Harmony and Havoc: A whole lotta catch-up (ketchup?)

I've neglected my poor little blog. Here are a few highlights from the month of December.

Earlier in the month, Zoe and Ethan got to go to Winter Formal. Yes, Ethan is only 14, and every year we debate about what to do with these dances. We finally decided that a) since we live in a small community and there are no church dances, and b) that the kids go in big groups of friends and not alone, we're OK with it. And in small-town fashion, there are hordes of parents there to supervise (gawk?) and it's really not at all the same as the formal dances I went to as a teen. Anyway, maybe we're rationalizing, but that's our position - for the moment.

Also very exciting has been the progress on our kitchen this month. We now have the cabinets, fridge, freezer and microwave drawer installed on the west wall of our kitchen, and the hutch is mostly in in the dining room. I feel like we may finally finish! The hutch was rebuilt using our original blueprints, although originally there were two hutches. Ours is also taller than the original, but otherwise very similar. I'm excited to get it stained and get the glass and hardware installed.

One of the 1910 hutches

The new single hutch

That's what nearly 10 foot tall cabinets look like!

Our microwave drawer can heat up 4 plates of food at once! A dream for me!

Then came all the Christmas programs and concerts - 5 of them to be precise. Unfortunately, the pictures from the older kids' events aren't that great because all I had was my iPhone. I also spent most of the time recording and didn't take many pictures. I wish I would have! At least we have the videos.