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Our Christmas Sing-A-Long was this week. The teachers told us to wear a fancy outfit. I chose this:

Plaid and plaid don’t go, Mom? Whahahaha

Dad and I know better.

Skiing in the Pacific Northwest. Saturday = powder.

Sunday = rain.

I thought skiing in the rain was fun. You just need to bring a dry change of clothes and a warm hat.

Something not fun we did this week was buy a new refrigerator. Ours died. Due to the pandemic and the Bend building boom, there were no choices unless you wanted to wait until April, no delivery, and some really grumpy Bigs. I took charge and got that fridge installed.

While we waited for the new fridge, we kept our food in the garage. It was about 40 degrees in there, so almost cold enough. We had some good food despite the issues. Tortilla soup:

Truffle salt pasta with spinach, tomatoes, and SHRIMP:

Roasted eggplant and tomato soup:

Tuna, mango, veg bowls:

And we made our own ‘nutella’:

We’ve been cross-country skiing since before Thanksgiving, but Mount Bachelor finally opened, so we get to go ‘pine skiing now! On the Rainbow lift:

Making gingerbread cookies:

and decorating them:

Ready to go on the tree:

This lady found a home near our 3-D-printed snowflake:

In addition to skiing and baking, I also do floral arranging. My latest centerpiece creation:

We only tried one new recipe this week, vegetable quinoa stew:

We need snow. Here I am taking matters into my own hands:

Crane building:

Mom’s birthday:

These party hats make me feel like doing unicorn pose:

Birthday cheesecake. This four candle is getting a workout. It started its life at Ryan’s fourth birthday…

I’ll cut the cake with my light saber (thanks for that great idea Uncle Chris):

Look at this slice, perfect:

Christmas tree hunting:

Supervising the installation of our tree:

‘Helping’ with the lights:

Done:

I made up another recipe:

Turkey, potatoes, gravy, lettuce, truffle salt, and pepper salad:

Remember the pumpkin Becky and I carved my name into?

It made a delicious curried pumpkin soup:

We also had a sour apple slaw and five-spice tofu bite bowl this week:

Lots of skiing and turkey this week. On Thanksgiving day, we went exploring in the woods near Swampy.

I spent most of the time making the Bigs follow my zig-zaggy tracks and finding things to jump off. Sometimes over and over again.

After skiing, it was time to get cooking. Here I am making the mushroom soup for my world-famous green bean casserole (yes, The Bigs made me make mushroom soup and french onions from scratch. Don’t they know they sell these things in the store?):

The finished product:

We also had a spatchcocked heritage breed turkey, cooked on the grill. Hey, who you callin’ turkey?

We also had truffle mashed potatoes and white wine giblet gravy:

And, cranberry walnut bread:

I provided the table decorations:

I was happy:

and so was my belly:

Desert was pumpkin cashew ‘cheese’cake:

Lots more skiing this weekend:

And, lots more snacking:

Sometimes, I even get to go downhill:

And, occasionally, I hitch a ride back up (and Pop was worried about Dad getting enough exercise now that he doesn’t have to pull the Chariot!):

A video of a tow ride:

Looking sharp for my after-ski mini-van lunch:

In addition to being Ski Man, I am also Long-John Man. I have worn my long johns and my buff for four straight days now. The Bigs said I have to wear regular clothes to school tomorrow. On top of all that, I am also Christmas Man. We decorated our house the day after Thanksgiving:

Christmas Man’s room:

Yes, it is much too bright to sleep, but Christmas Man does not care. Christmas Man wrote his list for Santa:

I will send it with this letter:

We did some more cross country skiing this weekend.

Okay, enough with the pictures already. Let’s go ski.

Nothing like an ice cold beer after a hard ski.

I made dinner again this week. The Bigs didn’t like what I made, so I had to make them a special meal. I don’t understand why they can’t eat pasta without mushrooms. What are they? Five?

Some of the things we ate. Burrito bowls:

and pad thai:

Dad made bread:

because Mom made soup. Curried cauliflower:

and Turkish tomato, bulgur, and red pepper.

No meal is complete without dessert. Like purple turkey-shaped butter cookies:

and French apple tart.

Is it live or is it Memorex?

Helping with the fall yard clean up:

Another big LEGO week. Uncle Chris sent me a cool Star Wars Lego kit:

and Mom borrowed a simple machines kit – so I built a race car with a working transmission.

Dad built a box for the minivan. Why?

For us to sit in the car and have lunch after a hard ski (no COVID lodges for us, thank you).

Good thing he finished it. I worked up a big hunger this weekend. Look at all this snow!

There has been lots of moaning about aches and pains from The Bigs. I guess working from home without proper office chairs (among other things) has hurt them. Getting old must be rough. Anyway, I solved the problem. Here I am assembling their new office chairs.

