what happened to us??

If you think we’ve been dead since November because of NaNoWriMo, you might be right. (and maaaybe 1% avoiding blogging… shhhh) 

Then the winter months have been crazy busy, and tis the season for sickness too!

But…

We’re BACK!  

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Highlights from November  

Nanowrimo of course!! We both wrote far less than 50k but enough to get our WIP’s moving a bit, and it was tons of fun. 😉 Oh, and we ate snacks so that’s always a win. 😛

Anna and Kate volunteered at the “Boots In the House” care-package shipping event, and packed some of the very same boxes we had decorated earlier in November when we hosted a Christmas party for Boots in the House. 

the assembly line

praying w/ army chaplain

lots of packed boxes!!

the party snacks

peppermint bark!!

decorated box. thank you, soldiers!

Thanksgiving Day was made so much more special by a coworker of our brother-in-law’s who gifted us with turkey (also valuable for making yummy soup!), stuffing, rolls, and pies. (Thanks so much, Mr. Barry!!) God works in fun surprising ways!

 

Highlights from December

December was packed with AMAZING Christmassy things… 

Advent, our family’s special every-year time to celebrate Jesus’s first and second coming. ❤

The annual ladies’ tea (always a blast, especially clean-up time! 😉 )

Spontaneously wrapping gifts way too late at night and trying not to be too loud with our punchy jokes and festive music.

 

People! There’s a real live horse in our backyard! Mr. B, a thoroughbred straight from the race-track, is boarding in our arena for a while. He’s a GIANT, and we love seeing him out there. ❤

A cookie decorating party with friends–

It was a blast! From laughing over structurally unsound gingerbread roofs, to figuring out the best way to snap a candy cane to the desired length. From taste-testing the gummy things to see if they really all tasted like black licorice, to wild cookie decorating dares. + some awesome loud crazy games!!

making gingerbread houses

cookie decorating!

our first ever gingerbread house

It was only a few days before Christmas, and we still didn’t have a tree so us kids kinda all quietly accepted the fact (they’re expensive y’all!!). AND THEN DAD DRAGGED ONE INSIDE all nonchalantly after work one day!!! So exciting!! Isn’t it gorgeous?!?!

Four of us crammed in the back seat, singing along to the radio through our candy canes. Best road trip ever! XD ❤ 

Big Big ADORABLE Highlight
Meet Jack Lewis (any C.S. Lewis fans?!), our Christmas puppy– total Aussie through and through and best cuddler and ball-fetcher ever. ❤ ❤ ❤ He is also one super smart cookie. Getting a surprise puppy for Christmas is like something that only happens in a book, but it really truly happened!!

Christmas morning

he loves his tug

 

Highlights of January

–the month of gorgeous skies and eternal colds of doom! 

see the rainbow around the sun??

crazy gorgeous sunset!!

New Year’s Eve we passed the hours with a gigantic bag of popcorn, starting our new devotional, a few rounds of “Detective in the Dark”, and reading notes from our big 2018 Thankful Jar.

true story 😉

lol

We celebrated our little sister’s birthday, and then there was another birthday, and another. Three birthdays in one month! It was funny– our mom got gluten-free cake and charged us not to tell Dad until after he’d eaten it, and boy was it good! Score! (dad liked it 😛 )

Our brother started up heavy-duty college again *sniffs* but he’s a trooper. 😀

With the funds in our Family Fun Pig, the whole family went to $1.50 night at the theater and saw the Nutcracker and the Four Realms!! (it was EPIC! And the soundtrack, guys…)

excited, cold, rained-on, and loving family time!

going into the theater!!

We babysat our nephew-dumplings a lot in January, complete with shadow puppets and helping to make a superhero outfit for Pirate Man. (Yep, he made up his own superhero name and character!! XD) Baby asks for chips for himself and then gives them to the lucky dog. ❤

We were (and are still) totally obsessing over the Prince of Egpyt soundtrack, especially “Deliver Us”. We basically know all the parts and sing them at every opportunity. lol

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So glad to be back alive and posting! And since we didn’t post anything inspirational for the start of 2019, here is our favorite new-beginnings song…

 

Thank you all SO much for sticking with us during this unplanned hiatus! What have you been up to? Do you like getting rained on? We are getting rained on a LOT. 😉 

The crazy sistas,

 

why do we sign off our joint posts with “PerAnna”? find out here!