if I have any readers left

I have a file full of blog posts started, but not finished.

We have cruised through the Christmas break, not stopping or even slowing down as the new year passed us by like every other moment in time.

My poor blog has been virtually ignored for a few weeks, which is hilarious for two main reasons:

1.  This girl loves to write.
2.  I included my blog address in my Christmas cards this year, so any new readers that checked in here were bored silly.

So, here is my short novel to covered the omitted history:

Chapter One:
We had an awesome visit with my sister Amy and her family, as well as my mom.  It is tradition that we travel to them every summer and they travel to us every winter.  The boys love hanging with their cousins and Aunt Amy makes them laugh so hard.

Plus they give cooler presents than Mom and Dad do.

Not to mention the little ones get to go wild and crazy.

 

 

We did a little skiing, a little tubing, a little eating, gaming, bargain shopping, and a lot of laughing.

 

 

Plus, their family brought so many wi-fi gadgets that they crashed our router about 437 times in five days.

 

 

 

For the second year in a row, their trip coincided with Rufus's holiday preschool program.  Here's a snapshot of his five year old cuteness:

Chapter Two:
Family leaves and I spend seven hours getting intimately acquainted with an 1100+ piece Republic Attack Cruiser.

I would never admit that I had several extra pieces when I was done.  Or the height of my frustration when the boys picked it up the next morning and several miscellaneous pieces popped off.

Chapter Three:
We had a wonderful Christmas.  Presents all around!

Chapter Four:
New Year's Eve poker game until 4:15 a.m.  Ouch.

The silver lining was that the Sweeney's kept all the cash when everyone went home.

Pete was not happy about that:

Neither was Rob:

This crazy hat indicated who was the dealer and it made us all laugh:

Our friends David and Darcy joined our Park City gang and tried their hand at poker. 

They claimed that it was their very first time, but we were all quite suspicious when David won the battle to the death against Christa.

Here is a peek at the action at the table.

David arrived cash-less, so Kenyon and I paid his mighty $5 buy-in at the table.  He then insisted that I keep his winnings.  That's pretty much how generous he and his family are.

I'll still think twice before sitting down at cards with him again!  I think his quick study took everyone by surprise.

The End.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.

p.s. might you leave a comment and let me know you're still out there?