The sun was shining in beautiful Moab, UT last weekend and we were race groupies once again. It was the first time since we moved back and it felt good to be going through the familiar paces: picking up race packets, pinning numbers on, squeezing to the front of the finish line for that high five. We spent a three day weekend almost entirely outside, soaking in the canyon lands and shooting a crazy number of frames. I felt very like myself again by the end.
Art Projects for Kids is one of our favorite how-to sites.
We have been enjoying several recent tutorials using the new brushes and paper Santa brought.
On the second day of Christmas, we put together a skating party in downtown Salt Lake City, "though the frost was cruel" as the song goes. Those smiles were worth every shiver.
Happy new year! Today is the first Sunday in advent and the beginning of a new Church year. Fresh start. We begin a month of preparation. In our day this can be a busy month, however the most important work to be done is really very quiet. We remind ourselves of this as we carefully light one violet candle and say the blessing over it. We whisper prayers together in the glow of the flame. (video here) We come around this table every evening in December. It is the gift we give to ourselves in a season when contemplation can be hard to come by.
We pulled out the trees and lights today. Over the course of the coming weeks we will be adding ornaments and hanging garlands. We will reach for favorite stories to read a little every day, no pressure. (I explain that and share one of my favorites here.) There will be gifts gathered – some purchased and some handmade. There will be beloved saints to feast with throughout.
There will be a concerted effort not to bustle.
To help in the bustle free effort we are spending some time today and tomorrow to look ahead so we have what we need for the upcoming feasts. I will also be printing some mom-inspiration from days gone by.
St Andrew novena prayer cards here and here with an explanation of this miraculous prayer
St Nicholas ideas here
Advent Customs in the Home here
Advent sections of this book and this book
Mrs. Sharp's Traditions – Advent
Seventeen years ago our two families spent our first Thanksgiving together here in Utah. They had just arrived after living in Germany several years. Today the tables were turned and we made our first Thanksgiving dinner in Utah after many overseas, again with our old friends.
Since all of us are originally from the upper midwest, we share a very similar holiday menu. They are the same dishes we ate all those years ago and the same ones we will be eating in years to come – roast turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, cranberry jiggling from the can, jello salad, brown and serve rolls, and pie, pie, pie.
All carried in deep 9×13 dishes and served on paper plates so clean up is quick work because…
We have important stuff to do after we eat. Board games, ping pong, and…
Curling up on the couch with Charlie Brown.
"Thanksgiving is more than eating…Those early Pilgrims were thankful for what had happened to them, and we should be thankful, too. We should just be thankful for being together. I think that's what they mean by 'Thanksgiving,'"
Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving
The last half dozen years of travel have firmly engrained in us a preference for investing in experiences over stuff. So this year, the little girls each invited a neighbor friend to go on a downtown adventure in lieu of themed parties (which are not really my strong suit anyway.) Disney is not usually among my top ten favorite things either, but this show turned out to be outstanding.
We managed to keep our plans a secret right up until the morning of our outing. Abbie (whose birthday comes first) had been making party and cake recommendations for a couple weeks. She was beginning to be perplexed that we weren't committing. By the time Saturday rolled around she was downright alarmed.
We explained we needed to run to Salt Lake City for some errands so they needed to be up and dressed for a shopping trip. Soon after the doorbell rang and they ran to tell their friends they couldn't play. That's when we sprang the real plan on them. I still can't believe they had no idea. Go, us. : D
We piled in the van and made the trek to the Delta Center downtown.
Snacks in hand we settled in for Disney on Ice. The littlest girl with us positively screamed, "Hi Minnie Mouse!!" over and over when the skaters appeared. She was beside herself.
There was some "stuff" too, like craft kits and much needed cold weather gear.
And homemade cake for the first birthday girl. 'Cause that's what we do. (The bigger girl will have cake on her day.)
And then there were some last minute discussions about this whole getting bigger idea. We finally agreed we would carry on with these annual birthdays so long as she agreed to always be my baby. Which made me feel a little better only since she is still small enough to climb on my lap in Minnie slippers.
That first snow caught us off guard when it came a few days earlier than expected. The children dressed themselves in whatever combination of hats and mitts they grabbed first and ran out the back door. It was a snow visit, lasting just long enough to make one pocket sized snowman.
"When I no longer thrill to the first snow of the season, I'll know I am growing old."
– Lady Bird Johnson
There's battles to build and cities to burn
carpets to muddy and waking to earn
Someone's to something and
something's to learn.
Venturing out from home. Ride with us?
It started out as a small kindly errand. Little Red set off into the forest….
A pleasant task for a pleasant day…
At her cottage waited dear, sweet Grandmother, feeling a little under the weather.
Unbeknownst to both Grandmother and Little Red, a conniving wolf was shadowing their every move, plotting against them.
When Grandmother answered the door, expecting her young visitor, she was in for quite a shock…
Gasp!
A skirmish ensued…
…alerting a woodsman passing through the forest some distance away…
Little Red, however, was none the wiser as she approached the door.
… though Grandmama did appear very poorly.
Until it became clear that it was NOT grandmother at all!
Little Red ran for her life, pursued by the wolf. Fortunately, the woodsman arrived just in the nick of time and saved the day.
He was quite pleased with himself….
The cast and crew:
Happily ever after. As for the wolf?
Rumor has it he made a pass at the producer after the final performance…
Starry Sky Journal 