I am so much more productive now!

Despite doing almost all the work around the house and solving The Bigs problems, I still had time to create. This is art.

You saw some of the prep for a few of this week’s meals last weekend. Here are the finished products. Tofu noodle soup:

and Indian mulligatwany stew:

I also made

broccoli and cheese risotto and pan-seared tempeh steaks with a chimichurri sauce

And Dad made a multigrain bread

and a super greens soup with lemon tarragon cream.

Guess who I am. Not sure? Some hints. 1. That’s a mustache. 2. Börk börk börk. Give up? The Swedish Chef, of course.

I volunteered to make dinner on Friday. Perhaps so we would have something I like…

I made truffle salt shrimp pasta, of course.

This week, I gave The Bigs a shopping list.

They ACTUALLY bought the stuff. I used those apples, potatoes, butter, salt, and raisins to make a salad – I made up the recipe.

It was, much to The Bigs’ surprise, quite good. How could they doubt me?

I also prepped several meals for the coming week. I got a broth started for tofu noodle soup,

made an Indian mulligatawny soup,

and prepared the topping for an apple cranberry crisp.

I still had time to do multiple costume changes and some light cleaning.

I’m never tired, but when The Bigs make me go to bed, at least I have cool new Peanuts sheets – just like Ryan. Thanks Nan and Pop!

On Saturday we went on a hike at Paulina Lake. It was 26 degrees out.

I AM FREEZING. WHERE ARE THE HOT SPRINGS?!?!

Ahhhhhhh.

Big week this week. I finished construction of my AT-ST walker:

Got a new Hess truck from Pop:

And, I also had my last bike class. Bummer. I’ll be back for more in the spring. Jack-o-lantern bike this week:

Very exciting pumpkin and ghost cookies arrived in the mail this week. Thank you, Nana!

Everyone got into the Halloween spirit this week, even my stuffies. Kermit was a skier:

Moose was an astronaut, Papa Dog was an engineer, Puppy an EMT, and Elephant was a firefighter:

The Bigs show their Halloween spirit by drinking pumpkin beer:

Prepping candy bags for the Halloween scavenger hunt:

No trick-or-treating this year, so Meera and Om came over for some Halloween fun. I was a Jedi:

Meera was a princess. Om was the Hulk, but he wasn’t in a picture-taking sort of mood.

We played Pin the Face on the Jack-o-Lantern,

did a candy scavenger hunt,

had burrito bowls and Halloween cupcakes,

and we watched It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Sunday, we enjoyed the beautiful weather with ride at Phil’s:

We ended our ride at the pump track:

Here’s a little video of me pumping the pumpkin:

Some food from the week. Delicious wraps:

Tofu Banh Mi:

Fall is here. Our maple turned this week:

It was my 5th out of 6 mountain bike classes this past Thursday. It was 47 degrees outside. Did that stop me? No way:

I’m not sad about the weather turning. TIME TO SKI. We picked up my skis on Friday. I wore them all weekend:

It was a pretty awesome week for mail. A coffin full of spooky truffles from GA Cheryl (After the incident with the sweets from GUM, I count all my chocolates before going to bed. I’m watching you BIGS):

and Sesame Street socks from Pop:

I continue to keep The Bigs well fed. Here I am making apple cake:

All work and no play makes Emmett a dull boy. Apple binoculars!

Pumpkin carving is complete:

We did a beautiful hike on Tumalo Creek trail Sunday:

I felt compelled to stop and do yoga along the way. Perhaps I was inspired by nature? Tree pose:

Rock pose:

Table pose:

Eagle pose:

Triangle pose:

Lotus pose:

Other food we had this week. Dr. Brad caught a huge tuna and shared. Pan-seared tuna and bok choy:

Lemon brussels sprout pasta:

I made the mistake of telling Mom I had nothing to do one too many times. One of the many tasks she gave me was to grind and make coffee for the Bigs:

I just started building a LEGO Star Wars AT-ST walker. It is going to be a LONG project:

Check out my new hat:

I can wear it with my Colorado T-shirt and be Colorado Man:

All dressed up for Saturday breakfast on the porch:

After breakfast, I threw my tool belt on and hung our ghosts:

I did a lot of cooking this week. One night, I made dinner all by myself. We had Emmett’s Pasta:

It was good (Grandmothers, I know. No hats at the dinner table)!

I also made Halloween (pumpkin) chili for the week:

Something I did not make, butternut squash risotto:

We went to the Metolius Preserve to explore some new trails this weekend. I rode my bike while the Bigs ran:

The larches were turning. It was very pretty:

Chinook salmon swim up this creek each year on their 700-mile-long journey to their nearby spawning grounds: