Happy New Year! And Merry It's-Still-Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! 

We celebrate Christmas around here for a good, long time. The Church in ages past celebrated Christmas until Candlemas (February 2), giving everyone a full 40 days of trees and trimmings and carols and cards. So naturally that's how my family celebrates. We'll soak up all the liturgical sunlight we can during these freezing, dark days. (Also, I practically just got this tree up. I'm NOT taking it down until I'm good and ready.)

And one more thing we're celebrating as much as we can...

This beautiful, wonderful newborn baby who joined us in November: our sweet Evangeline Marie, fifth in a long line of beautiful girls (with a handsome boy thrown in for good measure, of course).

Here she is on her baptism day. I wouldn't be surprised to discover she was staring so intently at angels, would you?

In the past, I've managed to accomplish so much during my babies' newborn days. But I think, finally, now that I'm on Baby 6, I've realized just how much I love taking moments to simply savor the way she smells like spring or her warmth in my arms or the musicality of her sweet coos. I apologize for the way this has left my blog abandoned. But can you blame me?

I have plenty of goals and plans for making this a more productive little corner of the internet in 2018. But don't be surprise if I sprinkle lots of baby photos into otherwise writing-related posts. I just can't help myself.

(Photos courtesy of my dad. Thanks, Dad!)