dripping with passion

  i kind of feel like holidays are slipping through my fingers lately. over and over i have to remind myself that it's okay that i often feel like i am in total survival mode - that's just how it's gonna go during these years with small children. as someone who loves  heartily celebrating holidays, i always want to make each one really special for our little family. but in my current chapter of life those holidays just keep coming and going so fast amidst all the action and wonder of our everyday! i've always adored valentine's day, because what is more worthy of celebration than love ? i sure appreciate romantic love, but there are so many other brands of love that make life so rich as well. so i made sure that we had some good valentine's day celebrating around here no matter what! we had a special family home evening on the 13th february - moses helped me make our traditional heart-shaped cinnamon rolls and when daddy got home we did a "heart attack...

our christmas 2018 was so, so, so merry. we kept things simple and expectations low given that gabriel and i landed in london after a transatlantic red-eye flight on the morning of christmas eve. and the 24th, 25th, and 26th of december were just the sweetest, happiest days, full of excitement and magic and love for baby jesus and each other. on christmas eve we had our traditional "jerusalem supper" (the recipes i use each year are here and we love  them) and talked about the nativity story. then we got the boys dressed in their matching christmas pajamas!   we got to take a bunch of food, treats and presents to the hospital near our home to act as "santa's helpers" for a family that we have become friends with that has struggled over the past few months with significant health issues. the boys were pretty excited to be dressed as "elves" - ian even gelled their hair into what he dubbed "elf hairdos." here's some attempts at a cute ...