Sunday, December 24, 2023

One More Sleep 'til Christmas!

Ah, the delights of Christmas break!


Yesterday we got out all of our Christmas books
("The Christmas Cat" by Isabelle Holland is particularly beloved) . . .


. . . and our growing collection of nutcrackers.


Today we brewed up some Crockpot Wassail . . .


. . . then the Enderman on the Shelf pulled up a seat . . .


. . . next to the popcorn bowl
(and the "Unicorn popcorn," which tasted like strawberry Nerds) . . .


. . . and we watched "The Muppet Christmas Carol,"
my favorite Christmas movie ever.

"Cuz, after all, there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas!"

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Happy Belated Birthday!

Joy didn't want to squeeze her birthday celebration into a busy Tuesday night 
that was already packed with youth activities and a choir concert  . . .


. . . so she decided to celebrate on Thursday when she could just relax . . .


. . . play Dr. Mario with her family . . .


. . . and enjoy the dulcet tones of our family's goofy birthday medley
by the light of a scented candle ('cuz we were out of regular ones).


Today she invited friends over for a laid-back birthday hangout.
They took a walk and played Mario Party . . .


. . . while Daddy and I worked with our friend Ed
to fix our kitchen faucet.
Thanks, Ed!

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Concert Season

'Tis the season for holiday concerts!


Todd performed his book concert for our relatives on Sunday,
then he, Anna, and Daniel performed the Christmas duets and trio
they had been polishing for their recital the next day.
(Judging from the look on Daniel's face, I think someone just played a sour note.)


At last night's recital, Anna and Todd performed in the traditional quintet . . .


. . . after Daddy and Daniel played an epic arrangement
of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."


Joy's high school chorus performed this evening . . .


. . . which happens to be her birthday.
She's gotten used to the fact that winter concerts often happen on her birthday,
so when they do, she just decides to celebrate on a different day.


Take that, tradition!

Sunday, December 10, 2023

The Enderman on the Shelf (next to Tia)

At Christmastime . . .


. . . it's fun to play Christmas Memory by the "fireplace" . . .


. . . and spot our "Enderman on the Shelf" in random places around the house.
You might find him chatting with Tia . . .


. . . awaiting rescue from the staircase dungeon
(at least it's well lit, as dungeons go) . . .


. . . or studying the scriptures in our pantry.


Um, Endie, could you move to your next hiding place soon?
Having a spectator in the bathroom is kind of awkward.

Thursday, December 7, 2023

Flying to Yonkers

Our friend Spencer has loves to fly small planes,
and he recently invited Phillip and me to join him . . .


. . . on a short flight to and from New York City.


When we reached the Hudson River, 
we turned downstream and admired these cool basalt cliffs
as we headed toward New York City.
Centuries ago, these cliffs were a popular place for duels,
including one that ended rather badly for Alexander Hamilton.


Our plan was to fly past Manhattan and circle the Statue of Liberty,
then turn around and fly back to Massachusetts.
A local air traffic controller originally told us we had safe weather to fly in,
but somewhere around Yonkers the clouds turned darker
and we started getting some freezing rain . . .


. . . so we decided to play it safe and turn back north near the Empire State Building.
I was really disappointed that we didn't make it to Lady Liberty,
but I knew our pilot friend had made the right choice.


We stayed ahead of the rain on our flight home,
and landed safely back in the Bay State.


Our friend snapped a souvenir photo of us in front of the plane,
then I went home and spent the rest of the day on a couch
because I'd forgotten that flying makes me motion sick.
Note to self: Take Dramamine next time I climb aboard anything with wings,
whether it's a small plane, a jumbo jet, or a pterodactyl.

Sunday, December 3, 2023

A Hippo at the Concert

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here.


Our tree is decorated . . .


. . . the pianists in the family are playing beautiful carols . . .


. . . and we attended our town's multi-church Christmas concert last night.
The COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to these annual concerts for a few years,
and this was the first one we've been able to attend since 2019.
It feels good to gather and enjoy music together again.


At least, it felt good to me.
Todd became bored and fidgety after the first twenty minutes,
so we started taking turns drawing something in the room 
while the other tried to guess the object.
Todd enjoyed the concert a lot more once we started doodling;
I'll have to remember that for next year.


All of the musical groups performed well,
but I think the Unitarian ukulele band was my favorite.
Especially since they brought a big, stuffed hippo as a prop 
for their performance of "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas."

Also, I thought I knew how to spell hippopotamus and ukulele,
but spell check just informed me that I actually don't.
I tried to fix hippopotamus three times, then gave up and let spell check do it.

Saturday, December 2, 2023

Taking Lights to the Next Level

The girls and I . . .


. . . took a little drive to the temple this morning . . .


. . . then we headed home to put up our Christmas lights.
We've been putting lights on the bushes for the last few years,
but attaching lights to our house always felt too intimidating to me.
Joy keeps begging to put lights on the roof though . . .


. . . so I tasked her with figuring out how to make that work.
She did some research on Ye Olde Internet, 
then we bought some clips and a few more strings of lights,
and I turned her loose with a ladder and a prayer.


The clips worked great, and Joy even showed her younger sibs how to attach them
so they could put up the last lights above our porch.


Our house looks so festive!
Great work, guys!