Post-xmas bowling and other Miser Family events

Life in the Miser Family household continues to be rich and full.  This past week has brought rounds of merriment . . . for example, we had a fall-down-laughing round of merriment in our annual Christmas Bowling (this year we did it belatedly, after Christmas, instead of before Christmas).

We are highly in-expert bowlers.  Also, some of us are not so good at selfies either . . .

My daughter says, "push that button!"

I say, "I know!". 
But I can't quite fit all 11 of us in the photo.

Fortunately, phone cameras nowadays come with timers.  Who knew?

Lots of (post) Christmas Bowlers!

Aside from Christmas Bowling with a crew that has more enthusiasm than talent (way more enthusiasm!), we learned that our new next door neighbor -- who celebrates Halloween to an extreme -- celebrates the New Year with corresponding vigor.   I went to sleep telling my husband that this is what it must be like in Heaven, with people all around us celebrating and singing praises.  Perhaps there will also be a quiet car in Heaven, however?   The next day, we had a lower volume (but still awesome) New Year's Day gathering of the Book Nerds.

I've spent the rest of the week finding outlets for my creativity to spill out of what seems to have been a dammed-up well within me.   Maybe all these projects and ideas had been bottled up while I was taking care of all my committee work last fall, I dunno, but in the past few days I've hung chairs on the wall, added canning jar shelves in the basement, folded something like a dozen origami butterflies, made a Book Nerds necklace for this year's event and candy eyeballs for next year's ginger-beasts, painted a new sign with our house number, and started devising a hanging jar garden to hold my crafting materials.

What else?  Home stuff:  My out-of-town daughters returned to their own homes late in the week.  N-son had his first tour of an apartment this week, and he also got to shadow a job at a nearby grocery store.   K-daughter and D-son are also throwing themselves into house hunting.

Next week will signal the return to office work for me (syllabus prep, finishing up the grant proposal, packing for the Math Meetings).  So it's been really nice having this unstructured time with family and friends (and with the deep well of creativity that seems to want to be tapped). 

That's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.