January Has Arrived, Ready or Not

My brother and his family came to visit us during the day on New Year's Eve.  We took the opportunity to get a group shot since we had not taken one for a while.  Sitting on the couch in the back from left to right are my three nephews, my two nieces, my sons, and my son's girlfriend.

In the front, sitting on the floor is my brother, me holding Max the poodle dog, and my husband.  My sister-in-law is sitting on the chair at the far right side.  It was a fun day, and it was so nice to have the chance to see them all.  

(Max the poodle dog is giving my brother a stink eye look because just before the picture was snapped, my brother was teasing Max a little bit.  Max thinks it is necessary to protect me from everyone, even family members.  He will sit in my lap and growl at anyone who comes too close--doing his job to keep me safe--haha!  My brother who knows this and finds it amusing, will come closer and closer to me intentionally trying to rile up the dog.  Max was having none of it and feeling quite fierce on this particular day.  My brother, of course, was not the least bit afraid of Max which infuriated Max all the more!)


This next picture is of just the "kids."  I have to use the term "kids" loosely, I suppose.  Actually, five of the eight are over 18 years old.  Two more will be 18 within just a few months. The youngest is 16.  So, although they will all always be "kids" to me, they are almost all adults.

           1              2                 3                    4                   5


I dug up this old picture of my nephews and nieces from a few years ago just for fun.  I numbered under both pictures so you could tell who is who.  

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Some place I have a picture with all seven kids--my two boys and my brother's five children--sitting lined up on a couch when they were all babies and toddlers even younger than they are in the picture above.  I looked but didn't find that picture this morning.  It is not one I have in my computer files, which means it is tucked away in a photo album somewhere.  I didn't want to take the time to go and find it for this post, so I thought I'd post the one of just my brother's children instead.


We had a nice visit.  Although we got together on New Year's Eve day, we were actually celebrating a belated Christmas gift exchange.  I made a big lunch for all of us including turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, dinner rolls, corn casserole, broccoli stuffing, and pineapple mandarin salad.  For dessert we had apple crumb pie, pumpkin pie, and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  I didn't take pictures of the food, but it was well appreciated.  The pies were store-bought rather than homemade to save myself some time and effort.


Although Christmas was sunny and without snow,  snow has returned here.  I wanted to post the next photos for Rad, who is a new visitor to my blog.  He was wishing for snow, so I thought he might like to see these photos.  This is how it looked when I first got up this morning.  This was the view out the front picture window looking at my front yard and our street.

This was the view a little later this morning out that same window looking the other way down our street.

To get ready to go outside, I bundled up in a sweater, sweatshirt, and puffy winter coat so that I looked a little like the Michelin tire man... 

and felt a bit like Randy from the movie "A Christmas Story."

(Also Rad, I hope you will notice I am wearing my new scarf I told you about.  I tied it in the second style you showed on your video because I like to keep things very simple.  haha!  Generally, I am not a big fan of scarves because I don't like the way they feel tied around my neck, but I thought I'd give it a try.  My hat and mittens will go on yet, too, before I head out doors.)

Are you wondering why I needed to be so bundled up?  Well, because it has begun to snow again.  This is how it looks outside my front window right now with the wind blowing and the snow coming down fast and furious.

This is the view from my side window.   January is definitely here and announcing its presence quite clearly, whether I'm ready for it to be here or not.