem.) We took time out for a family portrait in our nice clothes.


Matt, Em, Mom, Me, Lew, Dad (credit: Mom's camera)

Christmas morning is present opening for us. We've been recording these since 1987, when we borrowed Uncle Jerry's big old camera. I know this only because after we'd finished opening presents, we watched that first one. I was nine, Em was five, and Lew was not quite three. I was already in my awkward stage (horrible home-cut bangs, huge pink 80's glasses), and Em and Lew were cute. It also had Ervin Christmas on it (where I was not quite so alone with the awkwardness), and there were more than a few tears when Grandpa appeared on the screen.

We've gone digital now, but some things require low-tech solutions. Lew's yard stick extends the boom.


(credit: Mom)

We also battled the weather. There was that big ice storm on the 11th that started it all, and we've had two feet of snow since. The last storm was right when we were trying to send Em and Matt off. They were to leave the day before the storm hit us, but their plane was coming in from Denver, which already had the storm, so it was late and they would have missed their connecting flight to Anchorage. They ended up leaving a day late, but an entire day in airports got them home.

I have to get some work done today, so I'll leave you with an Iowa winter:

(credit: Mom)