Santa at the Orchard House

We visited Santa at the Orchard House for our fourth consecutive year. the folks at the Orchard House really put on a big production for Christmas. And they are located about 2 miles from our house. This year, Clyde the camel joined in on the fun. I had no idea that camels were so friendly. He gave all of the kids big sloppy kisses and ate ice from their hands.

This year Mrs. Claus joined Santa at the Orchard House. This year Elena was able to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas. She had to repeat herself because she was talking so fast, but I think he got the message. After telling him what she wanted for Christmas, all of her bravery was spent. She refused to ask him for a candy cane.

She also refused to wear a funny hat or pose for pictures after chatting with Santa. Fortunately Marcus was game.

Christmas Tree

This year we were able to get our first Christmas tree from our cabin in Donnelly. The temperatures were forecast to be sub-zero for most of the weekend, and this time the forecast did not disappoint. When we arrived at the cabin, it was barely above freezing inside. It took about 4 hours and a case of hot cocoa to get the cabin up to temperature.

We didn't take any pictures of our Christmas tree hunt. The camera wasn't working well due to the cold, and well, there was lots of crying involved. Despite the new snow clothes the kids had on, they still froze. We finally found a suitable tree and headed back to the cabin for another case of hot cocoa. While we were warming ourselves, our dog Guinness started yelping. It took me a few seconds to realize what was going on. I think you can figure it out from the photo below.

Elena was actually helpful during the decorating process. Here she is hanging ornaments.

Here is the final product. Note that we ran out of lights due to the ridiculous girth of this particular tree.

You may remember that we have been sans-Christmas tree skirt for many years now. My mom came through this year with a beautiful hand-made skirt for us. Here you can see part of it peeking out from beneath the tree.

And here is our tree on the ground. I'm not sure who tipped it over, but it looks as though it may have been a group effort.



Karen's Bad Day

On Tuesday, I was running late for work and left in a bit of a rush. In doing so, I forgot to feed the dogs. As I grabbed my phone to ask Karen to feed them, I received this text from her.

Needless to say, I didn't mention the dog feeding oversight until nearly a week later. I guiltily set my phone aside for a few hours before responding because I needed my library card number. Note to self: when Karen is having a bad day, it's worth texting more than two words in recognition.

Thanksgiving

Karen and I hosted Thanksgiving again this year. We really enjoy hosting Thanksgiving. This year we were joined by my parents, Kory and Sylvia, and Karen's parents.

This year I decided that everyone needed to get lots of leftovers. We generally cook a single turkey in our electric roaster, but once the meal is done there isn't much meat left over. We needed two turkeys, but I only had space to cook one. A quick stop at Campbell tractor solved our problem; I bought a Traeger smoker/grill on Tuesday. I went all-in, cooking both turkeys on the grill and followed a recipe I found on the web.

Karen's family likes their gravy. Gravy literally makes or breaks family dinners for the Finch family. With this in mind, I put a drip pan under the turkeys filled with yummy stuff to add flavor.

 Add two turkeys. They weighed 23 and 20 lbs.

Dinner was planned at 4:00. I didn't know how long it would take to cook the birds since I wanted to smoke them for a while prior to turning up the heat. When I put the thermometer in them at 2:00, they were done. I took one bird off of the grill early and carved it up and packed leftovers for everyone. The other bird coasted and managed to remain moist for dinner.

We really need to take more pictures at our family gatherings.  Once things get going I always fail to get the camera out.

This is the first year Karen and I have celebrated Thanksgiving without one of our grandparents attending. My grandfather was a very small man, but he was a master of hyperphagia. I remember lying on the couch, grasping my aching belly, only to watch him go back for serving #4. He sat at the abandoned table and just kept shoveling it in. Enter Sylvia, hyperphagia master. She cleaned her plate AND had dessert. Well-played Sylvia, well-played.

 The kids enjoyed the meal as well.

 The ladies prepped dessert while the guys watched football.

 

I would like to thank everyone who made it for the holiday and we look forward to next year!

We Aren't Going Anywhere

Karen and I have been planning a winter vacation to a climate much warmer than ours. We haven't really traveled with our kids; we are trying to work out the details so that we won't be the people in the rest stop/hotel/airport/airplane with the screaming children who ruin everyone's experience (including our own). We initially considered Hawaii, but decided that few, if any on us would survive the 5-hour flight from CA to Hawaii. We then decided to consider Mexico, as it is much closer.

Karen found an great deal on the internet for our Mexican vacation. The only stipulation is that we would each need to host a travel companion on the trip.

I am paired with a lost member of the rainbow family. She has obviously suffered a very abusive, depressing life.

Karen has been paired with Marcus Soprano. His father really didn't mean to shove the pencil into that other guy's neck.....

As you can see, Karen took the kids in to get passport pictures. She did it right after getting their hair cut, so Marcus had a fauxhawk. Karen's orders to the photographer were to take "Whatever we need  to be legal." Good job Karen, I'm sure we'll zoom right through customs...

One Month, One Post

I have not been in the blogging mood lately and neither has Karen. I need to make up some ground, so I have decided to speed-blog.

