Traditions can conjure feelings of connectedness, honor, a deep sense of value among other things. These abstract concepts were greatly appreciated by myself as I spent time with my kids printing pictures that I had carved on a linoleum block from drawings that they came up with specifically for the project. I have been printing my own Christmas cards for 10 years and this was the first with my children. They were fully engaged and thoroughly enjoying the whole printing process and the results of their work. It was a lot of work, being in three places at once, but the joy was quite satisfactory. I was full of it.

I finally got around to sorting through the pictures from Corwin’s Den outing on the 8th. I threw together a photoBlog of them and setup a Shutterfly Share Site for people to grab them.

Cynthia’s sister is in town this weekend. They got to spend to spend some time together spending the day at some art craft fair. I got to spend some play time with the kids. I don’t know how she got up the energy, but after walking around for hours, she stopped by the house and took the kids to the mall so they could see their aunt and get out of the house for a while.

After watching cartoons, playing Trouble, making lunch, reading (both me to them and them to me), and a movie, I was rather spent and took the opportunity for a nap to recover. I am betting the kids will be quite tired when they get home. I may have to break out my ‘Daddy Magic’ and see if I can carry them from the van to bed without waking them. I seem to have better luck attempting that maneuver than Cynthia does

The over-tired glossy-eyed look they can get after a late night out really brings me a warm feeling. I can’t wait for them to get home.