Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Did you know that December 6th is St. Nicholas day? If you leave out your shoes the night before, and if you've been very good, St. Nicholas will come and leave a surprise in your shoes.  This year St. Nicholas brought Esther two Christmas books, for Chris he brought peppermint syrup so we can re-create the Starbucks peppermint hot coco.  For me, a real treat, St. Nicholas brought Trader Joe's Sea Salt Caramels. I LOVE Christmas!

We had a fun breakfast of German-Apple Pancakes with yogurt and berries, listened to Christmas music, and felt very much in the Christmas spirit. Esther is still not sure what's going on, but that's okay.  Better too young than to old for these sorts of things.

Here is our   Advent wreath  and the pretty and thankfully non-fragile nativity from Chris' parents last year.  Still no tree this year, but we are slowly building up our repertoire of Christmas decor and traditions.  A new one that we started this year was reading A Christmas Carol because we figure if President Monson can take time to read it every year, so can we.  Chris or I reads a chapter or two out loud every night and we just finished last night. I'm excited to start another book  tonight.  Not sure what we'll read next, but I'm thinking perhaps it will be The Other Wise Man. 

We can only put decorations in very high-out of reach  due to a certain almost two year old wild woman who lives here.  Bless her. 

Thanks to Sarah and Jake (Chris and Amber's cousins who live in Kirkland) for having us over last week for a gingerbread house party with real gingerbread.  Esther learned the word "candy" and how to eat most of her decorations long before they made it on the house.  We had a lovely time!

Merry Christmas to all!

Thanksgiving in Winthrop

We spent Thanksgiving with my sister Cynthia and her family who live in Winthrop.  Having a sister just 4 hours away is a major bonus to living in Washington.  Especially when that sister has a daughter just 2 weeks older than Esther, and she lives in a place with this view of the Cascades from her family room.  Can we say gorgeous?  I was literally inside the house when I took these pictures of the deer that came up for a morning snack. 

 Harriet and Esther played amazingly well together, mostly playing with the light switches, jumping, calling each other's names "Esser!" and "Harri-eh!" or just yelling, and playing with the toy animals.  Harriet is quite the little firecracker and it was delightful getting to know her fun personality.  She is going to be a great friend.

 A neighbor brought over a refrigerator box for the kids to play with. As you can kind of see, much creativity ensued that involved lots of paint and eating various meals inside the box, passed via a small hole in the roof.  All five kids somehow managed to fit inside along with various furniture and toys.  So fun.

The Feast:

Emil, Joshua, Marta, Thomasin

Cynthia & Thomasin

 Esther snuggling up to Marta one morning.  We spent a lot of time by that fire, because it was quite cold up there, and on our last morning we woke up to...

 SNOW!

 We drove up the pass to where the road was closed.  The oldest 3 kids (Thomasin, Marta, and Emil) put on their cross country skis and the rest of us trudged along the road next to a creek.  It was absolutely lovely...but Esther, being the Carolina girl that she is, wasn't such a fan of the cold.

And that is about what the road looked like when we were driving home!

Oktoberfest

In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines

Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines

In two straight lines they broke their bread

And brushed their teeth and went to bed.

They left the house at half past nine

In two straight lines in rain or shine-

The smallest one was ...

The instant I saw this picture on Pinterest I knew Esther positively had to be Madeleine for Halloween.  My mom and sister helped me figure out how to create the costume, which I made for around $5.

  Even better, my friend Sammy had a perfect nun's habit which made it possible for me to dress up as Miss Clavel (the nun who runs Madeleine's school).  

If only I could have found a golden retriever costume so Chris could have dressed up as Genevieve... 

 Sometimes picture taking can be a challenge, hence the tiny box of candy in Esther's fist.Even then, it's no guarantee.

As you can see, Esther was anxious to get out the door with her cousins so we could go trick-or-treating together.  Trick-or-treating with Esther was an absolute delight.  At first, she was nervous of all the strangers at the door and I had to hold her bag an get the candy for her.  But as she came to understand  that these strangers were giving her treats, her attitude about the whole business quickly improved.  She clutched her bag in an iron grip, shouted "TREAT" along with the other trick-or-treaters, carefully chose her prize from the offering bowl, said "thank-you" often, and ran as fast as she could after her cousins to the next house.  Her bag was getting so heavy it was dragging on the floor, but if Chris or I ever offered to help carry it for her, we were firmly rebuffed. 

1 tiny box of pink nerds

+

1 late night trick-or-treating

+

3 whoppers (malt balls)

+

1 blue m&m peanut

= 

Time for bed!

But it was so worth it. 

Another fun event was our church's annual Halloween carnival complete with games, cider, face painting, and even a photo booth. The secret to a successful night=individual bag of popcorn.  Esther munched mostly happily all night without crying (even though it was late) and without eating the candy.  Brilliant.

A bit hesitant about this face painting business.

 Tricycle races

Those who hadn't read Madeleine were rather shocked that I dressed up as a pregnant nun.  Keeps them guessing I suppose... 

 Our friends Holly and Jason invited us to their 7th annual Halloween organ concert.  Holly graduated from BYU in organ performance and played a fun mix of music ranging from Schubert's Earlking to Pirates of the Caribbean. Moreover, she played in a spectacular Frankenstein costume which made it that much more spooky.

 Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!  

I celebrated November 1st by listening to Christmas music all day and didn't feel the least bit guilty. 

Autumn

If I were to have a favorite season, I would choose autumn.  Just look at this picture my little camera took just a few minutes from where we live - 

...isn't it glorious?   I love autumn because it is my time to restart life, get organized, and live more purposefully.  During autumn I am happy in the moment, but I'm surrounded by happiness on all sides--the excitement of Thanksgiving and Christmas is around the corner, but summer bliss isn't forgotten.  I love the fall wardrobe that is cool enough for cozy sweaters like Esther's red cable knit 

but it isn't so cold as to require thermals and puffy coats. 

Perhaps most of all, I love fall food and have been taking full advantage of the season.  You'll notice that my Yumprint timeline...

  ...has a disproportionate amount of pumpkin, cinnamon, apple, and nutmeg. 

Here are some recent favorites.

 Pumpkin Pie Millet Porridge, 

Baked Spiced Butternut Squash (don't have a photo, but it's a joyous combination of squash, apple and maple syrup. More of a dessert really.)

 

Pumpkin Muffins

and what is fall without Libby's Pumpkin Pie?

 

 Mine had a GLUTEN FREE crust that actually tasted and looked respectable. Thanks to my mother-in-law for the recipe suggestion!

I love fall adventures like the one we had a couple weeks ago at Craven Farm.  It's a fairly elaborate pumpkin patch complete with corn maze, scenic vistas, and all sorts of figurines made out of pumpkins and corn stalks.  Darling.

Finally, Esther proudly presents her first fall craft: leaf painting using bubble wrap on butcher paper.  Somehow she managed to get the paint up her arms, on her face, and in her hair (you'll notice in the pictures she's still wet from the bath).  But it was a success and the leaves are really quite festive.

 I couldn't resist taking/sharing this picture.  Just another morning routine of kissing daddy goodbye on his way to work, but the heels add a nice touch, don't you think?