Giving Chickens

When I drove through New York City for the first time five years ago,

do you know what I was most excited to see?

The Empire State Building?  Rockefeller Square?

Nope--the Giving Machines!

And I was so disappointed when we arrived to find them closed for the night.

The Giving Machines have come back to New York City every December since then,

but I couldn't bring myself to make the seven-hour round-trip drive

to visit them and make a donation.

Then I found out they were coming to the Boston area too this year!

Come on, kids!  Let's go to Cambridge!

Anna, Todd, and I headed to the Cambridgeside Mall this evening

and started hunting for the Giving Machines.

I think we're getting warmer.

There they are!

I gave the kids a donation budget, 

and asked what they wanted to buy for another family somewhere in the world.

Since we love our hens, they decided to buy someone

a pair of Christmas chickens.

Then Anna used her Christmas Claire's gift card

to purchase some cute earrings that she's really excited about . . .

. . . and Todd used his Cheesecake Factory gift card

to buy some delicious dessert (which he kindly shared with Anna and me).

What a fun way to wrap up the Christmas season--

sharing a fun little adventure with loved ones,

and giving a gift to a stranger that can change their life for the better.

Princesses, Dreidels, and Absurd Scientific Advice

One of my favorite things about Christmas morning . . .

. . . is seeing someone in my family get excited about a gift I gave them.

The kids also like our annual treasure hunt,

inspired by the ones my dad used to make up when I was kid.

This year's hunt led to a Christmas treat

and some of Todd's new Mario figurines (presided over by Joy's Bowser ornament).

I envisioned the hunt as an epic adventure

where the princesses save all the Mario figures Bowser had captured,

but I think the kids were so focused on finding the next clues

that they didn't pay much attention to the

script-flipping storyline.  Oh well.

After all of the gifts were opened,

Daniel relaxed on the couch with his new book

("How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems") . . .

. . . while the rest of the kids played the dreidel game.

I think Todd's winning.

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!"

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

Hugging a Rug

I can't believe it's the last day of November!

Before we move on to a certain fun-yet-hectic month,

I wanted to share a few random pictures from the last couple weeks

that never fail to make me smile.

I saw this sign in our pediatrician's office.

Take that, germs!

Should the owner of this vehicle call a mechanic or a tree service company?

This rug has Cici-colored splotches all over it, 

so naturally the girls wanted to hug it.

In addition to the cheese advent calendar I recently picked up at Aldi,

we're looking forward to starting on this See's chocolate advent calendar Red Grandma sent us.

A month of fine chocolate and cheese--how fancy!

And speaking of December,

don't let Christmas stress you out!

Remember to relax, take a deep breath . . .

. . . and have a little fun! (And cheese.  And chocolate.)