A Winter Picnic

More Makin'

We had our first annual "Family Christmas Present Making Day" today.  The day included Christmas music, a big breakfast to get us started, a lot of making, and a few Christmas movies in between.  It is my new favorite day of the year.

Nine

Makin'

Christmas at Grandpa Glenn's

Acorn Tail and Feather River Jams

I guess I'll have to take a few more pictures since you can't really see much here.  Anyway, this is the first year I didn't match them all.  I fell too in love with both of these fabrics- Acorn Trail for the girls and Feather River for the boy.  The cheering upon finding them was my reward.  I'm thinking it won't be much longer before that ends.  But for now I will savor it.

December Thoughts

{working on a Christmas gift}


{on a winter hike with our homeschool group}

There is so much to catch up on I would like to skip right to the present.  But then I would be missing some real good stuff.  So here goes... Grace and Jackson had a performance for their Irish music class.  They sang and both played the harp.  Ryan and I had a whole night and a day all to our selves!  We went out to dinner at our favorite place.  Then we got to spontaneously stop over at our friends and drink a glass of wine while sitting around the bonfire.  I can't remember the last time we got to do anything spontaneous.  We need more spontaneous.  I brought the two big kids to see the Grinch at the Children's Theater.  Loved.  We have been working on our Christmas presents.  Last weekend we dedicated a whole day to it, all five of us.  Might be my favorite holiday tradition we do.  Somewhere in there Nora got sick.  And then got better.  We already had one Christmas celebration.  Four more to go.  Mostly I like that.

So yes, we are in the full holiday swing of things.  I like the swing for the most part.  Although I have been trying to take note of a few things we will change up for next year.

~ I want two weekends dedicated to making gifts as a family.  If there is one Christmas memory I most want etched into my children's memories it is this one.  Not to mention it is one of those rare times when, should someone happen to stop by our house, they might be fooled into thinking we've all been drinking too much eggnog, as we are all that happy.

~ Starting the calendar making (an annual gift our kids make) in November.

~ Oh and also next November I will take out the Advent calendar and finish it before Advent.  After five years of using it I can confidently say I won't finish it once we hang it up and I certainly won't work on it after Christmas is over.

~ I want to have a bonfire on the night of the solstice.  Nothing fancy.  Just an hour or two of hanging out at the fire with my family.  Maybe we'll even start this one this year.

~ No gifts for anyone over the age of kid, other then a few handmade things.  We are almost to this point now but not quite there yet.

Last week our washing machine broke and I had the realization that despite being able to put a meal on the table that we can take 100% credit for we are not yet the pioneers we aspire to be.  My attempt at trying to do our laundry in the bathtub was a complete failure.  Anyway, tomorrow after taking the big kids to a Christmas play we are heading to my parents to do some laundry.  I'm thinking it will really bring my mom back to see me show up there with four pillow cases of dirty clothes.

Into the Woods

This morning after scrambling around the house to shuffle all three kids out the door for an overnight with my mom, and then scrambling into the car myself, I found myself peering in the door of the yoga studio I was hoping to take a class at.  I could clearly see all the shoes of the organized and timely people lined up by the wall (very orderly of course).  But the door was locked, I had missed the class (I was suppose to get there at least 15 minutes early I later learned).  Slightly dismayed I headed back into my car realizing that not only would I not being doing yoga but all of the rushing around I had done all morning was for nothing.  But then I made myself feel better by deciding I would go on a hike.  A hike through my backyard and into the misty forest behind our house.  



Past the sledding hill, and the surprise "deer stand" Grace and Jackson are building for Ryan, past the frozen pond and the crumpled corn field until finally I entered the world of hawks and coyotes and birch trees.  



I hiked down to the "lake" all the while inhaling the air as intentionally as I could (it's different in there).  I took a few pictures, but mostly I just saw.  I scared a hawk from it's high perch a top the trees and watched it fly away.  I watched a mother and father cardinal scrounge through the forest together, hopping from bush to fallen tree, never leaving each others side.

I don't know why we don't come here more often, but I intend to change that.