Shannon Phillips

So we’re all home from visiting Pappy and Nonna in Carson City, a visit that was very nice as always, except that I came down with something on the drive over the mountains—I blame being stuck in a car for four hours with three grotty, snotty little boys. They are always grotty and snotty, or at least one of them always is, and somehow every time we go to Carson City I end up getting sick the next day. Or maybe it’s a version of what I used to think of as end-of-semester syndrome. Back in college my body somehow knew to put up with stress and microbes until exams were over and I was home on break, but then I invariably—every damn time—got sick the day after I traveled home from school.

Anyway, I’m starting to worry that the in-laws will think I’m avoiding them or something (when in fact they are lovely people), but the truth is it was honestly wonderful to be able to stay home alone in the hotel room, napping and reading on my Kindle and drinking take-out wonton soup, while Sam and the boys and their grandparents romped around in the snow.

I’m feeling a lot better now! We’re back home and Davy spent an hour or so constructing an Iron Man suit out of cardboard boxes and packing tape. He pretty much just got the collar done:

“Mom,” he said, “can I keep this until I’m a grown-up?”

“Um. You can keep it as long as you want to, how’s that?”

“I want to keep it until I’m dead.”

Sooooooo…we’ll see how that goes, I guess.

Meanwhile Sol built himself a pillow fort on the couch and fell asleep in it, so I was finally able to get a picture. He’s cute when he’s unconscious!

I have fond memories of decorating sugar cookies with my Grandmama at Christmas time. Now I decorate them with my boys.

(We do still have a two-year-old, I promise. At the time this photo was taken he was dancing on the table in his diapers, enjoying a stolen bit of cookie dough. He was not interested in posing for pictures.)

Well, we managed to produce a reasonable facsimile of a happy Solstice? We lit a fire and drank hot chocolate and tried to sing Christmas carols, except neither Sam nor I could remember much of the words, so then he tried to look them up on his phone and the rest of us got bored and wandered away.

The kids opened their presents, and tomorrow we’re headed over the pass to visit Pappy and Nonna and Sam’s sisters in Carson City. Davy really wanted to see snow for Christmas so he’ll get his wish!

Here’s Davy dressed as the traditional Christmas Bat:

and we also got school photos back from Robin and Davy, so here’s bonus pics of them. I need to get one of Sol but he doesn’t really stay still!

So our little artist is still producing adorable masterpieces. Here’s the scene today:

Robin (produces a very intricate, cut-out, pop-up scene): “It’s a Christmas picture!”

Me: “Oh, how nice!”

Robin: “So you’re gonna see the End of Christmas. Look, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is eating Santa Claus. And here’s a present in an iceberg, on fire. And Santa’s workshop is on fire too and an elf is on fire with an iceberg on its head.”

Me: “I think you’ve really captured the spirit of the season.”

Okay, I know I need to do an actual life-update post soon (capsule review: FINE BUT VERY BUSY) but hey, the Love Hurts anthology is on sale now, so that’s cool! I can’t wait to get my copy and read the other stories!

Here’s the Amazon link–you can also order it from any other bookstore.

If you are a person who posts book reviews to any social media site, review copies are available from the publisher—let me know and I can put you in touch with them.