What a weird, weird day. It was the first day of our school break and the official beginning of winter. Wes had upped his “Is it going to snow soon?” whine, and I had spent much of this rainy, dreary, gray day explaining to him how it was simply too warm to snow and There. Would. Be. No. Snow. This. Week.

And then around 5, it began to snow.

About 5:30, it began to stick. Wes is back to being a theist.

I had three very happy, drenched children!

I needed a good day after spending our first day of Winter Break “helping” the youngers declutter, organize, and tidy their rooms–the least rewarding chore on the perpetual to-do list.

So my only goal for today was it be better than the day before, but the stars (and kids) aligned to make it one of my favorites. We started with the fourth Advent service, which is still a cozy online service for us. Then I started our mandatory Family Walk (usually known as Mama’s Forced March of Misery) by making our delivery of cookies and cards to all our neighbors first on our list. Kyla took one side of the street and the youngers the other as they ran between doorsteps and Dwayne and I with the packets for each neighbor, energized by their giving. Then we continued walking until we made it downtown, first to the Hawaiian BBQ food truck and then our local gift store for a yummy, yummy Kringle–an efficient way of regaining any calories we might have burned off.

We have a new downtown park with a fun lookout, where we ate our lunch and enough dessert to last until Christmas.

We all had been dismayed by the amount of garbage on our road down to town, so we gathered all the plastic bags we could find littered around, and as a family, picked up as much trash as we could hold….which only got us halfway back up the hill home. Just when we knew we’d have to give up the rest and just make it back home, a car pulled over just ahead of us. It was the man who was in charge neighborhood clean ups, but who hadn’t been able to arrange the usual litter pick ups with the county during COVID. But he was so happy to take all our garbage in his trunk and give us the three paper bags he had with him so we could continue the clean up! It felt amazing to have two good deeds do a head-on collision at the perfect time. We made it home, with our arms laden with more trash. The kids felt amazing about this Adventure, with a new pastry to crave and feeling great about making our town a better place. And I felt good about letting them have screen time the rest of the day.

The End

Dwayne’s comfort cookies are these Christmas tree cookies his mother made when he was a child growing up in Brazil. He still makes them and sends them, with no-bakes, to his family every year. This year, the kids were more involved. Dwayne makes the cookies, a slightly complicated procedure making an equal number of three sizes of round cookies. Kyla did the piping, Piper put them together, and all joined in for sprinkles and taste testing.

Neither the first or second batch lasted long!

Piper made these earlier this month. They did not have a long life, either.

As a family, we decided last month to not get together for the holidays. However, we had lots of household items and Christmas presents up north to deliver to my brother’s family down in Oregon. It’s a 3.5 hour drive from my house, so I packed my sleigh on a beautiful Saturday, downloaded the first book in the Renegades series Kyla implored me to read, and made my way south. It was a 4-mountain day, with Rainer, Hood, St. Helens, and Baker showing picture-perfect, an almost unheard of weather event around here! [Old joke: If you can see Mt. Rainier, it means it’s about to rain. If you can’t see Mt. Rainier, it’s already raining.]

One of the presents in my sleigh was Sandi’s new stocking, knitted by Mom, to match the other knitted stockings. Side note: Dwayne still has the BIGGEST knitted stocking in the family, making it not only difficult to fill, but a sign of who my mother loves best, including her firstborn–who has the smallest stocking.

Clearly, I enjoy taking pictures of the sun, my beautiful sister-in-law and two adorable nieces. Brian, sorry, I kind of left you out. Unloading and eating lunch took up my hour break, and eight hours after leaving my own home that morning, I returned, feeling great and loving that long drive by myself! A mom in quarantine will take any excuse, I guess. 🙂

2020 has changed a lot of the normal, but National Swearing Day will always fall the day after Thanksgiving for our family.

But that was weird, too. We got to one of our favorite farms and had to park across the street, as the farm and street parking were already crowded. It did not bode well, and everything that could be lined up for had long queues. But we were not deterred. We quickly found a too-big tree and wrestled it home in our sleigh.

Could this be the perfect tree? Could it? It could!

True to tradition, the tree grew two feet on the way home. It’s a grand fir, which has the most heavenly smell, drinks water for about three weeks, but then overnight dries out so that any touch makes the needles fall like stock prices last February. But it is our guest this year when we don’t get to host our regular Christmas feast. This guy will be at the head of our table!

As a family, we decided to play it safe this holiday season and just celebrate in our own homes. This worked out particularly well for me and mine because, as of 9am, all our hurdles had been cleared and we were free to build our last (last?) wall of the project.

Piper cooked up a 2pm breakfast for us as Kyla and Wes helped Dwayne and I build this entire 8′ wall in 4 hours. With the wall done, perhaps real progress can start next week.

After eating the yummiest pancakes and bacon, I organized another Forced March of Misery, aka a pleasant walk through a neighborhood trail. Candy canes and a read-aloud both ways barely made a dent in the woe-is-me whining spewing from the mouths of the youngers.

Somehow, St. Tom Turkey managed to overlook the infractions and still left holiday jammies and a game on the kitchen table when we returned from our healthful jaunt. With lamb shanks, roasted veggies, and sparkling cider, we were plenty ready for our feast in our newest jammies.

