Look at these two guys, will you?  They were up until 4am building this table for this sewing machine.

Beautiful, isn't it?  It did, of course, require the purchase of a jigsaw.  Oh, the possibilities!

And the machine is fully functional.  Joseph can treadle "full speed ahead."  He is here practicing without thread to perfect his technique.  Later in the week, he broke the needle, so they all get to perfect their technique now.  :)  They have discovered that sewing with very small stitches will actually cut paper.

 We went up to Lebanon and got a Christmas tree Thanksgiving weekend.  Of course, once you have a tree, you must put up all the decorations.  And, naturally, Santa hats are required apparel. 

Ah, the baby and the Christmas Tree.  What you can't see too well in this picture is the printer.  It is behind the curtain.  He would poke at the printer for a few minutes, then turn and play with the Christmas Tree.  When he tired of that, he would return to the printer.  Great game.  Lots of variety and he never had to move!

Now, in other areas...

Lil'Nathan got into trouble the other night at the dinner table.  I tried first to sit him on my lap.  He wiggled too much.  So I held him tightly.  He continued to wiggle.  I continued to hold.  This is how he wound up.  The more he fought, the more tangled he became.  So I gave him a big sloppy kiss and informed him that his mother is every bit as stubborn as he is.  

We had our craft fair yesterday.  The kids were all good!  (The play corner with a train table and a keyboard and Lil'People was a gift from Heaven!)  Profit wise, we did much better than last year. We sold one tag blanket, two burpees, 3 pocket toys, and 19 dolls.  Two more pocket toys we traded:  one for 3 wooden cars, and one for a little fairy.  We also traded 2 dolls for a bar of citrus soap (which I can't wait to smell once my head cold is gone).  Lil'Nathan sold balloon animals and made $15!  Such a giddy kid all the way home!  He used $5 of that to buy himself a peg-jumping game, made by the same boy who made the aforementioned wooden cars.  We saw a go-fish game and now know how to make one for Joseph's Xmas gift.  And Daddy got to listen some bagpipes.  All in all, a very good day.

Okay, Charlie is having fits right now.  Shall we end with Joseph and his pig?  Very serious art, don't you think?