Duets, Doc, and Dark Side Candy

Our piano teacher's Christmas duet concert was virtual again this December . . .

. . . but the kids still had fun learning and performing beautiful carols.  This year, Daniel performed "Angels We Have Heard on High" with Anna, and Todd performed "Joy to the World" with  . . . Joy  (who respectfully requests that you keep any name-related holiday puns to yourself).

Speaking of Joy, it's her birthday today!  She asked me to try a new quick bread recipe instead of  baking a cake, so I made her some pumpkin bread.

Joy received a lot of candy for her birthday, including treats from Anna in our favorite candy box.

This is also the 2nd anniversary of the day Doc joined us!  He was really skittish for the first year or so, and we wondered if he'd ever let us hold him, but now he lets Joy carry him all over the house! 

Tree and Toast

This December, our church Christmas party . . .

. . . was called "Breakfast in Bethlehem."

After we enjoyed baked French toast, the youth acted out the Nativity story.  Joy was a shepherd (with a Star Wars shirt and a purse) and Daniel was a sheep (wearing green creeper pajamas).

In other news, since we didn't get a tree at the New Hampshire farm last week, we decided buy one from the local farm stand with the twirling trees.  The kids probably thought that was just as magical as a wagon ride and free cider . . .

. . . especially once we took our tree home and decorated it with our favorite ornaments.

When we finally found our pickle ornament (I forgot that I had put it back in its box last year), I hid it on the tree . . .

. . . so someone could find it again.

A Bit of Snow

We woke up this morning to a picturesque winter scene.

The kids had hoped the snowy forecast would mean a day off school, and this light dusting of flurries would probably have canceled school back in Maryland . . .

. . . but here in Massachusetts the plows clear the roads and life carries on.  I accompanied Todd to his bus stop this morning, then headed back inside to get ready for my day.

Before I got down to business though, I couldn't resist stopping to take some pictures of sunshine on snowy bushes . . .

. . . and little bird tracks on our back deck.  I may be tired of snow by February, but in December it still feels beautiful and a little magical to me.

Fall Is So Last Season

 We're more than a week into December, and snow is forecast for tomorrow . . .

. . . so I decided it was really time for us to get rid of the pumpkins by our front porch.  The kids gathered them up . . .

. . . and I collected all of the little ones inside . . .

. . . then we chucked them all down Compost Hill.

Todd pitched this little orange one a good distance, but if you look at the bottom-right side of the picture, you'll see a big, dark-green pumpkin that didn't make it very far.  I think that one needs a do-over!

One of Our Favorite Traditions

 As soon as Todd arrived home from school on the first day of December, he asked me if the "enderman on the shelf" was back this year.

He was very happy to come inside and discover Endie hanging out in the wreath on our pantry door.

I'm with Todd--one of my favorite things about December is that Joy starts putting her enderman in odd places around the house.  It's been fun this week to randomly spot him chilling with Santa . . .

. . . waiting for someone to come bake cookies . . .

. . . or getting a charge out of the plasma ball.

Cautious Delivery Folks

"Santa" (AKA Amazon and FedEx) has already started delivering Christmas presents to our home . . .

. . . but he's leaving them in strange places this year.  For example, why did he put a package on this side of the garage when our porch is literally on the other side of it?

And why leave something on the lawn halfway up our driveway?  I get that social distancing is important, but stopping 20 yards from our house seems a bit excessive. 

How Bazaar

This morning . . .

. . . I drove Joy to our town's annual Christmas bazaar in the middle school gym.

Her high school humanitarian club was running a charitable fundraiser there, and Joyo had volunteered to staff a booth raising money to help Cambodian children afford an education.

The high school band had also volunteered to provide beautiful, festive music for the event.

While I didn't see anything at the bazaar that I wanted to buy for myself, I did make a few donations to charities.  I also paid for Todd's teacher to be entered in a drawing for a classroom grant, and I took home a card so Todd could write her a thank-you note.  She had kind of a rough week, and I thought that might lift her spirits.

This afternoon, we took a long drive up to a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm.  I'd heard they provide a free wagon ride, cider, and donuts when you buy one of their trees.  It all sounded really magical, but we arrived to find that their trees sold out last weekend, so we just bought some donuts before heading home.  Those donuts were the best I've ever had in my life, but they weren't worth a 3-hour round-trip car ride.