snow day!

There was a winter storm warning for Portland on Wednesday night and the school district preemptively closed all schools for Thursday. We woke up to a brisk wind but perfectly dry streets, prompting much eye-rolling among those northerners among us. The children were delighted to have the day off school and I was perfectly happy to be home with them - I figured that even if the snow didn't appear, we would bake, make gingerbread houses, and be cozy.

But the snow arrived on schedule! Starting around noon, it snowed off and on all afternoon. It was moderately cold and really windy, and we got about 5 inches in total. It was good for sledding but not really wet enough to make snowmen. No matter - both children were out for nearly the whole time, making snow angels, pathways through the snow, a couple of forts, and of course sledding. Steve and I even joined in the sledding fun for a few runs.

I baked two loaves of cranberry bread and we drank hot chocolate and ate popcorn - got started on the gingerbread houses but had to leave them to dry/set overnight. We have always had the Trader Joe's gingerbread kits, but they sold out this year before I got there, so we have three different models this time. So far, we are super not impressed. Stay tuned...

priorities

 I love this! She needs love, shelter, water, and apple slices. :) I feel exactly the same.

Class assignment: where in the world would you like to go? Sebastian writes that he wants to stay here, because it's safe, there are grocery stores everywhere so we don't go hungry, the weather is almost always sunny, he gets to go to school, and there are nice homes.

"If I were President, I would help people in need."

Sweet children. Maybe we're doing something right, after all.

O Christmas tree!

On Saturday morning, we headed out west along Skyline Blvd to Pollard Ranch to get our Christmas tree. We had a good time stalking and choosing - both kids fell hard for the biggest tree we could find, and Steve and I caved. Steve caved. I'm always willing to get the biggest tree possible. :)  Sebastian dashed around the tree farm investigating everything and mapping the coordinates of the place.

 lumberjack Stephen

It was a beast to cut the tree down and carry it back up the hill to the parking lot - it was a little over 8 feet tall and weighed a lot. We needed help to get it on top of our car, and it dwarfed our Civic. We had to buy a new tree stand because our old one was meant for tiny New York apartment-sized trees. Good times.

 

We feared it wouldn't make it up and through our narrow front hallway, or that it would be too tall and we'd have to trim the top, but it fit perfectly! Only a few hundred needles on the stairs...

Liesl - sweet thing - was so excited about the Christmas decorations. She carefully dug through the boxes and found our stockings and trinkets and Santa mug and everything else. I baked gingerbread cake - we drank hot cider - we hung the lights and some of the ornaments. Liesl was feeling the aftereffects of the flu shot, so she took a long nap in the afternoon while Sebastian went to a birthday party; we postponed finishing up to Sunday.

We started up again on Sunday morning and finished hanging the ornaments. We also made paper snowflakes and other crafty paper things and - in a new twist - I decided to tackle hanging outside lights. With the help of thumbtacks, duct tape, a rickety wooden ladder, and my trusty helper Sebastian, I strung lights down the stair railings, across the top of the garage, and then above the doorway. It looks amazing and festive.

On Thursday the 1st, we inaugurated our annual Advent calendar tradition with some snowman chocolates. Yay!

Next weekend, I imagine we'll get up to some baking of gingerbread and sugar cookies, and making gingerbread houses. I'm so excited! Christmas is the best.

questions and answers

We played a question game at the dinner table tonight - we've played before (it's a box of questions), with mixed results in terms of generating conversation and interesting answers. But tonight, Sebastian was particularly into the game and really focused on reading and answering questions, and it was fun.

What is your most favorite family activity?
L: going all together to the children's museum
S: playing soccer all together at the field.
Bri: going for hikes together

What was your best family vacation?
Bend trip last April
Victoria trip in August with family
camping with friends last summer at Beverly Beach

What is the worst thing you have made in the kitchen?
B: wood soup (avocado-cucumber soup with chips of a wooden spoon); raw turkey (Thanksgiving 2013); apple upside-down cake (oven smoking and catching on fire)

If you could go on a family vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?
S: Nowhere. I like to stay home.
Bri: Italy. Hawaii. New Zealand.
L: New York.
Steve: Yes to all of those!! And Spain too.

