Good morning! Did Santa come?

Christmas Eve

As usual, everyone had a great time at Grandma Ruth's for the Christmas Eve party! All the kids did a good job being patient and playing. We still all fit (barely) in the living room. And of course all the food was wonderful.

The Christmas Eve mass snowshoe

Despite being safe earlier in the month, the lake is no longer frozen solid. So instead of taking off from the dock and heading straight across the lake to snowshoe, we had to take a little stroll on the road down to a neighbor's land that meets up with the land we wander on. It was a great day for a hike, maybe even a little too warm!

Christmas Eve day

Our drive over Thursday afternoon/night was mostly uneventful. Some weird freezing rain in spots but the roads never seemed slippery. The kids were champs like usual and we only stopped once in Escanaba for dinner.
Great snow at Grandma Ruth's this year for a sled run and snowshoeing. The kids made a sled run down the front hill right away in the morning and spent quite a bit of time out there.

One advantage

One advantage of staying up until 3am Monday night/Tuesday morning to watch the lunar eclipse (in addition of course to seeing the lunar eclipse!) was that I finished these arm/hand warmers I started last week. Perfect for knitting and typing in our chilly basement! I used a super soft organic cotton yarn that feels great.

Love it!

I love mornings like this - the sun rises on the front side of the house and we could see the yellow glow starting while we ate breakfast. But out the back windown/doors we could still see the gorgeous, big bright moon behind the trees!

Winter Solstice

We ate dinner by candlelight last night. Thinking about what it was life when everyone was forced to live closer to the rhythms of the earth without electricity as an option. Fluffy, sparkling white snow was falling outside. We went to the UU Solstice celebration at 6pm. It was so beautiful and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. We saw many friends there, school friends, old friends....

As we walked out of the building Alex looked around at all the new snow and sighed..."Mom it's almost too lovely to walk on!"

Maya fell asleep on the way home and went right to bed and Alex didn't take much longer!

Officially Christmas vacation!

Today was Alex's first real day of Christmas vacation. So he stayed in his pj's all day! Maya isn't as fond of pajama days, she prefers more costume changes in a day than that.

We spent the day playing and taking care of some little Christmas prep projects.

We had started yesterday afternoon baking and decorating cut out cookies, didn't get very far and ended up doing the bulk of them today. I wasn't thrilled with the powdered sugar icing I made last year - either taste wise or how it worked out for the kids to use. So I took the easy way out this year and got some packaged stuff that I thought would be easier for them to manage. It did work out pretty well.

I had expected to be able to run down to the local natural food store and get some natural red food coloring to make our own red frosting and maybe even find some red sprinkles there but no luck. I guess it's hard to find a distributor so they don't carry any. So this year we just went without red frosting and when Alex chooses cookies he'll just keep an eye on the red sprinkles. Next year I will be more on the ball and order some ahead of time, research a better frosting recipe and invest in some pastry bags/tips that the kids can manage.

We also made peppermint bark - I got a recipe from a blog that I frequent HERE . It was a little more time consuming than I normally tackle but it looked fun and like it had the potential to be really good. Oh my goodness is it ever delicious. Definitely worth the time!

Alex has a "first" too

His first loose tooth. Here he is showing everyone:

The first morning was a little rough. It bled a little and that caused some drama. Now that he's use to the strange sensation he's pretty excited.

Maya's first haircut

Yes, she's 3 and yes I really mean first haircut! We just got the ends trimmed up but she got the whole experience - hair wash, cut and blow dried and even got her nails done. She loved it.

Alex got his haircut too but I didn't embarrass him and take a picture :)

Alex's class party

Friday afternoon was Alex's class party and his last day of school before vacation. I love the fact that I can bring Maya along to things like this in his class and they encourage her to just join right in. She loves it too. They have 4 stations the kids rotate through - craft, story, snack and game. It seemed to go very smoothly and all the kids appeared to have a good time.

Some holiday fun

We love Playmobil toys. Alex has gotten several sets over the years and they have seen a ton of playing time at our house. They do make some sets that raise a few eyebrows. Several friends have brought these to my attention over the past few weeks while doing their Christmas shopping and I couldn't resist putting them all together here.

First we have a set for learning about the current realities of air travel. Although they haven't gotten up to speed yet with the new scanners or groping techniques. We'll have to watch next years catalog for updates:

Next we address the uncomfortable realities of construction work. I'll be keeping my eye out for the septic pumper truck set for us rural families.

And finally, for those whose young children already have criminal aspirations, we might as well teach them to aim high and go right for museum grade jewel heists:

Some of the reviews for these sets on Amazon are hilarious. Especially the airport security set.

There is no such thing as bad weather.....just bad clothing choices

We like to test that theory. And it seems to hold very true. Alex helped Ben shovel for a while and then played for a while. Maya was having a great time outside even with the wind blowing snow in her face (which she has not cared for in the past). Ben and I were the ones to suggest we go back in the house, they would have stayed out even longer.

So...blizzard conditions, 50 mph winds and a just below zero wind chill - no problem!