Wishing you and yours a very wonderful holiday!!
(See the Monkey Family cards of past here.)

Happy Winter Solstice to you!

The gingerbread house is done.

Cookie production is in full swing.

The last candle on our Advent wreath was lit tonight.
And the temperature is dropping, finally!
A wonderful, beautiful, cozy Sunday spent at home.

When I was pregnant with The Girl, I bought this wooden doll cradle at the Goodwill for $5, because I was so convinced that she was a girl.  This month, I finally pulled it out of storage and it was a mess.  It had nails sticking out of it, and it was spotted with [...]

::the beautiful straw ornaments a friend brought back from Finland years ago.

::the winterland scene that is too high for little hands to reach.  Made up of felt trees, a piece of muslin, a string of lights, handmade snowmen, a thrifted deer, pine cone elves and our Advent calendar.

::the pine cone elves The Bird and I [...]

I made these for the kids’ Advent calendar.

A star for The Boy.

A heart for The Girl.

One day, The Boy saw me drawing in my sketchbook.  When he found out I was drawing ideas for toys I had, he said, “You can make TOYS?!” When I told him that indeed I could, he asked for a cat for Christmas.
The “fabric” is a thriftshop wool sweater that I felted (washed and dried [...]