O Tannenbaum!

The tree is up at Grandpa's. He and G made their annual pilgrimage to a local tree farm and picked out a balsam this year. You can smell it all through the house. The highlight of the tree is always the hand-crocheted stars we have from Grandpa's cousin Sr. Theodora in Germany. Like snowflakes, no two are the same!




Before

After

(G in her annual tree skirt ensemble)

Plowing Out

No School!

Snow and ice today ... everything, including swimming practice over Coach's objection, was cancelled.

Wrapping gifts

Cleaning "the alley"

Snow Day!

A Tree Grows Not in Brooklyn

There's a tree in the corner of our yard that never grew. We decorated our little Charlie Brown tree anyway. Then, all of a sudden, it was over our heads. D bought new LED energy-efficient lights for it, and he & G put them up today.

Tree in 1997

D & G posing with LED lights

It's finally over Dan's head, making the task a little more time-consuming

Finished by nightfall!

Catching Snow

Tobogganing

Down the back hill

Maike, ever the supervisor

Rosy cheeks!

Fog Hill

View of Rainbow Hill from the county line

Crazy winter weather: snow, rain, sleet, slush, ice

Thanks Nana!

When my parents visit us, one of the must-dos is a pilgrimage to Kohl's. My mom and G love doing this, especially because there's an ongoing debate about whether "2-for-1" or "half-price" is the better deal. Unfortunately, this year my mom wasn't able to travel, so there was no Kohl's trip. But then my mom sent us some money so G could still do a Kohl's shopping spree. Lucky for us it came during the "Storewide 50-60% Off Sale"!

So thanks Nana! Since you can do the steps now to get to Pop-Pop's computer, here's what we got:




Snowman tablecloth and dish

Throws and pillows for the almost-finished attic

These Friends of Mine

We have some friends who seem to have a way of making things appear just when they're really needed ... goody bag during my mom's accident ... Buddhist meditations in the aftermath ... binoculars ... Manga bible. You get the picture. Recently we had them to dinner at the spur of the moment. I cut up some potatoes and sweet potatoes and threw them in the oven. When I served them, I lamented the fact that I had actually wanted to serve a *tri-colored* dish, but couldn't find purple potatoes at the grocery store. Guess what showed up next?

Tonight's potato mélange ... complete at last!

Wat U Say?

G's swim team is preparing to host its annual winter swim meet in two weeks. A swim dad who's a professional photographer did this lineup last week.

Fun Facts: The head coach is a former Navy SEAL. And the girl in the front row at the far right who is in middle school regularly kicks HS boys' butts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dan, G & I spent the day together cooking. G baked a Toll House pie, Dan did the turkey and stuffing, and I made "Green Beans Kayleen" and the mashed potatoes. We had a lot to be thankful for (first and foremost, that my mom and Uncle Dick are still with us, after a tough year) during our low-key celebration. Joe skipped Aunt Joan's and ended up joining us.

G pours her pie filling

Here's to all we have to be thankful for

First Snow

Last night we got our first measurable accumulation of snow. G & I sat in our chairs by the window and watched it come down.

Papasan

G & I spent the day in Madison (after sleeping in, of course). We did some bricks-and-mortar Christmas shopping and general browsing. Although we've looked at lots of different chairs for the area in front of our big window, G has been lobbying hard for a papasan chair. Well, in our travels today we found one. Anyone want to give me odds where she'll spend the rest of her break?

Unwrapping the chair took a bit of time

Ensconced in her nest

Geocaching

On Sunday we spent the day geocaching with our friends Beth, Chris, Alex and Ben. Dan & G accidentally happened upon a geocache about two years ago when we were visiting my folks in York, and we were soon proud owners of a Garmin eTrex Legend C. We'd tried to get a few other people interested, but never had much luck until this summer with this crew. They are now even prouder owners of the next generation of Garmin technology, so we all headed out to not one but two geocache locations. The first site was a three-parter that we weren't able to finish earlier this fall because the mosquitoes were horrendous. The second was a 10-part cache at a nature preserve. It was a bit nippy out, but it was perfect weather for all the trudging we did.

Ben & G discover a set of coordinates

Alex locates the coordinates on a pier

Chris & Dan program their tricorders GPS units with the new coordinates

Hiking to the next stop

Why are these people listing?

Light the Way

Saturday, November 17: Jamer & Kayleen invited us to go to Costco with them. It was an expensive day for Dan. In addition to all the stuff G & I had to have at Costco, we visited Target, Office Max, Starbucks, Noodles & Co. and Home Depot. At HD, I finally found light fixtures for the attic. After the work-filled weekends of October and the last few weeks, it was a nice change of pace to spend the day together doing nothing much.