Halloween: We visited a few friends followed by dinner at my parents' house. We took pictures of the kids' costumes, but the pictures sucked. Elena was a scuba diver and Marcus was a shark. Elena had a tough time pronouncing "scuba diver," so the teachers at her school thought she was planning to be a screw driver.

We made a couple of trips to the cabin. Our view has gone from this:

 To this:

The kids loved the snow. Elena woke up to see snow and promptly thanked the snow gods. "Thank you snow!" She made snow angels and Marcus mostly stayed put, as he wasn't able to walk around without falling down. It took us 20 minutes to dress the kids for the cold weather. After five minutes outdoors, they were cold and ready for some hot chocolate. We then spent 20 minutes undressing them.

 

 

Mary (Karen's mom) turned 29 this month. We had a nice celebration with extended family and friends.

Marcus either has epilepsy or he dances like his father. I will let you be the judge.

Speaking of Marcus, he has been changing rapidly. He now has a few words, the best of which is "out." He loves to go outside. He follows it up with the sign for outside, just in case the fact that he's standing next to the door and holding his shoes fails to get the message across. He had surgery to install tubes in his ears a few weeks ago to help with his ear infections and it seems to be helping. He has also started fighting back against his sister. Bear hugs and hair pulling are his weapons of choice. One evening he tackled Elena on the kitchen floor. They both fell down HARD. Karen and I were laughing so hard we couldn't help them up and comfort them.

Random pics and a walk on the beach

 We have a few random pics of the kids. Marcus has been helping feed the animals, he especially likes the cat. Frank is also fond of Marcus, probably because he can't pick her up yet.

 Sprout is also a good helper. She is mainly in charge of picking up eggs.

 We've been enjoying the mild temperatures and decided to take walk on the beach or the closest thing to it. Lake Lowell is very low, so we braved the brambles and tullies and walked along the shore. This had been postponed due to the government shutdown, but now the refuge is open to the public again.

 The kids had a great time playing in the sand and finding treasures. Lisa and I had a great time trying to find our way out.

The Cabin

 On Tuesday, we closed on a cabin near Donnelly. We bought it from Karen's cousins, Peewee (Harold) and Sharon.

Karen had some schedule conflicts this weekend, so she wasn't able to join the rest of us on our trip to the North. We celebrated on Tuesday night with champagne. I planned to take Friday off so Karen could take a class; I headed to the new cabin on Thursday night while the kids slept. Elena was very excited about the cabin. She spent most of the week packing and talking about it. We left our house around her normal bedtime, but she didn't fall asleep until Horseshoe Bend. As soon as I pulled into the driveway, she was awake. I told her to hang tight while I prepped the kids' beds and she just chilled in the truck while Marcus slept. Once the beds were made up, I carried each of the kids in and settled them back down to sleep. 

The kids were tired and went back to bed fairly easily. Once they were snoozing, I began the main floor child-proofing mission. About 30 minutes later, Elena came down the stairs and wanted to help. She was actually very helpful, but at 12:30 I decided that it was time for both of us to go to sleep. I think she finally gave it up at around 2:00. Marcus was up at 6:15.

On Friday, we cleaned like crazy. I found that sweeping was nearly impossible with two young kids. Elena wanted to help, so she swept stuff into areas I had already cleaned while Marcus crawled or walked through the dirt piles.

We actually made decent progress despite the distractions. Karen's cousins Bruce and Nancy showed up to their neighboring cabin Friday afternoon. They helped me clean out the basement and move some of the larger furniture.

 

On Saturday morning I took the kids to a hot spring. Elena hopped in while I got Marcus ready. I really should have checked the temperature before she got in because is was scalding hot. Moments later I was carrying two naked kids across a steep, frost covered rock face to the upper pool. Fortunately the upper pool temperature was perfect and we enjoyed a nice soak.

Luis, Alex and Katie showed up on Saturday. The kids had a great time and disappeared into the woods several times. They played so hard that Marcus fell asleep during dinner. Sprout lasted through the s'more making before she passed out as well.

While cleaning out the basement, I found this little gem. It's a kid-sized cruiser. Elena should be able to use it in a year or two.





We had a great weekend and look forward to out next trip. We may even take Karen along next time!

 

Here are some more pictures of the cabin.

To a Great Man

 My Grandpa passed away yesterday. Many of you know that he was diagnosed with lymphoma earlier this year and was home and living independently to the end. I thought I would share some of my favorite photos. Above is a picture from his 90th birthday celebration in August.

 This is from our family picture shoot last spring. This was the first time we had a picture of everyone. Always a challenge to get the kids looking at the camera at the same time.

 My mom and Grandpa celebrating his 89th birthday.

 Grandpa always enjoyed having the kids trick or treat him on Halloween. He typically had a scary mask on and liked to scare the kids when he opened the door. The kids loved his antics and the goodies he gave them.

Some of my earliest and best memories are of playing games on the Carrom board in the basement. We would play game after game during afternoons when I was visiting. I didn't fully appreciated it at the time, but it was wonderful how much time he spent with us playing games or letting us "help" in the garden or around the farm.

As I grew older, we saw each other less frequently but he always had time to make me and my children feel special. He especially loved crafts that Elena made for him and would ask her what she was working on. We will all miss him very much.