Christmas in February???

On Monday I mailed out my last Christmas present. I'm hoping my very late gift will bring my friends a little bit of joy in this long, gray time of the year. That got me thinking about Christmas in general and how I needed to finish up the last lingering tasks of putting 2011 to bed.

The most pressing was my tree-skirt... I know, you probably thought something actually pressing like taxes but I hate messes, clutter and piles and I had put my tree skirt, in a messy pile of clutter behind my couch to force me into updating it.

If you recall, last year I made a mixed-media photo tree skirt with the intention being to add new photos and journalling each year. Yeah... good in theory but in practice I'm never feeling christmasy after christmas and I'm usually too busy beforehand.

So today - well into the month of February - I finally finished up my 2011 additions.

This year I ironed white muslin onto the shiny side of freezer paper, cut it to 8.5x11 and ran it through my printer. It was so much less expensive.

Chris did triathlons.

We went to DisneyWorld

Avery and Brayden made it onto swim team and compete in meets.

Trenton started at OHSU (an online charter school). 

He has since returned to full-time homeschool as he needed more challenging work than public school provided...even honors. 

Chris and I did a half-marathon and we made the dog wear antlers this Christmas.

We became US citizens.

Trenton started volunteering twice a week at the library.

This is Eetr. He's a character that my boys created who has a rich and twisted mythology. He continues to be a big part of their day - specifically their storytelling an art. Had to include him.

And here's an action shot :-)