Last Two Fires

Ben has been doing some work in our basement. He chopped up the wood that he has torn down, and we burnt it all in our fireplace for two nights. The kids loved it:

We were dog-sitting my parents' dog, Daisy, and she loved it, too. I set this blanket up for her, pretty close to the fire. She loves being warm - she's such a teeny little thing. I'll bet she's always cold:

On the second night of wood-burning, when I came home, Ben was reading to the kids in front of the fire. It was such a Norman Rockwell moment - I just had to videotape it. Plus, Ben is really funny when he reads to the kids. He totally does different voices for the different characters; it's a crackup:

It was fun to fire up the fireplace for one last time - it's starting to get nice and warm outside, so we probably won't do this again until this winter. We don't do it often, even in the dead of the winter, because wood burns so rapidly, and it costs money to buy the wood. It sure is fun, though.