january days

Lex was enjoying one of the last popcorn balls Grandma made us for Christmas. . . while making donuts. He loves his sweets.

So I think we're pretty much in the middle of winter now.

The cold, dreary span of January and February is often my least favorite time of the year. I love a month or two of winter, but I prefer that it start around mid-November.

I'm about over the cold by the end of January. I'm not ready to skip to summer or anything and I still like the big fluffy snow when we get it, but too often it seems like the months are a lot of darkness and working and frozen things and bad roads and not a lot of gathering or celebrations to look forward to.

We still find ways to enjoy the days. As I was looking through this collection of pictures from the last few weeks it seemed we mainly do that with food, weapons, and sporatic near-nudity, but I'm sure there are other things as well.

Like mustaches. . .



And playing in the snow (in the near-nude, with a mustache. . .)

And some reading and drawing and writing. Lex is actually getting pretty good at writing.

And he's getting better at shooting. He is a multi-talented guy.

The kids used their gingerbread houses as targets. I think that was the symbolic end to the holiday season.

Instagram. . .

One thing I have been loving about winter lately is the beautiful pastel sunsets. . . or that hour right before sunset. Some days it really seems magical.

And we've had lots of time with cousins:

Hot chocolate & fresh banana bread. . .

Hot tubing. . .

Some more sledding now that we finally got some good snow. . .

It's not too bad really, this winter thing. I'm pretty sure I still like it better than that middle of the summer heat. (Unless I can just spend the summer at the lake instead of working. . .  or I get the AC fixed in my car or house or at least one place I can escape to. . . then summer might pull ahead. )