O Christmas Tree

R-L Family (Advent) Calendar Activities so far...

Family dance to Christmas music
Make holiday cookies
Make snowman art. Turn your family into snowpeople!
Make a paper chain for the tree
Paint your toenails RED! (still pending)
Get your Christmas tree
Decorate the Christmas tree
Work on Christmas cards
Have a picnic under the tree (we had two in one day. fun)
Pick a toy on the giving tree (at Rich's work)
Sing Christmas carols at bedtime

Piano Recital Deux

This evening, Mina had her second piano recital. She played "It's a Small World" and well as number called "Hand Bells". She was RATHER nervous when she saw the larger-than-expected crowd. This reaction called for some encouragement, cuddles and a check-in with teacher Jordeen. At the beginning of the recital, Jordeen did a kind thing and had all the "nervous" kids put up their hands. Pretty much all the kids quickly raised their hands. That definitely helped Mina. When it was her turn to play, she got up quickly and walked up, nervously chewing at her fingers. She announced her song and focused in on the keyboard. It was very sweet. When she was done, she was instantly over-the-moon proud of herself, as were her parents and little brother.

The other fun of today, which added to tonight, was making cookies for the recital. We made the same cookies that were sent out in our Ontario-bound packages - the new Williams-Sonoma Stained-Glass Holiday cookies. It is far from a simple holiday cookie but is a fun-to-make and beautiful cookie that will be a tradition in our house. The cutter cuts windows which you fill with smashed lifesavers. I think that we made 32 today. I really enjoyed this effort with Mina, making something to share with everyone. The cookies were a hit.

More Adventures in Edible Art

Hands-down my favourite book discovery of 2008 is the book on Cooking Art. The kids and i made these edible people for Friday night pizza. Here they are, eating their new friends while watching The Polar Express for the first time.

More Family Photos 2008

If you scroll down to prior blog entries, you'll see pictures from our family photo session of 2008. This is a tradtion that really warms the heart. This year, we met a friend and his kind friend, Adam, at a nearby park to have some fun on the beach. Here are some more pictures from the beach races.

This is one of my favourite pictures of the kids. It is classic how-it-is with M&M. Miles is also holding a favourite leaf - taking a break from the huge stick.

All I Want for Christmas

Christmas Tree Hunting

Yesterday we drove out to the North Bend Ranger Station and picked up a permit to cut a tree in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. You follow their map, head out to exit 47 off of I-90, then along forest service roads to designed cutting areas. This felt like a first for everyone, so the excitement level was rather high. While waiting for Rich to come back with our take-away lunch from the George's Bakery in North Bend, the Santa train had simply driven by and our kids were already jazzed up by that sighting.

Anyways, we went out to the woods. It was a perfect day so we were far from alone out there. In addition to the flock of people looking for trees, we saw evidence from regular deer (?) hunters in the area. That was a chance to talk about hunting to the kids. But we were sticking to Christmas tree hunting!

It was truly stunning out there. I was thankfully busy taking this picture when Rich was experiencing a near-death driving experience with an oncoming driver who was not full of the Christmas spirit.

And the winner is! I think that the experience of it all really was the "winner".

Seattle Half Marathon Weekend

This past weekend, my brother Scott and his wife, Laurie, and family came down to visit. Rich and Scott ran the Seattle Half Marathon. The rest of us added to the the cheering section. Rich coming into the finish corral - 1:41!

Rich Lander and his biggest fan! She and her cousin made banners. Mina wrote "Go Dad Go" on hers! It was naturally decorated with butterflies and a pretty landscape.

A Family of Snow People

Yesterday i volunteered in Mina's classroom and helped make these fun snow-people for the students. The idea was so fun that we thought we'd make these at home!

Happy Decemeber

A couple of fun ways that we are warming up for the holidays...

Advent Calendar for the Family
We recently purchased a pretty wooden advent calendar at Target. I was looking for a non-candy way to fill it when a friend suggested these family activity envelopes. I LOVE this idea. We opened our first door tonight and found an envelope which read "family dance to christmas music". This was the perfect occasion to turn on my personal favourite holiday album, Motown Christmas. Too much fun. Miles has some serious dance moves that he's been hiding.

Elf on the Shelf
Another friend recommended this last year. Over Thanksgiving, a little red elf named Jack appeared at our house. He's been quietly spying on our crew ever since. This is a hit with the kids. This is the first thing they do when they wake up. I have woken up more than once now to Miles, face pressed into my sleeping face, saying "Where's Jack?".

Happy Thanksgiving (again!)

For the second time this year, we celebrated Thanksgiving. Mina has heard much about it at school so she was rather excited. We've been doing a lot of related crafts including these crowns which she made for each of us. Mina wanted to know if we would be having turkey and popcorn at dinner. For our low-key dinner, we had a carrot fennel soup and a cornucopia full of sauteed vegetables. For dessert we had homemade pumpkin ice cream. It was one of those mellow, largely unplanned days that rolled into a really sweet and memorable night.

At dinner we talked about gratitude and stated what we gave thanks for this year...

Miles -for food

Mina -"for all the people that i know and all the people that i don't know"

Annie -for our home and comfort

Richard -for the safety and recovery of my Uncle Howard

The recipe for the actual cornucopia came from a new household, Edible Art: Easy Cooking Art for Young Children. This book is rather fun and funky. So far we've made banana boats as well as number pretzels. Mina wants to make the whole book. Here are the other delights...

Giving thanks for each of you.