Keeping them guessing

 We don’t do elf on the shelf, but we do have an advent calendar. It is wooden, with little doors for each day, and we can put whatever we want behind each door. Most often we put in a small chocolate (actually two - one for each kid), but we also often put in a little tag saying things like “put up Christmas tree” or “hot chocolate” or “bake cookies.” We try to be a little bit predictable and boring so the expectations are not too high, while at the same time throwing slight curveballs to make it interesting. 

Last week Jeff decided to fill one of the little boxes with mini marshmallows, so they would pour out when the kids opened the door. They were surprised and delighted 😁 

Elves

 Yesterday we got our Christmas tree. We went to a farm in a small town/rural area about a 25 minutes drive from here, where we picked out our tree and they cut it for us and brought it back to our car on a sled. When we went into their little building to pay, they gave us hot chocolate and gingerbread muffins, and also gave the kids candy canes and gumballs and little plastic gingerbread people and little stuffed star ornaments. The building had all kinds of antique Christmas things that were very festive. Definitely got us all into the Christmas spirit!

Today we decorated the tree, after putting it up and putting the lights on yesterday. Maren and Linden were helpful and also took lots of breaks, during some of which they put decorations on sleeping cats:

My sweet little elves!

Two pictures

 Between us, Jeff and I managed just two photos this week. Kids with cat:

And Kids on a hike:

There really is plenty to report: Thanksgiving and days off of school along with a break from work, many pies including Thanksgiving pumpkin pies and a mini apple pie from the few wormy apples that we harvested from our brand new tree, putting up our first Christmas lights and wreath, enjoying some time outdoors, and all the other things. 

We are headed into our last week of classes, then we have finals week and a bit of a sigh of relief after that!

Middle of term slog

 For the last few weeks we have been in the middle of the term at OSU which means that Jeff and I are busy and not really able to make a lot of interesting things happen around here. Last week I had nothing to say in a blog post and this week I thought OK I had a better post something, but there is not much to say. Things are just moving along the way they always do. In the last two weeks I have these photos to report:

Linden being silly with carrots:

Linden being silly with a friend:

Rad Dad

Monday was Jeff’s birthday. The kids decorated his cake:

 

They did a pretty awesome job 😊 

Then of course on Friday was Halloween, and along with it came pumpkin carving. This hurt they carved things completely themselves.

This one has eyes by Maren and a mouth by Linden:

This is Maren’s 

And this is Linden’s 

And of course trick or treating. A few weeks ago, Maren came to us and said she doesn’t want to be vegan, and Linden agreed. There were social reasons, and wanting to be able to participate in food-related things with other kids. We talked as a family and decided that we would be “mostly vegan.” So this year that meant keeping all the candy from trick or treating - no swapping for vegan chocolate. In previous years we were able to pare down the amount each kid had significantly by taking out all the non-vegan candy and trading for a much smaller amount of vegan stuff. This year they have mountains of candy, and we can do nothing to stop them! 😬