I have been loving this Christmas!  Vince has time off he has to use and we are home together as a family.  I don't remember the last time we could just relax and just enjoy our family at home.  Delightful!

The only thing I really haven't been able to do is take the kids sledding.  Where is the snow?!!

This past week I also made bedroom curtains, restained my nightstands, painted a wall in my bedroom and redecorated it.  I use the term redecorate fairly loosely (I'm still developing decorating skills).  I know--I need to have Eva take pictures and post them here.  But I'm not finished yet!

I know that the 23rd of Christmas is an odd time of year to be making curtains but on the night of the 22nd a neighbor stopped by to warn us of a possible peeping Tom so we decided to take immediate precautions.  We had window coverings but to be safe decided to improve them.  Of course, once the curtains were finished there were other obvious things that needed improving.

Last night, warned by yet other neighbors who were helping to watch over us we caught our guy.  He was caught laying down on the ground by my girls' windows.  Vince stood outside with him and a neighbor while I called the police.  Vince wrote a statement and the young man was taken away.  It is a sad story.  I feel grateful that we are cared for and protected and yet concerned at what this could become.  I also feel sorrowful for his parents.  When they were cuffing and patting him down I pictured a boy being cuffed.  The boy I remember when we moved here.  It's all so sad.  I'm grateful for free agency and yet bewildered at some people's use of it.  I know his parents have been working with him for years and have tried everything yet he continues to break their hearts.