We were out of school for a 10 day quarantine, went back for 4 days, then went on the two week Christmas break and then after only being back in school for 6 hours school was closed for snow.
This week’s country was Japan, so we had ramen.
This was a big week as it was my first time on red chair.
After lots of snowy days (Batchelor received 66 inches of snow in the last 7 days), Sunday was a sunny day
check out the trees…
Here I am working on the scratchables Uncle Jim sent. It took lots of quiet concentration. I really enjoyed it, but I think The Bigs enjoyed it even more :).
I have to make my lunch for school, but I get rushed. The Bigs are always saying ‘finish up, time to brush teeth’. But now that I am on break, I’ve had time to relax and create some culinary magic.
One day I had a smoked mozzerella and salami sandwich, fruit salad, and some pita chips.
Another day I decided to make a ‘board’ with some smoked salmon, cheese, and cuties.
I also decided we should try a recipe from a different country each week. This week? Mexico. The Bigs made me make the dinner – chimichurri cauliflower bowls with Mexican slaw.
Dad and I made a gingerbread house too.
I don’t just cook for myself. I made our neighbors granola as a Christmas gift.
I even designed the label.
I don’t spend all my time in the kitchen. Lately, I’ve been hanging out in the garage a lot. Why? Because Dad built me a trapeze.
I also produced a few works of art.
And made a Christmas display for us to enjoy while we opened our gifts.
We also did some skiing and Santa brought some powder.
After all that skiing it was nice to have a warm bowl of smoked eggplant soup for Christmas Eve dinner.
And I was more than excited to have lamb shawarma for dinner on Christmas Day. The mashed potatoes and root vegetables and roasted butternut squash and red onions were less exciting but ok.
I am so in the lamb.
I left a teeny tiny bit of room for fresh fruit topped with mango and raspberry coconut creams.
We got lots of snow this past week, so I finally did some ‘pine skiing.
and then I hit the nordic trails.
I also posed for the stocking picture. I do not find this amusing but I humored The Mother.
2021
2020
2019
I don’t know why The Bigs always grumble about the mail. It seems like every time I check the box there’s something special for me…so I think it’s pretty great. This week Nana sent an awesome book.
And Nan sent Christmas cookies. What Bigs? You can’t eat gluten right now? Guess I’ll eat them all.
A Big, who will remain unnamed, accidentally forgot to upload half last week’s pictures. So, going back in time a little bit to December 1.
I normally don’t care about the date. Unless it is August 14 or December and I have an advent calendar. Thank you Great Auntie Cheryl. It’s good to have a little chocolate to look forward to after the weird things The Bigs make me eat for dinner.
I also was working on some disguises last week. See if you can tell it is me (they get tricker).
OK. Now we are back to the present week; the week of the SECOND kindergarten quarantine. I do NOT like missing school and I make sure The Bigs are aware of my displeasure. They try to keep me busy by giving me their jobs to do.
I decorated the tree.
And even made some of the ornaments, including a star for the top, gingerbread men (and friends)
and a few reindeer. I am a whiz with a hot glue gun.
I think the tree looks pretty darn good.
I got over my grumpiness this weekend, because it snowed. The Mother made it snow. She waited and waited for snow to make the Christmas card and finally gave up on Thursday. Then it started to dump. So, the Christmas card will be late and lame, but I’m happy!
Here we are getting ready to head out in our matching hats!
It was pretty good and snowy, but they still need a lot more as you can tell from the height of this chair…
as you can see from this picture Mom took on April 2021.
It snowed in town today. Again, I did The Bigs work for them.
It snowed at the mountain too. Look how high it comes up on my legs!
We went for a hike in the Badlands. One of the trails we went on was named Ancient Juniper trail. I wonder why:
We went a little later in the day than we would normally. Our shadows got long.
And the light and sky became amazing.
I am, what some may call, Christmas Man. When I decorated the aloe plant, The Bigs knew it was time to get a tree!
Here we are with our perfect tree. You’ll notice something very wrong with this picture. There is NO SNOW. The Bigs have NEVER gone for a Christmas tree and had NO SNOW.
I refer to myself as self-efficient (not sure why this makes The Bigs laugh). Here I am displaying my self-efficiency cutting down the tree.
Pop was here this week. We tired each other out. We went rock climbing:
played tennis:
and built bird houses:
Not to mention, went to the library, went to the playground, played soccer and basketball, and more. Of course, with all that activity, we worked up quite a hunger. So, we ate Mexican food:
donuts:
and gelato:
For Thanksgiving dinner, we brined, spatchcocked, and grilled a heritage breed Narragansett turkey, and had an apple tart for desert:
As soon as Thanksgiving is over I bust out my Christmas shirts, decorate my room, and start the holiday season. We hung our lights on the porch:
Well, here it is. My kindergarten school picture. I thought we were going outside for snack, not pictures, so I took of my sport coat (to keep it clean) and they took my picture. At least I had a collared shirt on!
The Mother finally brought out her Galileo thermometer (it was away to avoid toddler carnage). It always reads 64, so I thought I’d warm it up a bit and see what happens.
Will you look at The Mother? Copying my turtleneck and camo pants?
I guess they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
We, and the rest of Oregon, hiked Black Butte this weekend. We could see all the mountains.
You may think I just get dressed up for picture day. No way. I roll like this all the time:
We didn’t do much this week. Mainly yard work and listening to The Bigs whine about how bad they feel due to their booster shots.
Mom read somewhere that if you plant garlic, you can keep aphids away. We had a major aphid problem this summer, so we planted THIRTY garlic plants. It won’t work, but I humored her.
Guess what came in the mail this week? This year’s Hess Truck. I think the folks at Hess may be confused because it is a cargo plane, not a truck, but either way it’s awesome. Thanks, Pop!
The weather is cooling off, so I’ve been trying out different hot drinks. This week – herbal tea. It pretty much tastes like water.
I leave The Bigs reading challenges now. I make up sentences and see if they can read them. Sometimes I add a picture to give them a clue.
The other day I came home with a button I had sewn to a piece of cloth at school. The Bigs were impressed. When I told them I wanted to sew a stocking and wanted to know if I should use a running or blanket stitch, they were amazed.
I made pumpkin cookies, reading the recipe myself.
I also made bread for dinner. The Bigs have started whispering words like self-sufficient and saying things about going away for the weekend, and he’d be ok on his own, right?