What is your favorite time of day?
S: 11:11
Bri: dinnertime
Steve: late afternoon
L: when was I born?

Would you rather time travel fifty years forward or fifty years into the past?
We all agreed on going forward fifty years.

What is the most important lesson your parents have taught you?
Steve: to act in an ethical manner, to love people, to value what is important
S: to have table manners at dinner time
Bri: that it's really important to always show up, to do your best, and to keep your commitments

And then Steve made up some of his own questions for the children.

What is love?
S: When you like someone so much you just want to be with them and around them all the time.

Why do people get married?
L: So they can have company and take care of the children. And to have children.

Why do children go to school?
L: So they can learn to read and write and do math; also, so that their parents can go to work.

What are numbers?
S: I don't know. I don't understand the question.

annual checkups

We had our annual visit to the pediatrician today - it was very straightforward, happily, as both children are healthy and thriving.

Sebastian at 9 weighs 54 lbs and is 51.5 inches tall.
Liesl at 6 weighs 45 lbs and is 45.5 inches tall.

(Interestingly, Sebastian at 6 was 42 lbs and 44.75 inches tall, so Liesl is running taller by a hair.)

the end of the beginning

On Saturday, we were sprinting single laps around the track at the school field, timing ourselves. (6 laps makes a mile.)  Sebastian ran three laps in 1 minute each (1:00, 1:02, 1:01). Liesl ran three laps, getting faster with each one (1:37, 1:24, 1:22). I had gone for a 3-mile run before beginning this little competition, but still, my lap took 1:06. Yep, that's right, Sebastian is officially faster than his mama.

In other news, we played chess and were fairly even. We made anagrams from the word Thanksgiving and both got about a dozen words. (Steve got 50 or so.)

It's the end of the beginning, in my mind. I thought I would feel more depressed about this turn - older, perhaps - but I'm instead happy to see him growing and thriving in such good ways.

Liesl and I went to a pottery painting studio on Saturday while Steve nursed a cold and Sebastian played at the school field with a rotating assortment of his friends. We stayed for a couple of hours, happily chattering and painting away. She was able to really focus this year and spend time on her projects, and I liked being there with her. We'll definitely do it again.

As always, the advent of cold weather and dark nights has brought us inside, to play more board games and re-find our crafty things. We've been playing lots of different games - Qwirkle, Ticket to Ride, Busytown, Sherlock, Ducks in a Row, Duck Duck Bruce. Sebastian completed a 300-piece puzzle of American license plates, largely on his own. We've been playing a lot with Mosaic tile pieces, as below. I like the seasons and that each has its own joys and pleasures.

Thanksgiving 2016

We had a lovely Thanksgiving day - the first time in Portland that I haven't cooked T-day dinner myself! It was nice to take the year off and enjoy the vacation day with less stress. We spent the morning at PG, climbing in the empty gym with Adrienne, Jeff, Luna, Anja, and our kiddos. And then in the afternoon we went to the Hoangs, to enjoy an amazing dinner cooked by Anne and the sweet company of her family, visiting from California.

I brought a purple cabbage salad, dressed up with dates, pistachios, apples, and feta. I had intended to bring one dessert, but then couldn't make up my mind and on Wednesday morning baked both a cranberry bread and an apple cake. And then on Weds night at 8:30, Anne texted to say that she had forgotten to pick up the pies from the bakery!! No pie?! Unacceptable!! This was just my kind of crisis - the perfect situation for me to be the heroine. I made a pie crust that night and mixed an oat-almond crumble topping, and on Thursday baked a pumpkin pie with cheesecake swirl and a marionberry-blueberry crisp.

Sadly, no photos were taken of the delightful food or company at Anne's, but this morning our family had leftover pie for breakfast and I captured the spread.