Merry Christmas

Ski RV

We finally took the RV skiing last weekend. We went for one night and one day of skiing. We all had a great time. There was lots of playing in the snow, skiing and fun fun fun. I think it will work out well.

Winter assembly

On Thursday Odin's school had a winter assembly for the k-3rd grades.Odin's class together with the other kindergarten class sang Peace like a river and Jingle bells. It was really sweet.
They have been practicing pretty much since school started each week in music class.

Do you see him?

Cookie Painting

Thanks to Jenny for the great idea! Egg yolk painting. Yesterday I cut out a few cookies for Odin to paint with egg yolks mixed with food coloring. He loved it!

Hey Santa

 Dear Santa

I have tried to be very good this year. This year I would like an electric train set tool set and maybe Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots.

Odin

We met Santa at a tree lighting ceremony. He arrived on a fire truck! When Santa asked Odin if he had been good, Odin got all serious and said " I have tried". Santa smiled and replied " Well that is all I can ask for". Very sweet.

Merry Merry

You hear it all the time. Murmur about time passing by too quickly. It feels like last weekend when everyone was here for Thanksgiving. Now I realize that next week is Christmas! How did that happen? What have we been doing? Where is the snow?
Odin loves looking at all the lights when we are out in the evenings. We have discovered houses with dormer windows that hang wreaths can look like eyes with eyebrows.
 

 

Cake Season

Fall growing up always meant one thing. Cake Season. It all starts with my sister's birthday in October. Then, a week later it is my dad's. I follow about a month later (right around Thanksgiving) and my mom sneaks in a week before Christmas.
Then I got married to a man whose birthday is 4 days after my mom's (month and day only . . . not year). Oh and then we had a son who was born eight days after John.
It truly is a season of cakes.
My mom was great when my sister and I were little. There were no recycled cakes, no multiple names on cakes, we each got our own according to our own whims.
I have come to realize (in my 33 years!) that it really is great to have a birthday near a holiday. Yes for a number of years it meant my birthday was a travel day, or Turkey day, but most years I get to be around people that I love and don't get to see as often as I would like.

My parents, sister, brother in law, and my aunt all got to celebrate with me this year and it was fantastic. My sister went all out planning a Paper Crane themed party. Complete with favors, origami paper packets and guided folding demonstrations. So so much fun. Instead of cake I requested apple pie cookies and my dad was nice enough to make them for the whole crew. I also requested turkey free meals, I like turkey, but only the kind that you buy from the deli as sandwich meat!

Thank you to everyone who helped make it a wonderful day.

Bluebird

It was a fantastic weekend around here. Sunny for a few hours on Saturday after the fog burned off. Then clouds rolled in again. We were able to go to a tree farm and find a Christmas tree. A very nice experience when it is not raining.

Sunday morning we got up EARLY and went skiing. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shinning all day long. It was our first day out of the season and it went great. Odin decided he was not quite ready to use his new poles. John decided that he needs a little more boot fitting done.  I think I will be happy when we take the RV (The Grand Ole Apres) and can have a hot lunch in a quiet space.

It feels strange to be waiting at the bus stop in December not wearing a hat or mittens. It also feels strange that there is no snow, unless we gain a lot of elevation. But so far it is also very nice not having to wear every coat I own just to walk to the bus stop.

Thankful

At dinner on Thursday I said that I was Thankful to have family to be thankful for. And I truly am. Our house was filled this past week with wonderful, caring, helpful, thoughtful people. Who came all the way here just to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. They helped cook, washed dishes, played with Odin, and told stories over and over again. Then they thanked me for everything that I had done.
It was a great Thanksgiving, one that I will remember for a long time.

Yard Waste

This is the first time that after making our big leaf pile we have to clean it up. Not a problem! Odin was a great helper (no really he was).  He also thought that 55 degrees was far to warm for wearing a shirt.

He filled the compost bin

He compacted the load

And filled more!

Leaves

Every autumn when my sister and I were growing up my mom would take us out into the yard and take fall portraits. I remember one year wearing a purple and pinkish and blue sweater sitting in the leaves (that I clashed terribly with) for my portrait. 
Every year since he was born I have done more or less then same with Odin. We seem to always find a perfect fall afternoon with the sunlight streaming through the trees.

Frost

Happened on Tuesday for the first time. Gardens are looking quite dreary these days. But it is NOVEMBER!

Mr. O'lantern

Carving pumpkins gets more and more fun each year. Odin get so into it and can now actually do more of the carving part.  We had some sheet vinyl relaxing on the living room floor (to be put into the RV) and it was a perfect place to carve this year. It looks almost identical to our actual floor..

battery operated knife, Odin was very determined to use it this year.

Happy Halloween!

We had a great halloween! A few months ago I asked Odin what he would like to dress up as this year. He thought about it for a millisecond then announced that he wanted to be a flying squirrel. I wondered if he would change his mind but nope he held fast to the flying squirrel. About a  two months ago we started working on his costume. We made a prototype, learned a lot, then made the real thing. He picked out the fabric at the store, did a little hand sewing, and also ran the pedal a bit on my sewing machine.
Over the weekend we went to the Children's Museum for their Boo Bash. It was a blast. And people could figure out what he was! Success!

The flying squirrel in his natural habitat.

Yesterday we went to John's office after school for a Halloween party then John and Odin, together with some friends, hit the neighborhoods.

it all added up to 3.5 pounds!

OMG!

We slept in this weekend. Both days actually. JOhno has been on the road and putting in some pretty long hours. This morning we were up at 9:40am. Can you believe it? Although maybe we should have gotten up earlier. You see Odin was awake before we were and that can only means one thing . . . trouble. He was making some 'treasures' out of a cardboard tube and water. Somewhere in the project he thought he would clean his cd player/radio alarm clock. So he opened the cd door and he dumped a bunch of water in it WHILE IT WAS TURNED ON! Luckily he was fine (however a little shock would have taught him that that was a stupid idea, right?). It was not until this evening when I looked at the alarm clock that I saw the huge lake underneath it. There was a discussion about electricity and water. Not sure how much was absorbed.

We are going to leave the radio unplugged for a few days maybe it will dry out and work again.  But I'm not holding my breath.

Fall

It is starting to look like autumn here. It sure feels like it, but now we are getting some color too.

However the strawberry plants that I rescued on the side of the house this spring and replanted have not gotten the memo.

This picture was taken today October 10th