Kicking Off the New Year

Celebrating Grandpa's birthday on New Year's Day with his dessert of choice: homemade key lime pie.  Jack must have blinked just as I was taking the picture, ha!

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While we often think of winter here in Michigan as being cold, blustery and full of snow, this winter has been quite mild so far.  We have still taken advantage of the warmer indoors to work on Legos and puzzles.  

I love being able to set up a card table in any random place in the house and have a puzzle going for anyone that wants to stop by and put a few pieces in.  

 

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We often have a wood fire going in fireplace in our back family room and Steve surprised the boys by offering to let them roast their hotdogs in it one night.

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The local American Legion, which Steve and I are both members of, hosts an Annual Squirrel and Rabbit Hunt each year in January.  The boys both participated this year and were happy to be able to turn in some squirrels to earn tickets toward prizes.  

Even Sam joined in and helped add to the collection.

Steve and the boys originally had other plans to stay overnight in a neighbor's hunting cabin and begin hunting early the morning of the event and then head back to our woods and finish in the afternoon.  But, with the impending snowstorm -- you can tell that it was definitely snowing hard in this picture with Steve -- they changed their minds and chose to stay home and hunt here.  It was a good choice because the storm knocked out the power for a few hours.  Thank goodness for a generator and a crockpot of chili going in the fire-heated garage to keep everyone dry and warm.

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Sam invited one of her best friends, Lillian, to come over and hang out.  I hope that the kids never get tired of building snowmen in the front yard!

Jimmy set to work making his own snowman farther away from the girls.  It was definitely great 'packing' snow.

Even Jack and Sophia joined in on the fun!

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Another winter-day activity: drawing and coloring with his art set.  Sometimes I draw the pictures for him, but lately, he has been doing most of the drawing himself and I love seeing his budding artistic side.

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