Green belts and greenery

Winter Solstice

On the first day of Winter (the last day of my mom's life 15 years ago) we have been celebrating the shortest day of the year with a "winter spiral". We create a spiral (used to be outside- too cold up here!) and lay our presents to each other around the spiral. Each person is to choose a song to sing while carrying a candle to the spiral center. On the return from the center, the person singing is to choose a gift to open, replace it with the candle (in a mug for safety) and exit the circle. He or she then picks out the next singer from the names in a stocking. We have really enjoyed this tradition of ours. This year, Roman and Daddy made us all laugh by skipping a Christmas song and dancing to the youtube fame song of the wedding party dancing down the aisle- that was on The Office. Sillyness prevailed this winter solstice even though it was interupped and restarted because of a friend's car trouble. Everyone laughed, sang and had a ball. Not exactly the solemn traditional winter spiral a la Steiner but we spin by our own current!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Time

Mini Gingerbread house by Trish

Jessi loves helping with dinner- snapping beans!

Gabriel had a great time making gingerbread cookies.

Old Pros!

Push ups with an extra 22 lbs!

Gino won Perfect Attendance award at the Christmas demo!

Decorating the tree

Decorating and re-decorating the tree

Snow is fun!

Patricia won the US Heritage Award at her Pillar of Light Parents Night. She was dressed as a nurse midwife when the whole group recited the Declaration of Independence from Memory. She also won the Liberty Bell award.

She read 17 Shakespeare plays and earned "Queen of Shakespeare".

Thanksgiving, Pie Friday, Snow

Gino's melty sculpture

Pie judging criteria- hard to decide!

Trisha's Pie- Caramel, Vanilla Pudding Pie with an almond-chocolate crust

Gino's mixed berry tart

Gabriel and Jessi's Banana Cream Pie

Roman's Cherry Cream cheese Tart

Gabriel's Pear Cranberry pie

Gabriel is a Gold stripe!!

Way to go, Gabriel! He passed his first test!!

Roman's a Green Stripe

Terrific Job Roman!!!

First snow of the season

to the sled run!

clearing the drive

playing with a tray of snow (no boots or snow suit yet!)

boys were up at 6am ready to play

the first flakes the night before

Happenings

Trisha taught her FIRST solo Taekwon-do class on Friday. It was really great!

Firemen came to our property for forest fire prevention. The boys (still in PJs) quickly made friends and got to go on board. They also got to dress up and squirt the fire hose.

Sad

My dear friend, Marika, suddenly lost her child, Cira. She was just 2 years old. We were in a homeschool group with her brother and sister back East. Trisha wrote many wonderful books about the "Adventures of" her brother and sister, Emilio and Camila. A book she never finished, titled Special Edition: Emilio and Camila and Cira the Magic Baby, sits here on my lap. Trisha is heartbroken that she never finished it. Just like this young life, the book just stops after a few pages.

Cira's Obit states... "Cira was a highly evolved soul who touched so many lives in her short 2 years with her strong outgoing yet gentle spirit and joy for life. She took on her family’s activism from the moment she was conceived, involved in improving lives around her through her family’s tireless work on the Fenty campaign, neighborhood activism, environmental awareness, and working with the at-risk population."

I've got to get home. At least to hug the ones I love.