MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Huge Weekend

See my little harpist behind all the big girls? Big ballet weekend and Christmas recitals, we survived the drama, and they did so wonderful!

Feast of Saint Nicholas

OK~ it is a cookie stamp~super cute, and you could go crazy with all the designs.
Have a look.

What a great start to the season. This past weekend we got busy with our craft projects, and made some shortbread cookies to celebrate the special visitor to our house on December 6th~
St. Nicholas!! The girls received a Peter Rabbit book collection, and gold coins of course.

Advent Reading

I wanted to talk a bit about the wonderful Christmas books we have been reading each night since the beginning of advent. There are so many out there, I know you already know that, but a couple in particular this year have been quite memorable for me.

The first one is called The Donkey's Dream. "A donkey wakes from a dream of unusual burdens to find that he has carried Mary to the stable where Jesus was born". So Sweet!

The second one, more of a read aloud than a picture book, is called

Mary's Little Donkey and the Flight to Egypt. It is about a donkey that Joeseph buys for Mary. "The stubborn, dirty little donkey who is of no use to anyone in Nazareth becomes a quick and willing helper under Mary's care. The other animals in Mary's stable like him and together they wait for the birth of Mary's child".

And they third book that we have been loving is Take Joy~ The Tasha Tudor Christmas Book, by Tasha Tudor. What a treasure!! It is filled with stories poems, and carols, and of course her sweet illustrations. If you would like to venture into the world of Tasha Tudor, click here. It looks like it may be out of print, but the one I have is luckily from our library.

And don't forget all the gems from Tomie de Paola~

Happy and Cozy Reading

Take a gander

at these!!!
simply adorable~~

Here are some favorite knitting resources~

The Yarn Harlot-super funny Stephanie McPhee,

author of many knittnig books

Ravelry-an online community for knitters, with millions of patterns

Stitch and Bitch-my first and favorite book

Can we talk about knitting?

I am not quite sure if it has been the change of seasons or what, but I am completely obsessed with knitting right now. I am all about starting projects, ripping them apart, doing them incorrectly, reading about knitting, looking at yarn, etc. anything related to knitting basically.

It amazes me, now that I have been knitting for a few years, there is still so much to learn in this wonderful world of yarn and needles.

Here is a hat I did for Lucy last month. It was made with a yummy baby alpaca blend.

Too cute~

A Weekend of Lovely Maddness~

Our house is upside down, in a nice way. On Thanksgiving, we got out all the Christmas decorations, including the tree and the kids got every single thing out. It was funny when we pulled out the "white tree" it had yellowed for some reason. It was ok, I wanted a real tree anyway this year. We have been having a great time decorating our house, and getting everything ready. I cant believe advent begins on Sunday! We have lots of beautiful reading, and crafts planned, and I am almost finished with the Jessie Tree.

Our long awaited park opened down the street last week, so that has been super exciting. Friends have been coming over and we all head down to ther together. It is so neat. Will post pictures on of these days.

Happy Thanksgiving~

We had a blessed day~Hope you did too.

We just spent a lovely weekend in Lake Tahoe, NV. It was great to have some family time. What a magical place! After a couple of days, Lucy said "do you have to keep saying view, view, view?" The girls collected lots of pine cones for us to decorate for Christmas, and had fun exploring the lake.

Right now I am attempting to put the house back together since the trip, and prepare for Thanksgiving. It is always so fun to go away, and so wonderful to be back home.

I can sense the Christmas madness around the corner, so much to plan and prepare.

A Fall Garden

I guess it's time to say goodbye to summer.

A Picture Thought....

Botany Continued~

Year two and we are still

captivated with Botany.

There is so much to do!

We are using this amazing book for our journey and I wanted to share it~

Shanleya's Quest.

We read about a plant family, today we did the Mustard family, then she draws in her Botany notebook, (sort of a main lesson book)

about the plant.

here is a snipet from the book~

In a mythical world where time is a liquid that falls as rain upon the land, young Shanleya paddles her canoe out to the tree islands to learn the plant traditions of her people. Each island is home to a separate family of plants and an unforgettable Guardian with lessons to teach about the identification and uses of those plants. Shanleya's Quest is a truly unique educational book that presents botanical concepts and plant identification skills in an easy and fun metaphorical format for children as well as for adults who are young at heart. The book begins with a creation myth that parallels evolutionary concepts, where life begins as bubbles in a puddle of soup under the radiance of Father Sun and the gentle glow of Mother Moon. The evolutionary tree of life becomes a literal part of the story, buried up to its branch-tips (the "islands") in an ocean of Time that just keeps getting deeper and deeper. This is the world that Shanleya explores by canoe, learning the essential characteristics of closely related plants on each island she visits. Readers young and old can join Shanleya's Quest, learning the patterns to correctly identify more than 45,000 species of plants to their proper families.

Home Tour

Here is a photo of Sophia's performance at the Eureka Historical Society's Home Tour. She did a magnificent job.

Ok, here is the Albondigas soup, and the link for the recipe.

Muy Sabroso~

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000042albondigas_soup.php

CALACAS!

Well today I finally mixed up the icing for our sugar skull project.

Big day in the kitchen, I also whipped up some Albondigas, a traditional Mexican meatball soup. The sugar skulls are decorations for our

Dia De Los Muertos altar.

It was great fun, it is one of my favorite times of the year.

Our family really enjoys decorating our altar, and making it beautiful with fall flowers and candles. Of course it is a wonderful way to remember loved ones lost with photos and remembrances of their favorite things.

If you would like info on ordering the sugar skull molds you can visit http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/

Here are some photos, as well as the "official" definition from wikipedia.

The Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos in Spanish) is a holiday celebrated mainly in Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage (and others) living in the United States and Canada. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and relatives who have died. The celebration occurs on the 1st and 2nd of November, in connection with the Catholic holy days of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day which take place on those days. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts. Observance of the holiday in Mexican-American communities in the United States has become more important and widespread as the community grows numerically and economically.
Scholars trace the origins of the modern holiday to indigenous observances dating back thousands of years, and to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl (known in English as "The Lady of the Dead").
Similar holidays are celebrated in many parts of the world; for example, it is a public holiday in Brazil, where many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain, there are festivals and parades, and at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray to their loved ones who have died. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe and in the Philippines, and similarly-themed celebrations appear in many Asian and African cultures.

Pumpkin Day

Friday we attended a wonderful field trip

to one of our local pumpkin patches.

It was a lovely day as always.

A beautiful Humboldt County fall day as you

can see in the background.

First Day of "School"

Here are some photos of our first day of school. There was a lot of anxiety leading up to the day, (I was not really ready for summer to end), but it really turned out to be a wonderful day. It was almost magical the way the praying mantis egg sac choose to erupt on that particular day for us. Nature Study in action. There must have been over 100 of them! The girls were enchanted.

The photo of Lucy's arm, and the little specks......, that is them~