Wall sconce now installed in the attic stairway

Jammer Time

Friday, November 17: The 10-day Thanksgiving break started at 2:45 p.m. Hooray! Agenda: sleeping, more sleeping, eating, shopping and swimming.

G and I bought matching jammies for our aggressive schedule of lounging

Roman Day

Thursday, November 15: Roman Day finally arrived ... and none too soon. Kids and parents had beaucoup organizing to do, because in addition to family and friends, community leaders were invited. Grandpa, Dan, Dan's cousin Stacy (not only family, but a Chamber of Commerce Ambassador), the local Target Community Grant Captain (the mosaics the students did for Roman Day were supported by a Target art grant) and I were at G's table. She'd really put a lot of thought and detail into the myth they were asked to write, and her maps were beautiful. We were really proud of all that she had accomplished over the trimester.


G plays latrunculi with our guest from Target (who happened to go to school with Dan's sister Pat)

Going Green

Wednesday, November 14: Dan and I coordinated a wreath fundraiser for G's swim team. We picked the wreaths, greens and centerpieces up, collated orders and waited around for people to come and get them. To put everyone in the holiday spirit, there were scattered flurries throughout the evening.


Wreaths took up all the space in one of our garages

Lend Me Your Ears

At least once a year, G's school does a huge to-do called a "Day of Learning." Students dress in costume and share with family, friends and community leaders what they've learned about their thematic unit through roundtables, skits, presentations and music, capped off by a time-period feast. This Thursday will be "Roman Day." D, G & I spent about an hour and a half tonight putting together a costume of a stola, palla, tiara, earrings and hairstyle. Here's a sneak peak ... more to come later this week!

Latin hand gesture for "O Most Revered Pater Familias"

Concrete Idea

The foundation of one of the barns needed to be reinforced. It was a job for [da da da dah da daaah] Uncle Fred and his backhoe! He, John & Dan spent the better part of the day shoring up the granary by pouring a concrete support wall. This included mixing, shoveling and hauling a couple of tons rock and concrete. They all shouldn't have any trouble sleeping tonight.

Fritz & Dan conferring about how to get the job done



Everyone at his appointed task (with moral support from Maike, as usual)


Top of the support wall with everyone's initials and date noted

How Bizarre, How Bizarre

When G and I got home from school on Friday, she found this little shaving cream sculpture in the bathroom. We were afraid to touch it in case disturbing it caused a full-blown explosion. At least it smelled good. Dan diffused it later that evening and managed to retain all his digits.

Eulalia!

Through some good fortune, our local indy bookstore was able to snag Brian Jacques on his U.S. tour to promote Eulalia, his latest book in the Redwall series. Typically he does much bigger venues, but he agreed to appear before an audience of 120, the capacity of the public library. He is as wonderful a storyteller in person as he is in print, so the evening went very quickly. Moral of his appearance, as well as his books: Good will always win out over evil. Let's hope that's not fiction.

The author performing the description of Cluny from Chapter 2 of Redwall

G & her friend Chloe waiting in line to get their books signed

G meeting Brian Jacques

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Chuckin'

A few stills for those of you who can't get the video to load:

Loading a pumpkin

G tries her hand

Makes Me Wanna Hurl

With blood, sweat and tears, the trebuchet has been resurrected and rendered functional.

Late Bloomer

Double hollyhock

Silhouette

Hanging Out

A better place to do it than the mall ...

G and her friend Em with Starlight, Eadie, Crescent, Clover and Honeysuckle

Don't Let the Rain Come Down

Ah, the romance of living in a 100-plus-year-old farmhouse!

Point of egress, directly over our bed, for the rain water coming in through the leak in our roof. Forecast calls for rain on and off for the next few days. Let's hope Jesus the Roofer answers his voicemail.(OK, actually his name is Jim, but he looks like Jesus, if He had driven a pickup and traveled to job sites with His Boxer instead of His Disciples ...)

How You Fix a Broken Jack-o-Lantern

With a Pumpkin Patch, of course!

Long, busy day. Huge pumpkin day. Lots of big groups, people who've come here year after year. Thank goodness pumpkin season falls during autumn, when it is dark by 6:30!

Here's what it looks like if you take a hayride with Dan. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) you miss all the pumpkin humor when you're not right here ...

Farmers' Market

Dan & G spent another Saturday morning at a local farmers' market. Amazingly enough, they came home with an almost-empty flatbed. Or maybe not, since a friend told us that a stand in town is selling pumpkins for $20-$40! Since none of ours are more than $5, I guess that's why they could unload them so fast.

G with the flatbed of produce

Dan chatting up a family friend