Christmas at Hershey Park

Since having birthday activities instead of gifts worked so well last year we decided to do a Christmas activity instead of gifts as well. The kids do plenty of chores and earn their own money for the toys that they want. These fun memories will last a lot longer I think. 

 We started talking about what activity they might want to do for Christmas waaaay back in the summer.  We were originally thinking of going to a Trans Siberian Orchestra concert together (suggested by their guitar teacher), but decided that the kids were not old enough yet.  We made a big list of ideas and kept whittling it down until finally we decided to go to Hershey Park's Candy Lane. They have a ton of fun Christmas activities and the park is all decked out with lights.

 We met Santa and told him our Christmas wishes. 

We visited real live reindeer in their stable.  My favorite part was talking to their keeper about what they eat (grain and some beet sugar for treats), how often their pen needs a full cleaning (weekly), and when their mating season is (Oct/Nov just like regular deer).  I also learned that they shed their antlers every year. 

We met some Hershey characters. 

We watched a short musical (35 minutes) in their big theatre called "The Littlest Christmas Tree".  It was stellar.

 

And then of course there were all the rides.  Last time we went to Hershey was about 4 years ago. I sat around holding Miss L a lot and Brother S was too small for many of the rides (mostly did toddler rides).

 This time all the kids were able to ride most things.

  They enjoyed the fast scary rides -- big change from a few years ago when these would have been too scary.

 We got some big treats while we were there too. We read this review when we were trying to decide which activity to choose for Christmas and she mentioned these king size milk shakes.  The weather was not ideal for milkshakes, but it was an experience not to be missed.

 We also followed her advice and got two of the endless refills hot cocoa mugs. We shared them amongst ourselves and refilled them at least 6 times.

 Laff Track

 We also did some ice skating at the Hershey arena.

 

December Birthdays

Our first "big" snow is always a happy day for kiddos. This was not really that much snow, only an inch or two. They made the most of it and got right to work making this "snow cat" and sledding around the yard. 

 For Big Sis's birthday activity she wanted to go to Frozen 2 and eat sushi.

 We went to a lunch buffet for sushi since it was less expensive and gave the kids a lot of options to try.  It was delicious.  The funniest part was this teriyaki eel.  Brother S mostly enjoyed the steamed dumplings and fruit. Oh and he ate some tempura.  He is my most picky child so we were all a little surprised when he was interested in trying some eel sushi.  He took a small bite at first. We asked how he liked it. He kind of shrugged and then took another big bite. And then he popped the rest in his mouth. What?! He liked it. This is his second helping! Yes! I love broadening my kids' pallets with international fare.

 After S liked the Eel sushi then all the kiddos had to try it.  Big Sister A loves sushi and she and M ate plenty before they put out the eel.

 That night we had root beer floats for A's "cake"

 M wanted pizza for his birthday dinner and wants to go to the indoor pool with water slides for his birthday activity.  We will do that in January some time.

 Another cheesecake from Amish country was his chosen birthday dessert.  Better than Cheesecake Factory I think.

Farm Fresh: December projects

I didn't take any pictures of the guinea butchering. After 5 hours of sad work all 15 were in coolers.  I let them rest 48 hours and then froze leg and breast meat and canned the rest of the meat (5 quarts) and all the broth (12 quarts).  Two mama rabbits kindled this week and have about 10 kits between the two of them. One lost 2 and the other 1, I think all 3 of those just had birth defects. They are both experienced mamas and did a great job making warm nests in the nest boxes. 

 We made a trip to Amish country and bought about 6 bushels of apples and apple seconds. 36 quarts of applesauce canned this week another couple dozen to go.

 Since it worked so well last year.  We are making apple cider vinegar again with the peels and cores. We have also been dehydrating a lot of fruit. The kids eat it up so fast it is hard to photograph it.  The kids helped peel and set apples on the tray for making a big batch of dried apples. They already gobbled down the first 2 quarts. This one will probably be gone by tomorrow.  I did a big batch of dried bananas.  They had a bushel box (40 lbs) of organic bananas at our discount grocery for only 5$.  They are already all gone! The kids ate them on their cereal every morning and we made a couple batches of dehydrated bananas and poof - all eaten up.

 We are working on getting the basement storage organized.  I ran out of space for all my jars and many boxes were on the floor waiting for hubby to come up with a shelving solution.  The previous owners of our house left these big shelves. The spaces between were too big so hubby ordered 2 more shelves from u-line and tightened up the spacing.  He also turned them upside down so there would be a lip all the way around to keep the jars from sliding off the edge. Brilliant.  They are sturdy and each shelf holds about 75 jars.  I was able to move all my "big quantity" storage items up onto these shelves. Tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes on one shelf, grape juice on one shelf, salsa on one, more applesauce coming to fill that shelf, and then all the extras of those that didn't fit on the bottom shelf.  One shelf of empty jars... in case I need more shelving.
Now I just have all my soups and meats are on the other small set of shelves and jams and relishes on the wall shelves.  It finally fits!

 Awhile ago I did a big garage clean out and set-up some shelves out there for our cold storage and animal supplies.  I also decided to keep any unbound bales of straw or hay in this XL rubbermaid box so that the dogs would not lay in it and make a mess (spread it around the garage)... Umm. Yep. My dogs are too smart. Always surprising me with their problem solving.

I also decided to do a kind of "sewing advent" for December.  I never have time for sewing in garden season. Yet I have a big pile of knit fabric and patterns from my very kind SIL who shares her extras with me. The kids each picked out the ones that they wanted for various items of clothing. So far I made 9 pairs of leggings and 4 t-shirts. (Took this picture just before wrapping things! shhh).  Not quite up to date (13 done on the 15th), but a lot of progress. Yesterday, I cut out 4 more pants (boys this time), a couple knit dresses for L, and a sweatshirt for A. Hopefully I can catch up this week. 

Family Fun: December 2019

We did our annual Christmas tree search and found a beauty at one of our local tree farms. 

 The kids wanted to help cut it down.

 They tried hard, but daddy had to come finish things off.

We got it all set up in its usual spot with its usual mass of 6000 lights. New this year is that brother M saved his money and got a lego electric train set, which he set up under the tree. 

This picture looks out of place! But it was the last of our home-grown watermelon brought up from cool storage in the basement.  I can't believe it lasted so well.  Our buddy F came to stay with us for a few days and enjoyed it too. 

 While F was visiting the kids typed up a lego story together and took pictures of each scene.  Then they read it aloud and illustrated it for us with the pictures on a screen. Great idea!

 We did some Christmas crafting that week too.  I remember a cinnamon bear ornament that we used to have on our tree growing up.  I have always wanted to try making some.  I found some cheap bulk cinnamon and we finally gave it a shot this year.  I used the dehydrator instead of the oven and I think that helped them stay flat  (a problem people complained about with the oven bake method).

 This cat. Tiger. He is a favorite with the kids and tries to run in the house at every opportunity. He is fat and not a very good farm kitty, but a friendly guy so I guess we have to keep him.  Just "Put him back outside!"

 Big sister A recently saw me knitting away and asked to learn how. We got started with a washcloth right then. She is doing great! I have never seen a beginner with such even stitches.

 At church we had our big annual Christmas service project and dinner.  We filled more than a thousand bags of snacks for the "Blessings in a Backpack" program.

 Each bag needs a little note of encouragement -- so we also made a bunch of cards while waiting for dinner to be served. 

 Big sister A and brother M helped act out the nativity and hand out Christmas cards at our local nursing home.

Big sister A's den worked on their staves this week in cub scouts.