Before I can properly say goodbye to 2015, let’s do a little visual recap the last few months.

In November Jakob had 3 teeth extracted, his top two front teeth and an extra tooth (mesiodens) that was growing down from his palate, right behind them.

You can see here the missing front two teeth (one of his adult teeth had already started growing in) and the larger dark spot is the hole from where the extra tooth was.  Similar to when you have your wisdom teeth pulled, the extraction leaves a hole that closes up in time, only with this there were no stitches required.

Look at that thing!  The two baby teeth are on either side, and an area the size of those smaller teeth is what had grown out, of the extra one.  Aaaaaaall the rest of it was up in his palate, like his very own in-mouth unicorn horn.  We couldn’t believe it was so long!

My monkey-see/monkey-do kids really do behave like twins, even though they’re 19.5 months apart, and Henri managed to lose 2 teeth (one upper, one lower) in the same week that Jakob had his 3 pulled, so they looked like a pair of little bruisers.  🙂

If you follow my instagram you’ll have noticed a little cosmetic change I made, that will have its own post coming up- I dyed my hair pink!  The boys were jealous, so one weekend I used some hair chalk and gave them each a blue streak.

I worked on a bunch of crafts as the year drew to a close, and besides the annual teacher gifts and some cakes and things, I knit up a bunch of polar bears for a charity project organized by my cousin Robyn.

The bears were basically garter stitch with some mild shaping, and I knit really fast, and without looking, so as I had a bunch of doctor’s appointments in November, I agreed to knit up as many as I could, and then pass them along to be sewn and stuffed.  I think when it was all said and done I’d knit 10 bears- the 8 shown here and 2 others I’d already handed in.

Henri must have been paying attention to Yannick’s morning routine… or television commercials… because one afternoon he came up to me with a Lego creation and told me it was a razor, so now he could shave like a grown up.  😀

Also in November we had a Hanukah gift exchange with my family.  Yannick drew my brother’s name, and decided to be creative and hide his gift inside a wooden log.  He cut a branch into pieces and drilled in a few holes and I made a little sign inspired by Ren & Stimpy…

By sheer coincidence when Mike held the log up so I could take a pic, it was perfectly placed to look like Yannick was suddenly in Groot costume LOL

The boys only get access to our spare iPhone at doctor’s appointments or other public waiting areas, and it always makes me proud to see how well they get along, sharing and playing together with minimal fighting or frustration.  This pic was taken at the first of many visits we had in December, going back every 2 days as Jakob’s fever and cough just would not go away.

Finally he had an xray done, and after missing a week and a half of school and being up through most of the nights, we had an answer- he had pneumonia.  Luckily antibiotics did the trick and he was feeling better just in time for Christmas.

Much better.  And somehow also managed to become a teenager…?!

The boys were very excited Christmas morning to open their gifts, starting with their stockings.

Later on during the holidays I introduced them to some good classic movies (Phantom Tollbooth) and not-so good ones (The Phantom Menace).

Not staged at all, this truly is how my boys watch movies.  Or tv.  Or play video games.  One is almost always cuddling with the other.

Just before New Year’s we FINALLY got some snow… emphasis Henri’s, not mine.  (He was overheard telling my mom that this was the ‘worst Christmas of his entire life’ because of the lack of snow).

And now here we are, over a week into 2016 already.  The last few weeks have passed by in a blur, not because I’ve been so busy, but quite the opposite- I’ve done almost nothing.  Right before our annual New Year’s getaway with friends I got sick.  Spent the entire ‘vacation’ in the hotel room in bed, nearly delirious with 102 fever and the chills and cough, only to get home and discover that I, too, had pneumonia.  It’s draining, to be sure, and is the reason why it’s already 9 days into the New Year and I feel like I haven’t been my usual crafty productive self.

One thing it has given me, however, is time.  I’ve been (re)learning a hobby I picked back up just before the holidays, doing more reading, catching up on my YouTube subscriptions and clearing room on my PVR, and doing a lot of thinking and planning.

One of the things I’d like to work on this year is this blog.  I have a huge backlog of tutorials and posts I want to share, so I will be working on ways to get that done.  I’ve noticed in my stats that my Minecraft posts are pretty popular, the cake-related ones especially.

If there are ever any questions or tutorial requests that you’ve got, Minecraft-related, cake-related, knitting… anything really, please comment or message me and let me know.  I’m trying to focus more on explaining how I make the things I do, vs simply showing the end results, but there may be steps I overlook, or techniques that I assume are common knowledge.  If ever there’s anything you want a hand with, please don’t hesitate to reach out!