Cheers!

Our wall needed caps and after hearing that I was going to work on it on Friday, my mom volunteered to come over and help (Dad was also hoping to come, but had an appointment). Of the previous 5? 6? 7? wall projects we have constructed, it hasn’t really been my job to mix the mortar, cut, and attach the caps. So I went from unskilled laborer or foreman just like that. I torqued my wrists, again, from mixing mortar and Mom did the heavy labor of bringing and placing all the caps. It was exercise with the best outcome–a beautiful, completed project.

Here’s the before and after pictures!

Thanks, Mom! Really, you should know better, but it was fun working with you!

I’m not sure exactly what about 2020 cemented, and deeply entrenched, my role as sole family event planner, but to get us out of the house during what was supposed to be the Year of Adventure, I always have a half-baked plan moldering somewhere.

Tonight, it was to see the new WildLanterns at Woodland Park Zoo.

I loved it! Pretend it didn’t cost <$100 for the 5 of us (just focus on the needed financial support of a beloved zoo), and enjoy the magic world it creates around you.

Using reserved time slots and a one way path around the zoo, this quarantine-approved outing got five thumbs up, an almost unheard of rating from this family with two very contrary youngers. It was both novel and beautiful and I appreciate the kick-off to a much needed festive season.

If one gets a day of celebration per decade of life (and one should), then this birthday checked all the boxes.

Again, I have to thank my mom for giving birth to me, and I appreciate her timing. November is a little cold, but always having the day off after your birthday? Worth celebrating!

Day 1: Drove, in separate cars for apparently no good reason, to Bainbridge Island Saturday midday. Dwayne and I hilariously took separate ferries to get to the island, but he met me and the kids at Grand Forest for a few mile frolic through the woods. At some point, Wes and Piper picked up and dragged 15′ branches behind them. This is what happens when you don’t buy them a dog….

Then I wanted to check out what the BI Labyrinth was. Loveliness, that’s what! Wes was pleased to find that it was not another 2 mile walk, but a fun twisting rock path with Mama blah-blah-blahing about the symbolism of each ring. Bainbridge is embarrassed if you can go more than a few feet without an epic view and the short walk around did not disappoint. I was also thrilled with the prayer well that chimed on precisely the 9th rotation.

We found the rental house, take out dinner, and the soaking bath in that order, and accidently stumbled across network TV–serendipitously airing the Biden and Harris victory speech. That gave me enough energy for our Sunday itinerary.

Day 2: The reason I wanted to visit Bainbridge–Bloedel Reserve! Dwayne had already bought tickets, so we just had to show up at our time slot and be vague when the kids asked us how long the walk was going to be. (Spoiler: 2+ miles.) It certainly helped that not only was it not raining, but it was that perfect golden autumn sun highlighting the formal gardens, natural ponds, and rolling pastures. Now I need to see this place in all seasons….and in non2020, when we can also tour the mansion. [Please ignore the kids sacrificing each on the stones. We’re just being, ahem, historical.]

From Bloedel, we jumped off the island to Kingston, home to not only the iconic PNW shot (ferry, Mt. Rainier, Seattle skyline across Puget Sound), but also a creperie, which my kids think is the best excuse ever for eating a month’s worth of Nutella in one sitting. It reminded us of preCovid travel.

I was also excited to explore the Japanese-American Exclusion Memorial. Not only did I teach this part of American history back-in-the-day, but Kyla was shocked to learn about internment camps in her history research last year. The final part of the memorial is still under construction, but it already left an impact on me.

We had enough daylight left for Dwayne and I to walk down the beach back at the rental while the kids quickly invalidated the fresh air and exercise of the day with video games.

Day 3: Kids logged in to school and Dwayne and I went exploring! Found ourselves at Blackbird Bakery before walking into the BI Art Museum. It was exactly this time last year that Dwayne and I found ourselves enjoying being adults in the Portland Art Museum. I love spending time with Dwayne this way!

We got back in time to deliver the kids lunch before continued our day at the Eleven winery, before exploring by car as many nooks and crannies of the island as we could stumble upon. I even found myself a pirate!

Day 4: Technically my birthday. Officially 46, I’m no longer the younger woman. Got the kids started on their day before Dwayne and I drove over to Poulsbo, explored some of the shops, walked the boardwalk and “Skittles” neighborhood and then took off in search of the famous Butcher & Baker bakery in Port Gamble that we were assured would have the best birthday cakes…if they were open on November Tuesdays. Ah, well, I finally got to see the <cough, cough> downtown of the historical port that I had also assumed was just the 12 houses one passed between real towns. Turns out there are a solid 6 stores in addition to those dozen homes. One hosts the world’s 2nd largest shell collection upstairs, and they all sell completely unnecessary items, plus a sandwich. I was a little charmed in spite of the non-cake thing.

One more trip to the southernmost nooks and crannies of Bainbridge we hadn’t seen the day before, another stop at Blackbird Bakery to get a chocolatey-chocolate cocoa truffle cake, and we returned to our children and the wrapping up of the four-day birthday extravaganza adventure.