The Discipline of Passion

30 December 2012

A friend introduced me to the concept of picking a word for the next year.

Today I figured out the word I want to focus on.

Once I had that in mind, I put together a little something to hang on the bedroom wall - where I'll see it first thing every day.

I combined my word with ideas I have about what I want this year to look like. I also left some room so I can add more thoughts later.

This is what you will usually see when Kim is home.

And often, I'll be playing with him. But I'm not nearly as good as he is.

My strategy skills are in need of much assistance.

Thankfully, Kim is pretty good at helping me out.

After a series of late nights this week, the kids were exhausted.

We let them sleep where they'd crashed on the couch last night.

And, yes, Yonah is underneath the red blanket.

Goofy boy.

When Arabelle and Lila aren't at each other's throats, they really are the sweetest little sisters you've ever seen.

It snowed a bit through the night.

I was thinking we were going to play in the snow today . . .

But it didn't happen. The kids were too busy trying to kill each other over their new things.

Nap cured the bad attitudes.

But thanks to their initial refusal to go to sleep, the sun was setting when they finally woke up.

No snow for us today.

Instead, we fought over and played with Christmas toys.

And Lila started rearranging the candy on her gingerbread house.

It seems that everything gets more fun as the kids get older.

Christmas especially.

We started the day yesterday by opening our family's presents.

It just doesn't seem right to go without opening some presents at home, and we figured we'd be too tired to do it Christmas evening.

(We were right.)

As sweet and special as that time was, my favorite picture-worthy moment came last night.

Gammy was coerced by toddler charm into painting Lila's toenails.

She sat as still as a toddler can possibly sit.

It was so adorable.