Here's to another year

As we did last year, we're closing down 2021 in front of all the cards we got from friends for the holiday. We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to, but we saw more than in 2020, so that's progress. We can't wait to see if 2022 is even better. 

Scenes from all around Christmas

Some people celebrate on Christmas day. We had a whole Christmas week of fun, because Santa was extra nice to us this year. 

First came presents at home, where it seemed like we got everything on our wish list. 

Then came Christmas at Grandmom's, where somehow there was even more presents. And more family. And more food, somehow. I was sure we cleaned Grandmom out a few weeks back. 

Then, after another evening of Christmas TV special viewing ...

... it was more family, more presents and more food at Grandmom Shane's. All four gradnkids got awesome electricity experiment sets, which means Pop got to play all night too. 

And then, somehow, there was even more Christmas when Aunt Nicole and Uncle Bob came to visit. Here she is showing us social media stuff that I'm not sure we were supposed to be watching, but everyone was laughing, so we're gonna say that was all great. 

It was some much holiday celebrating, it was almost too much. Almost. But next year, let's try to make it two weeks of Christmas, just to see if we can handle it. 
 

Last-minute studying

Just one more Christmas special before the big day. And I did have an outfit just like Uncle Mike's cuit! This Christmas is already the best ever, and it's not even here yet. 
 

Santa!

He stopped by our church last weekend, which was great because I wasn't sure he'd know how to get to the neighborhood. It always makes me feel better to know he has gotten around the side streets before the big night. You don't want him getting hung up on one of the cul-de-sacs and falling behind schedule. 
 

Christmas party number 2

Last weekend was just a warm up -- this weekend was the big belly stretcher of the season: Christmas Eve dinner at Grandmom Linda's house. Here's how nice we all looked before we started stuffing our faces ...

And here's how we looked mid-stuffing! You would not beleive the amount of food in this house. Also, we ate all of it. We took it as a personal challenge, actually. 

And, of course, there were presents. I was hoping for a new outfit like Uncle Mike's Christmas suit, but instead I got respectable things I could show off in public. That's for the best, I guess. 

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Get it? Look like Christmas? Look with my eyes? With glasses?

This is quality comedy for free here, folks. 
 

Christmas party number 1

Got to head over to Aunt Jeanne's house for the annual pre-Christmas feast, where we ate waaay too many cookies and found even more new hiding places to run around. I think this might be the only time that any of us kids were sitting the whole day long. 

Oh wait, there was that one other time we stopped for a minute!

 

Rocking out with Legos

I'm not sure where we're going, but I know we're both ready to party!
 

Christmas card outtakes

This is the nice photo that most of you should see arriving in your mailbox soon ...

And this is what happens when Dad asks if we can "look a little nicer" for the photo. 
 

More help with the lights

In retrospect, I really did not expect Dad to call my bluff here and let me onto the roof. I hope this all looks worth it later.  

Oh year, it totally does. 

First penance

We got a pretty nice day today to celebrate Emma's first penance, a pretty big step for her as a member of the church. No pictures inside the service, obviously, but she and I got to pose on the church steps to mark the occasion. 

And we walked around to our school's prayer shrine for Mary to say an extra prayer of thanks for the great day. One big sacrament down, onto first communion next!

Captian Hook likes to cook

Arrrrr, good nutrition keeps away scurvy. 
 

Let's go football

I still don't really get most of the rules to this game, but my football passion is off the charts. 

Nailed it

Seriously, though, we can make even the cheesiest fake nails look fashionable. 
 

Hanging the Christmas lights

It's a little early to get these up, but we have a busy December planned already and I'm not sure when we'll find time to get this house festive ... especially if Mom and Dad aren't gonna help!

 

Creating new worlds

Emma's got a map of a whole new town sketched out here, including restaruants, apartments, a wildlife sanctuary and an amusement park. Now se just need to get the citty planner here to take notes before the rain comes in. 
 

Emma burrito

Eating these things always seems like a good idea until afterwards, when they give you terrible indigestion. 
 

Self portrait

I had to take a photo for art class with me and something interesting in the background, so I picked ... all of Hogwarts! If an entire wizarding school is not enough interesting things, then I'm out of ideas. 
 

Halloween, part 2!

Our school trunk-or-treat event scheduled for before Halloween got rained out, so we had a second chance at more candy this week (even though a few people in our neighborhood have already moved on and put up Christmas lights). 

Here we are with half of the school posing in our cosutmes. If you're having trouble finding us, just look for the two not looking at Dad for the picture.  

 

Just swinging by ...

The up and down setting on this thing is much nicer than the round and round one. 
 

Dinosaur golf

Ollie had a birthday party at an indoor, glow-in-the-dark, dinosaur mini-golf place. And if you think that was hard to follow, you should have been chasing after the glowing golf balls. 

I found the parasaurolophus awfully creepy, even though I knew it only ate plants. 

Emma, however, found the dinosaurs charming and friendly. See? 
 

Cross country awards

I wasn't officially on the cross country team this season, but I did practice with them twice a week and was recognized by the coach at our year-end ceremony for being a key motivator for the other runners. All told, I ran about 25 miles this season. 

And Emma got one too! She ran a couple of times with another second grader, so why not? She got at least 5 miles of running in. 
 

Autumn playground

Pretty soon it'll be too cold to be hanging around here in shorts, but for now, let's hold onto summer for one more afternoon. 

Sleep and scream

The great thing about leaf beds is that they're good for relaxing and for yelling your head off. 

 

Happy Halloween!

Introducing Princess Anna of Arendelle and her stormtrooper guard. Don't worry, we'll both have shoes on when we go out for candy later. 

Emma got to show off her costume at school during the Halloween parade (which we got to have this year, yay!). Luckily there were plenty of Elsa's for her to hang out with too.  

And we made sure to get the house in costume too for the Trick or Treaters coming tonight. Hopefully the zombie potato head I drew on the left there wasn't too scary! 

 

Dancing in the streets

My dance school had a short performance at a local Halloween street party last weekend, which was my first chance in a long while to show off my moves for a crowd. It was a little intimidating, but I think I still owned it. Watch out for a full recital in January! 

Burn it all down

The local fire station had a training day exhibition this weekend where they tried to burn down a shed. It was pretty cool, but I have concerns that the fire department is setting fires instead of waiting for trouble to arrive on its own. 

But, hey, I got to peek inside the fire trucks. You know how much I love them! 
 

Officially a Boy Scout

My new troop had its "Welcome to Scouting" ceremony this week (even though I've been hanging out with the guys since the start of the summer). It was awesome to officially become part of the group, alongside a bunch of my Cub Scout friends. 

And I even got my first rank badge! It's the scout rank, very confusing, I know. 

 

Pumpkin picking

Every October means a trip to the local pumpkin patch for some pre-Halloween decorating and a nice fall walk around the farm.   

And did they have pumpkins. 

Jonathan and I found a few that would have been perfect on our front porch, but Dad had a rule that "someone in the family has to be able to lift it into the car" and so we had to leave the really great ones behind. 

But Jonathan did find plenty of crazy gourds, so it was a success.