Today has been all about relaxing. Richard’s been camped out in front of his computer and I’ve been camped out on the sofa with my knitting, and the only moving either of us has done has been to clear the floor so the Roombas could vacuum, and run a few loads of laundry. Tonight is a knitting group, so it will simply continue the day of near sloth for me.

So in lieu of anything exciting to report for today, I give you one extra story from the last few days.

Christmas day the kids were all outside, and my older sister was with them, until she came in and asked if we happened to have a very grouchy squirrel living under our porch. We only have birds nesting under our porch so it was determined that the squirrel was probably sick, and ought to be removed from the vicinity of three curious children. So my older sister found a box and caught the squirrel (the fact that it simply sat there and let her catch it spoke volumes as to the status of its health, and then we spent some time on the phone, calling vet clinics and referral lines, trying to figure out exactly what to do with it. It’s one thing to let the circle of life run its merry course when it’s just us; it was another to leave a sick and possibly snappy squirrel out to terrorize the kids.

We eventually were told to take it to the nearest shelter, and that someone would meet us at the door to take it. Naturally, there was no one at the shelter, but after even more time on the phone, the dispatch person promised if we just left the squirrel there, in its box (and by now it was twitching, so we suspected it probably was dying anyway) and someone would be by to get it shortly. It felt awkward, but we weren’t sure what else to do with the poor little thing, quite frankly. So I hope someone showed up and took the squirrel inside and put it out of its misery.

And now for some pictures.

My younger sister, reading a book of Shel Silverstein poetry to all three cousins.

The niece, wearing a truly awesome balloon hat, made by a balloon artist we found at the ice skating rink on Saturday. She loved this hat so much she would have taken it home with her, except we were pretty sure it would not survive the plane flight back.

Possibly my favorite picture of the three kids to date. One of the dads tried to get them to pose nice after I took this shot but this was too wonderful to not keep. They’re just being their goofy selves, and it captures all three of them so perfectly. I love these kids.