Snowy Days and a Trip to Williamsburg

 It's been cold and snowy these first couple weeks of January. The chickens, ducks, rabbits, and often a cat or two have been enjoying the relatively warmer environs of the high tunnel. 

The kids are happily enjoying their front yard sledding hill again.  

It still makes so nervous whenever they are out there-- busy road and no fence up yet. 

My beautiful eucalyptus, rose bush, young lilac bush. 

Brother M showing how tame our sweet bunnies are. 

The cotton candy maker was came out of hiding for a week or so and all the kids practiced spinning sugar into fluff. 

We made a spur of the moment trip to visit our old friends the S family in Williamsburg.  

We stayed 5 days and the kids had a blast playing together.  We took a break from schooling and were spoiled with lots of goodies and chatting.   I helped my friend S plan her garden and seasonal bed rotation for this year.  We made matching farm aprons and recovered a couple of her kitchen chairs. 

And we celebrated Miss L's birthday together.  She had a big Cafe Rio dinner when we got home, as well. 

Christmas 2021: Christmas Elves, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day

Our tradition of giving "experiences" instead of "things" for Christmas and birthdays continues.  Santa does bring some practical & educational gifts.  And all the siblings make homemade presents for each other.  

Our little elves were very busy the week before Christmas.  Miss L painted wooden beads that she found in our craft cupboard and made bracelets for everyone in our family. 

Not to be outdone Baby A made a big craft area glitter mess... This is him mirroring my uh-oh face, I think.

Brother S made a wonderful little blue truck for Baby A, which he loves to play with.  He also made various other wooden games for everyone. 

I made the kids each a handmade Christmas Eve pillowcase.  Usually I make jammies, but they each just got new jammies for our camping trip.  For Christmas day they received some slippers & mittens made from and upcycled sweater, a knitted beret, and a reading pillow. .

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner -- junk food and shrimp while watching a movie. Daddy got a Harry and David goodie box from work that was part of the feasting. Big Sister A made chocolate dipped pretzels with peppermint candy cane sprinkles.  We tested out a new caramel popcorn recipe. It was easy and delicious. 

Reading a books and making a mess instead of watching "Encanto" with everyone else. 

Christmas morning!

The after photos -- an explosion of presents. 

Miss L received a sweet gift from her cousin N. And the boys each got a bakugan toy from their cousins as well. 

Big sister A used her story writing talents to make each family member a present -- a funny personalized story.  We ready them aloud and it was one of my favorite parts of Christmas day. 

Baby A had his first experience with unwrapping things and did not really get into it.  He did enjoy his presents, once Daddy put them together. 

Solstice and December Birthdays

 The longer I have been focused on gardening and farming the more conscious and appreciative I have become of the Earth's rhythms and seasons.  I know that God created the lights in the firmament to be for signs and seasons as it says in scripture. The darkest day of the year is a turning point in the seasons, a time to celebrate the return of more of the sun's light.  

We had a special solstice dinner party this year -- with candles! And cranberry walnut bread, homegrown duck, green beans, and potatoes. 

We also celebrated our two (near solstice) birthday kids. We have our first teenager in the house... Not a big drama though -- as she does everything beautifully and kindly. 

They each had their night of special dinner, one sushi and one Mexican.  They each had an ice cream sundae bar. 

Christmas Traditions: Tree cutting, cookie making, and fun with friends

 We learned the hard way that trees sell out quickly around here and so we set out to cut our tree the day after Thanksgiving.  We went to a different farm this year and it was a lot less hectic than the old one. They had this cute photo booth too. 

Hubby was helping the guy parked next to us jump his car batteries so we had plenty of time to wander about. We found this giant tree!  All the kids agreed that it was the best one... It was indeed very nice, but I was fairly certain that a 12 ft tree would not fit a room with 9 ft ceilings.

Then we found our tree.  A nice fat tree this year, of a different variety than our usual fraser fir.  

It had a nice big trunk and was a bit hard to cut. 

We carted it home and it stood undecorated in the tree stand with plenty of water for a few days. I have a special method for wrapping the lights and it takes a few hours.  The decorating had to wait a few days until I got myself organized.  

Our old friends moved back from Nebraska and we got had a Christmas cookie making dinner party with them. 

We eventually got the tree all decorated.  We tried to put the most breakable ornaments out of harms way. Baby A was really excited and curious to see all the lights and ornaments. The lower branches are increasingly bare. 

I love sitting by the tree working on projects and listening to audiobooks.

We have some friends that grew a huge crop of luffas.  They invited us over for a luffa soap making party. 

We used glycerin soap so that it would be safe for all the kids to help with. 

My hutch is looking very festive.  I think I will leave it until February and change it for Valentine's Day. 

Thanksgiving 2021

 For dinner we had a turkey given to us by a friend, Goomie's broccoli salad made with our homegrown broccoli. We also had regular old mashed potatoes, stovetop stuffing, and cranberry sauce. 

Baby A liked the turkey and especially the cranberry sauce. 

A few additional creatures joined us at the table. 

Pretty beeswax candles were a fun part of the dinner.

Certain dubia roaches are special and get to be held like pets.