Posted in The Daily Grind

Good Morning, everyone!  Please excuse my post title; I think that Bethany is influencing my style somewhat.  I always enjoy reading her titles, and felt the spirit move me today.  *grin*

I hope this finds you all well and enjoying what's left of January.  I truly am appalled to realize that it's been THREE WEEKS since I've last visited HSB, but when you're done reading my 'little' recap, you'll see why.  Oh, how I have missed you all!!  I'm so relieved to be getting back into our routine and entering a 'slower' period.  *sigh*  This feels like the first time I've had to breathe in months.

Of course the holidays have come and gone, as has the sickness that compounded that time of year.  In spite of the stomach flu, we enjoyed a lovely Christmas.  Here are a couple of photos from that time:

After Christmas, New Year's, and Epiphany, we celebrated our anniversary and then my mother's birthday.  Each year for the last 3 years the boys have gotten up early, dressed appropriately (kilts), and then we head over to my parents' first thing in the morning whereupon the boys pipe and dance for Grandma.  The first year they were living in an RV park, so we parked up the street and Piper played 'Amazing Grace' (her favorite) as he followed Jigger to their site.  Last year they were out and about too early, so we tracked them down in a strip mall (*grin*) where the family business is located and they performed on the sidewalk.  Brought everyone out that day; Piper still regrets not putting out a tip jar.  Ü  This year, Mom and Dad have been building a house and are staying on the property in their motorhome, so Piper played/blessed the new home with 'Amazing Grace' while Jigger danced on the expansive front tile porch.  It was fantastic.

After my mom's birthday, we had Jigger's school's Feis (Irish dance competition).  Several are held in each city throughout the year, and a different dance school sponsors each one.  January is our school's, and I happened to wind up as a co-chair for the Raffle table this year.  Not quite sure how that happened.  (still scratching head)  It is a three-day event for volunteers, so Friday found hubby and the boys assembling stages, Saturday a.m. found me and boys rising at 5 and heading out the door at 6.30 a.m.  Piper opened the event, and we manned the raffle table all day.

At noon, Piper headed across the street to a Multi-Cultural Festival that was going on, where he escorted the mayor along with a couple of dancers from our school as the mayor walked about welcoming people from stage to stage.  We continued to run the raffle table for the remainder of the afternoon, and Piper closed the event for them once again.  He had the crowd on their feet clapping in time to the music with a Polish polka on his Scottish Highland bagpipes at an Irish Feis.  Multi-cultural, indeed.  *grin*

Sunday found us arriving back at the feis at 7.45 a.m., whereupon Piper tuned up once again to open the second day of competition.  Jigger stretched out and then began running through his dances.  His first two were ceili (kay-lee) dances, which are group dances.  His 4-hand (4 dancers) took second, and his 8-hand took first.  (I don't normally post pictures of other people's children, but I can't resist today- I want you to see how cute his 8-hand team was.)

He then went on to compete in 6 solo dances, and we were so pleased with his results.  He did a fantastic job!  Piper and Jigger did us proud that weekend, and the raffle table brought in around $700, so a good weekend was had by all.

After clean-up on Sunday and stages were disassembled and back on their way to storage, we headed home at 6 p.m., more than ready to put the weekend behind us.  It was a bittersweet weekend, as Jigger has decided to put up his dance shoes indefinitely.  He's burned out, and after dancing for almost four years straight, he's ready to take a breather.  This has been a long time in coming, and while the decision was an extremely painful one for him to make, he's happy with his decision.  Should he want to go back, the door is open, but I'm not sure I see that happening.  I do see him finding the joy in the dance again, though, which is something the fierce competition killed, so all is right with the world.

After the feis, exhaustion and more illness set in.  We sped our recovery along with an herbal concoction, which I will share with you next week, for we were headed out of town last Friday and wanted to be healthy.  We headed up north for my birthday weekend, and stayed in a B&B.  We had such a wonderful weekend!  The town we stayed in is at about 6300', with our sledding taking place at about 7200'.  The snow and grey skies were beautiful, and it really hit home how much we miss and need the four seasons.

On Friday we took the boys sledding, and of course a Snow War erupted!  Everyone had a ball (pun intended, of course :).

During our visit, we took a walk in a city park for a very brief time, lol, for it was coooold!!  I got some great photos, though.

So, as you can see, things around here have been crazier than usual.  I'm so relieved to say that it looks like we are done with the chaos and can get back to our quiet routine.  We began doing just that yesterday, and I can't tell you how at-peace I feel.  Aaaahhh...  *grin*  Plus, now that we have fixed our computer (yay!), I can visit everyone much more often now!  I have posts lined up for every day this week, and have begun thinking about next week as well.  I have so missed my fellow blogging mothers!!!!  I'm so glad to be back!  Now, I'm going to grab a cup of coffee and a cranberry muffin and come visit you all.