Around here...

 We've enjoyed some quiet, family-filled days around here this week.  

Christmas vacation has afforded us a lot of togetherness and catching up...{much to a certain 14yr-old-who-would-much-rather-spend-24/7-with-her-friend's dismay}

The days leading up to Christmas included a lot of this

{Dark chocolate-covered pb filled Ritz and Mint chocolate covered Oreos}

{Dark Chocolate covered pretzels}

 {Packaged and ready to be delivered}

We hosted an UGLY sweater party here last week.  

 {My UGLY sweater...}

I remember a time when wearing an UGLY sweater was humiliating...

now it seems the uglier the better!

The kids and I buy an ornament every year that has something to do with a big event that has occured throughout the year.  We have houses, cars, pets, words of expression, etc....

We took a vote on whether we should buy another little house ornament or a raccoon,

 in honor of these guys

 who have taken to entertaining themselves in the walls of our house for the last few MONTHS.

It was unanimous...

Although it is not the cutest ornament on our tree, 

it probably holds the most memory of all of them!

 Unbeknownst to my mom...she purchased the same one for us 

and now there are two. 

 Ironic.

By far, the best day we've had this week was Christmas Eve.  We don't have the typical set-up for celebrating Christmas...what with the kids celebrating at home and with their dad, too....but we've found our own traditions that seems to work for us and we make the best of whatever we need to.  This year we had an unexpected surprise of spending all of Christmas Eve Day together...and maybe because it was unexpected, it was even sweeter.

We spent a little time doing this...

 And eating some of this...

We did gift-giving a little different this year...

and it was perfect...

The kids bought me the sweetest little cupcake pedestal...

Look how sweet the box is, too!  

But, by far, the best gift of the year came from my daughter and looks something like this...

It's been displayed on the front of the tree ever since...

and will quite possibly be varnished, framed or bronzed when the tree is taken down.

She knows my love language is words of affirmation...

and the fact that hers is NOT

 made this piece of paper all the more to be treasured!

There are many more days this week together and I'm going to go out on a limb and just 

assume that they won't all be warm and fuzzy...

by next Monday I'm guessing we'll all be ready for school to start up again.

Until then, I'm treasuring the sight of all my children under the same roof

and the sound of all of them talking at the same time.

There'll be time enough for QUIET when our routine has resumed...

"The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I 

have passed at home in the bosom of my family."

Thomas Jefferson