Grandpa calls for Piper’s help whenever he’s ready to bottle the new batch of wine. 

First, she helps prep the bottles.

Then, she uses a syphon to fill them.

Next,  it’s time to secure the bottle cap.

Finally, the bottles get a personalized label.

Nice Job, little Elf!

After a drenching 24 hours, we woke to cold blue skies. So I took myself for a walk around the long beach loop.  The island is still magical to me, as an eagle soared overhead and the fresh snow on the Cascades stood out against the blue water.  Love this place!

We celebrated family Christmas a bit early and let the kids all decorate their gingerbread houses as they waited for dessert (hardly eating any of the extra candy, I’m sure)!

Can one call it “ice skating” when the ice is plastic pieces fit together and coated in a thin layer of oil? But the kids liked it well enough before demanding I take them to a real ice rink over break.  Okay, kids, I promise.

The cabin wasn’t rented as much the first half of December , so we got a few days there.  The kids spent time building and playing.

Kyla was proud of her tower.

Wesley did the same the next week, and threw in a bedroom barricade to up the ante.

All the kids got time with their island friends.

Sun sets just after 4pm these days!

She saved and saved and saved…and finally she was able to go to pick out her new pet.

She’s proud to introduce to you

Bumpy the Leopard Gecko!

I think Kyla taught her, but Piper embraced this new craft, and when her friend, Vivian, gave her some yarn before we drove home from the cabin, she kept herself well entertained.  It was longer than her self when we arrived home!

This is how Wesley spent the trip:

Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me was at the Moore Theater, and S.I.L Julie was completely on top of it and got tickets for the 4 of us.  What a great night!  I’d go back in a heartbeat when they are back in town.  Here’s a picture just to prove we were there. 

The upper railing has never really bugged me, but once we finished the kitchen, I got a bee in my bonnet to replace the white metal with black wood.  Our 6” posts are not the actual 5.5” they are supposed to be, so off to Dad’s garage I went to trim down a lot of pieces to 5.25”.  Wesley was thrilled with the scrap pieces it produced.

I’d rather not recall the many redesigns and miscalculations I made, and have to admit that I needed both my dad and my husband to finish this project.  The part of me that continues forward and finishes is not always a friend to precision and reflection, also known as “wood-working”.  But high gloss black paint covers many an error, and I really like the final result.

Before:

After:

Decorated for Christmas (we gave away the buffet that previously displayed the Christmas village):