Holiday time

Melanie abandoned us for three weeks, so we kept busy in her absence. Did you finish your school work before the holidays?

Matthew didn't, so he had to squeeze in some school work during the break time.

And so does Daniel. Poor guys!

Jennifer and I made some bird feed hangers.

We had no snow, but we got to play outside anyways. If it's cold enough maybe we can get some ice!

Daniel helped Evelyn out in the workshop.

Jennifer and I used the opportunity of an empty sewing room (Melanie is gone) to sew, each on a machine. We only did it once, though.

We saw Nathan a bit more often these days. He spent a fair bit of his time in the garage.

And inspecting things.

Evelyn tried out her new paint set.

Matthew started on his model. It sure has a lot of little pieces!

Jennifer made some delicious pudding cake, with a chocolate crust.

We started filling up the skating rink. And discovered a weak spot. I went hunting for stakes everywhere so we could try prop it up. You can see in the ice a line of where the edge used to be. The plastic has a small tear, so the leaking water made the ground softer and so the edge bowed out more and more. Yikes!

Hoping it holds up long enough to freeze!!

Nathan's garage projects usually require some browsing online for tools or parts. Nathan's getting good at figuring out what he needs and where to look for things. All he needs now is to graduate to the next driving level so that he can go shopping without me along too!

Sinterklaas 2021

As with last year, we had a name style gift exchange, so each of us had to try make or find something for two family members, which balances things out a little. It's hard work to try think of two good gifts for your family, but it's usually worth the effort.

Matthew only got one gift as we teamed up to get him something "bigger" that he particularly wanted.

Nathan managed to take some time off of his schoolwork to join us. ;)

A lot of the gifts had riddle clues for who the gift was for, so selecting a gift isn't always that simple.

Yay, something to share!

Solving a more difficult clue...we did have to cheat a few times, and the clue writer would give a kind of extra hint so that it was solved.

Jennifer was happy with chocolates...she is really curious who they are from, though.

I was given a "lump of coal" by my youngest son. :p (I can tell by the writing style and the poor spelling.)

He liked the book he was given more than I liked my coal. :p

Evelyn now has her own RC car...the hard part is waiting for it to charge up.

Melanie is happy to be able to store more music in one place..she uses her portable speaker an awful lot, in her room and in the sewing room.

And in time for her big trip, Melanie has finished her surprise gift for Grandma. Just in time!

We got a new family game of "Ticket to Ride" which was a real hit.

Early December

Evelyn helped me with an overload of kale that I received from a friend. We had a lot of kale to wash blanch and freeze. We also dried a lot of it too.

Melanie had a custom quilt that she was working on a lot in her spare time. She had a deadline of getting it done by Christmas time. Hand stitching the binding took her quite a few hours.

Evelyn got introduced to "Scratch", which is a programming type website where you can design and play other people's games. She has my tendency to get easily frustrated with technology and leave it alone in a huff.

Jennifer hanging out. Must have just finished her book. ;)

The kids made a welcoming snowman for our tenants. They usually park just in front of the rocks here, so there is no way they could miss him.

The kids tried out Daniel's laser gun set. They are kinda loud and do a vibrating thing when you get hit which take a big of getting used to.

The flower pots make great hiding places.

Stealthy games are trickier, and the targets either on your front or back...so often you don't feel like your good shot was acknowledged...maybe we just need to look into ways to use these better. It is hard to think of a good game to play that doesn't involve just standing around and shooting each other.

Evelyn enjoyed that we had a painting aspect to the school year. She went above and beyond and painted many extra works of art than were required.

Melanie found a ping pong table off kijiji that was used, abused, and free. And close enough to our house. So we picked it up and put it on top of the air hockey table. Works great!

We did a lot of school work this month.

And we had a first snowfall!!

Daniel busted his glasses. We have to book in an optometrist appointment specially to get repairs done (don't ask, I'm really irritable about this and I will just complain for hours about all the extra covid protocol) and sometimes it takes a few days. He wore a bright red string on Sunday and we sat in the front pew. Looked fabulous! :p It did get fixed eventually.

I made turkey a every other week menu item. When I could find it frozen for just over $20 bucks. So juicy when brined first, and often two meals worth of meat. And we all love it. The broth the bones make is way better than with chicken bones.

Getting close to finished!

Matthew still lives here too...but is often doing his schoolwork in his bedroom. But now it's Christmas holidays!

Daniel is 12!!

A long time ago, now, we celebrated Daniel's 12th birthday. 12 years old already! He is growing to be a young man...still has a sensitive heart and is quite thoughtful and sensitive of others. He is sure growing up!

 Matthew, Jennifer and Evelyn all chipped in to get Daniel a remote controlled car. Actually, a truck. He really wanted one, and was really happy to get it! Spoiled guy! His card from his siblings was interesting...the different thoughts reflect the siblings thoughts pretty accurately.

He had to try it out right away. Fortunately he thought that doing it without the sound effects was the best option. :)

He also got a ping pong set from his older siblings. Spoiled!

With lots of restrictions still in place we opted for playing an Exit Game. They are wonderful games! I remember spending hours making treasure hunts for the kids' birthdays...here is a premade game full of puzzles (that have no mistakes in them!) and are real brain teasers.

We learned that it is best to ignore the time suggestion to the game and give it lots of extra hours to do it justice...so many hours to tackle the game! We also use our photo copy machine on any clues that might otherwise be destroyed, so we can pass it on to another family if they also like it.

Ping pong time! The chandelier shouldn't need to be a problem...but if you are still learning, it just might get in the way a little!

Daniel worked on his birthday cake himself. I love that I my role is to serve the cake and clean up in the kitchen.

Daniel chose a fondue for dinner. It required a lot of patience, having 8 of us and only one pot.

But it was delicious!

Everyone had to try out the ping pong with Daniel.

But, to Evelyn's great disappointment, he did not share the RC toy. He certainly enjoyed it though!