Christmas Festivities at Home

Christmas Eve dinner eaten, dressed in Christmas finery, and ready for the ChristMASS. 

Pictures for Mom in case we don't get any at church. Thanks so much kiddos!

Most of you saw this one. I was so happy that a friend was available after Mass to
catch a family picture for us.  Opportunities for pictures with all of us are not easy to come by, so I'm thankful we were able to get this one.

Home from Mass. Dad puts up the star. 

Christmas-Eve-PJs from Alaska Grandma.

This year I found a Bluejay feather on our greenery-collecting walk. 

Finishing Up November

It's the end of November. Halloween, All Saint's Day, Nutmeg's birthday, Thanksgiving . . . all recent memories made. . . Now were are quickly heading into Advent. Thankfully Advent is a little later this year.  I need every single one of those extra days. I'm in the midst of some preparations for what I hope will be a simple, thoughtful, preparatory Advent season.  

Here are a few pictures (and explanations) from our last few weeks here on the home front  . . . 

We had talked about doing some special activity for Nutmeg's birthday but she just wanted to have friends over, so we did. Sunday brunch with some friends. Along with this same group of core friends we've started up a bi-monthly family gathering and Bible study on Sundays. It has been so great! The separate men's and women's studies are great but it has been super refreshing to join in on  the collaborative discussions with both sexes AND to have the kids in the mix too. Community-building is such a blessing! Doug and I always are so grateful that we are surrounded by so many fantastic people in this town. 

Nutmeg's minty icebox cake. Huge hit! 

Thrilled with her drone. This a girl with all brothers. What girl wants a drone for her birthday?  Some do, I guess. 

Thanksgiving table. Part of the gang humored me by driving out Thanksgiving morning to look for some greenery. One of my favorite traditions. 

Private table for Mace. 

Doug and I were both pleased by our Thanksgiving spread. A couple improvements for sure were needed (many of the green beans from the garden were too big and tough; gotta get those picked earlier next year and I also need to work on getting my crusts lighter/flakier) but overall we were happy with how things went.  It was a much, much less guilt-free holiday meal. I have been avoiding dairy for almost two years now and I didn't want to throw that out the window for Thanksgiving. I wanted to enjoy the meal along with everyone else. Success!  The green bean casserole is vegan, the mashed potatoes are vegan, and the stuffing actually had very little butter. The kids and I agree that the cranberry sauce was the best yet! Doug likes the canned version; so we oblige him that.  Here are the recipes I definitely think are worth sharing:  cranberry sauce, healthier stuffing, vegan green bean casserole, and make-ahead turkey gravy.  

We were so lucky to have Grandpa S join us again this year!  It's always a treat to spend together. I'm not sure we were the best host family (some of us were under the weather) but at least we were together. I'll say this . . . many board games were played. I even played three myself! Yes!!

We've been getting some stellar sunsets just about every evening lately. Nutmeg keeps grabbing the camera and snatching pics for us. 

My two sillyheads. 

Oooh, I love them!

Nutmeg, Mace, and I have been loving this author lately. Check him out!  

All Hallow's Eve

Basil being carried in a box by a tall man, a cheese grater (sign says "Make America Grate Again"), Batman, and
Wenda from the Where's Waldo? books

This really isn't about Donald Trump. It's about one
cheese grater just trying to make the world a better place. Eat good food;
grate your own cheese. 

The days of innocence are over. Last year he was blissfully ignorant of why we were walking around to
various houses. This year he was like an old pro. Not sure how these little minds pick these things up. Sigh . . . I really dislike the whole greedy candy thing (especially at Halloween) and do my best to help my kids find a healthy balanced way
to live (and eat) in our culture. Hopefully we are doing okay so far.  

We thought Basil's friend had gone to sleep for the night but apparently not, he picked Doug up and tried
to carry him off. Fortunately, I was there to save him.

I'm guessing the boys' days of dressing up may be wrapping up one of these years. And I'm fine with that. It sure was fun to see them really soak it in this year. I love that they are going out with a bang (and maybe not going out, that's cool too). They found ideas themselves. We worked together on gathering the supplies needed. They fiddled with everything to see how it would work. Doug helped them pull it all together. 

And what a success it was too. It felt like a walking "America's Funniest Home Videos" episode. I sort of wish we had filmed it. It was so funny to watch people's faces as the boys walked past. It was a hilariously entertaining evening. At one point a car full of high school girls drove past yelling out the window "I love it!!  A cheese grater!"  The girls pulled over and one girl hopped out to get her picture taken with Sage. He was quite amazed to have his picture taken with a random high school girl. His 20 minutes of fame! So funny.  

  

Camera Upload #2

Early October the kids and I enjoyed a brief visit with family in Minnesota. (Doug stayed back to install our kitchen back splash) It was good to see family and play some mean games of Foosball together. My boys didn't know mom knows how to play Foosball. I schooled em!  Ha,ha.  

After our weekend visit together, the kids and I drove up to the aquarium at the Mall of America. The aquarium was hosting Homeschool Week and offering fantastic discounts for homeschoolers. Wahoo! After the aquarium we checked out the mall a bit and then headed over to Ikea for some lunch. 

Mid-October the kids and I went on a little pilgrimage to St. Luke's Church in Plain, Wisconsin. St. Luke's has to be one of my favorite churches.  St. Luke's also has a walk/hike with stations of the cross leading to St. Anne's chapel at the top. It was a beautiful day for a walk!

Speaking of saints . . .  our parish celebrates All Saints Day with an evening event called "Saints Alive." (this year it was celebrated early)  Parishioners dress up as saints and everyone tries to guess who they are.  Each saint-in-costume tells about him/herself, which gives the group details from which to guess. It's always a fun evening. Usually we rush around the house the evening of trying to find things we can use to dress-up. I'm not a fan of last minute rushing around and neither are the kids. So this year we all started thinking up ideas and working on our costumes earlier than usual. It's a good night when the kids call it the "best ever." And double the costume duty. The highly secularized Halloween is right around the same time, so we've got double the costumes to come up with. It's busy but worth it, I think. Makin' memories!!  We are just about set for the 31st.

Basil is Saint Luke, Doug is Saint Ephrem the Deacon (the Syrian), I am Saint Monica (mother of Augustine), Mace is Saint Francisco Marto, Sage is Saint Brendan the Navigator, Nutmeg is Saint Margaret of Scotland). If you don't know who these saints are, look them up on Wikipedia. The saints are both fascinating AND inspiring!!