A snowless Soltice

The holiday season kicked off with laughter and green grass.  After some cold in the late fall the recent temps have been too mild for any lingering snow and with Christmas fast approaching we are hopeful for enough fluff to play in.  We made the made dash out of GB on Friday afternoon, cramming pizza into our mouths and heading out into a three and half hour dark tunnel before arriving to a housefull of festive spirits and holiday smells. There were hugs and laughs and everyone stayed up late enough for the day to feel like two.  Saturday morning was time to bowl, the teams had been hacked out the night before with much consideration.  Judy and Daryll came out with Santa cookies to share and Karen was close in tow.  The kids were in and out of the house, continuing with some woodland version of cops and robbers.  We spent some time in at Action city, and Merrick thought he lost his playing card after our first round of Lazer tag....he found it later and said it was just really far down in his pants.  Minus one for swipe cards.  A little ice cream snack before heading back for a wonderfull ham dinner and a naps for a few.  The gifts were open, but not at blazing speed and there were plenty of smiles to go around. Sunday, Irene stopped out to say hello and had a parade of kids to walk her back to the car, a full platoon of whiffle-ball batted knights in various intergalactic battles to defend her should the need arise.  The ride home was noneventful and the little ones napped.  Amy had enough energy to even help the kids build gingerbread houses when we got home.  They don't look exactly like the ones on the box, but they kids sure enjoyed it!

Baskets and Ballets

The season is booked with concerts and singing, with the kids' voices twinkling and ringing.  With one concert left tonight, we usher in the new year right, but first we must finish this this year with Hollars and cheers.  Alas my rhyme times has ended so I can tell you all about elf we have befriended.  Herbie, the shelf elf continues his nocturnal mischif and rewrote my dinner menu to include a significantly greater amount of high fructose corn syrup, but that is what the menu says so that is what we had to eat as well as the car candy the Grandma brought over.  Grace and Sophia doubled up on their Christmas concerts and spread them between two counties.  The caroling continued into Friday morning with Merrick's sing although he wasn't too happy about trying on his concert clothing.   Ella sings tonight so we are going out for a pre-concert dinner.  Friday night Merrick had a halftime show during the high school basketball team and he hammed it up for the crowd.  Saturday was the first weeekend day in months that we could sleep in and the house was quiet until 8ish, several hours later than normal.  There was plenty to do for the season as we worked on our Christmas gift list.  We did find some time for Grace and Ella to put a kind word into the Big Elf's ear while we were at Home Depot.  It was a busy morning, but we found time to put on our best attire (and we looked great) and headed to the ballet, for a mid-afternoon showing of Nutcracker Ballet.  It was a great show and wonderful to watch the intentive gaze of the girls.  A little early dinner and a nearby restaurant and we headed back home for some cookie baking...it was on the dinner menu so it was required.  Sunday was rainy and foggy so we were trapped inside, but on a high note we were able to complete our shopping and just have the wrapping left.  Looks like this weeks forecast again calls for a high chance of busy, but we greeting it with sugar plum cheeks and candy cane smiles!!

'Tis the Season for Magic

 
Well it was a weekend of Christmas magic and a tooth fairy tossed in for good measure.  Friday was St. Nick day, so he made a stop to fill the stockings of the kids with shirts and toys and plenty of candy.  The kids were told not to wake us up until 7 in the morning before they could dig into their stockings.  So promptly at 6:30 am we found them all sitting on the stairs giggling in anticipation and eagerness.  We had spent some time the previous night the foyer of the grocery store ringing bells for the Salvation Army.  The kids sang carols and few people could pass up the kettle with the allure of four caroling kids and wishes of Merry Christmas.  Saturday Merrick had basketball practice and will put on a half-time show at the high school next week.  When that was over we headed out to cut down our Christmas tree.  I took a wrong turn on the way back, but maybe that was from the overstimiluation of what is in essence the Disneyland of Christmas tree farms.  Acres or trees and masses of humanity clinging to mascoted reindeer, gallons of booyah and hot chocolate.  It was almost a scene out of a hollywood dystopian Christmas movie.  That being said we got a great tree and all the kids took several cuts to help bring it down and then took turns shouldering it back to the machine that shook, wrapped and bailed the trees.  We set up the tree but it sat unadorned until Sunday as we had to head out to the botanical gardens and the festival of lights.  It was very beautiful and there were plenty of heavy eyelids by the time we returned.  Grace lost a tooth so we added to the collection of magical creatures that come into the house this weekend.  The elf on the shelf, Herbie, also has alread moved around to three different mischevious locations including his most recent perch on the tree with new ornaments for the kids in honor of themselves as the "GEMS" club.

A montage of a fall

 


It has been a whirl-wind of a fall for all of us and little time for outdoor adventures.  There was Halloween complete with Santas, Skiers, Skeletons and Ninjas but even with trick or treating that barely counts as outdoors time.  In short we have been moving and now we are all under one roof, it is sure to be our best adventure yet.  There were boxes to pack and haul, there were doors to sand and repaint, and we did it all.  There is a little left yet and by that I mean a lot, but the main floors and bedrooms are workable enough for our family and we are looking forward to the winter season to get our outdoor swing back in full action.