Christmas Eve

 At last, it was Christmas eve! It rained all morning, so we stayed inside and played games.

Late in the afternoon the rain stopped, and it was quite warm so we went down to the creek and pond to check out the flooding.

Meanwhile, Zac worked on preparing a delicious dinner. We decided to do the Christmas feast on Christmas eve since there was nothing else to do today (and tomorrow there will be new things to assemble and play with!). We had turkey with homemade gravy, green beans, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce and instant mashed potatoes and stuffing. Everything was tasty and perfect.

After supper, our neighbor Linda brought us some gingerbread cookies and beautiful homemade towel she weaved. I'd been kind of bummed this Christmas, not having any holiday festivities outside of our immediate family, but a surprising number of people surprised us by dropping off small gifts. Amy came by to give me a book, Natasha brought us a popcorn popper for the fire, Kim brought us cookies, Kelly gave us a book of pictures of the kids and a colorful trivet from Trader Joes, a student brought a bag of candy and a homemade fitted potholder I assume his mom made (that is perfect for our bowl of baked beans I bring to our campfire cookouts with Jess).

When it got dark after supper, we went for a night walk/hoverboard/bike/ride around the neighborhood to look at lights since it was still so warm out. Back at home, we had bedtime snacks and watched A Christmas Story. I read the traditional "Night Before Christmas" book.

Prompted by the movie, Simon had, at the last minute, realized he'd never made a Christmas list! I had told the kids several times weeks ago to make their lists, but neither ever did, and instead would randomly mention things they wanted, even just a day or two before Christmas! Alice doesn't believe in Santa anymore, and I was hoping Simon wouldn't either, since we barely talk about it, but a magical gift-giver is hard to give up. 

Luckily, we'd already gotten him lots of lures and a pocket knife and something that was sort of like a slingshot. He already has a stapler and tape, but they were taken away at some point because he got staples and tape everywhere. I got them out of hiding and put them back on the art table. The little doll is a weird idea he got from a YouTube video where they fish with a doll. He wanted it to catch Alice (the cow) with it. Needless to say, no doll for Simon.

White Deer Park

Our days approaching Christmas were often filled with games in the morning, then some sort of outdoor activity in the afternoon when it warmed up.

Today I took the kids to White Deer park, which has bike paths and two playgrounds. It's a great place. We rode bikes a bit, and and as always, the kids spent an inordinate amount of time playing on the giant slide that goes down a hill (but I didn't take any pictures).

Another favorite place to play is this big fallen down tree in the woods, where kids always build forts. It's like a giving tree, without the emotionally abusive relationship in the book.

Simon also loved finding this nubby tree to climb.

Cary Christmas Lights

When we drove around the look at Christmas lights a few nights ago, Alice wanted to get out and walk around and look at them up close, but it was getting late and Simon was too whiny. So tonight, just Alice and I went and parked in the library parking deck and walked around downtown Cary, which was decorated with Christmas trees, wreaths, and light up animals (that would usually be part of a different light display that I guess they canceled this year).

Too bad even the fake animals had be kept in cages.

When Alice saw this sculpture, she said, "Mom, is that a butt?" It was actually the back of a sculpture of waves, but artists should take into consideration the point of view of 9-year-olds when designing their installments. I mean, she's not wrong.

Winter Solstice

Since Alice keeps busy by playing video games and reading so much, I get to play real games like Set with Simon. The nice thing about all the downtime of winter break is getting to do things like this.

We had our winter solstice fire to ask the sun to return.

Christmas Cookies

 We made Christmas Cookies today! The kids were great helpers and Zac was an excellent teacher and supervisor.

They couldn't believe how many cookies they had to frost!

After supper, we took a drive through neighborhoods and to downtown Cary to look at holiday lights.

New Hope Overlook Hike at Jordan Lake

 We enjoyed our hike at New Hope Overlook so much last weekend, we decided to come back again 7 days later. Jess didn't have Anna this weekend, so we did the big 5.3 mile loop hike as exercise, while Zac took Alice and Simon along the shore to play. The lake was flooded and they had a great time finding treasures that had washed up. Zac also brought along the SLR camera and got some great shots of the kids. A good time was had by all!

On my walk, I found these cool tree skeletons.

Bin Gitten

 The cat has started sitting in the paper bin on the art table, and Simon thinks it the best thing ever. He is always making up new names for her, and here she is known as "Bin Gitten."

Christmas Lights

 Alice and Simon were pleased with their homemade ornaments from Grandpa Shogren!

Zac did a great job decorating the outside of our house this year (this picture doesn't do it justice).

Jordan Lake New Hope Overlook Hike

 On Saturday afternoon we met Jess and Anna at Jordan Lake for a hike. The ladies hiked while Zac took Simon fishing along the shore. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.  Then they came back to our house for hot dogs at the fire pit.