Holidays 2019

Two days before Christmas we went to the Revels and enjoyed their American bluegrass-themed show


 This year that tricksy Santa tied yarn to the girls's stockings

The strings led to the kitchen

 to treats like chorizo - hey it's red - and Tessie's simplest present, her own gallon of milk

Another robot claw

Erin, you've got crabs

 Caroline's gift to Mom was this sculpture sequence of their relationship

 Boxing day we headed to DC

 for some cousin time

 Charlie packed away most of that breakfast

It was warm enough to hike in the Maryland hills

 One day we tackled the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and headed straight for the gems

 What organ is this? It's Wyoming, Superior, Hearne, Rae, Slave, and Nain, the Precambrian cratons that formed the nucleus of North America

 We caught up with friends Jerry and Karolyn and their kids

Little Moby is 19 and weighs less than 5 pounds

One New Year's Eve activity was pom-pom building

 and to celebrate the Druidic theme to Claire's party, we processed to the woods at twilight

and bathed in the forest

December 2019

 Erin at age 11 joins the odd squad with Mom, Dad, Tai-Tai, and Tundra

 We all wish that Erin would be a littl niser to Tessie

 Tessie joined her sisters on the Hayden Dolphins Swim Team. The age cutoff is Nov. 1st and she swims in the 6-and-under bracket. As the only entrant in her age group for her first race, she won a first place ribbon!

Tessie's turkey of thankfulness

 Thanksgiving with Grandma Lu

 Wouldn't this be a good jigsaw puzzle, with all those badges and patches and then the big furballs in the middle?

 One of Erin's party requests was Boda Borg, where Potions continues to confound us.

We hosted a house party featuring a home-made pina pinata

and the 9 11 year-olds trashed the basement

 Tessie's birthday dinner request: Chipotle

 Age 6 for Tessie had moments of being Loving and Defiant, but it was mostly continued Sunny and Serene. We'll see about age 7 and Life in a Minor Key because she's already showing signs of being Lively and Outgoing.

How many of these have you seen?

The girls had 2 snow days before Christmas. That's Tessie out there cleaning off my car - thanks!

We cast that cursed English tea into the fire to commemorate the Lexington Tea Party

An unexpected package arrived from Wyoming. Back in Sep. 2017, after visiting Fort Laramie NHS, we mailed in the adjunct Junior Ranger booklet for Guernsey State Park because it offered a chance for a badge and coin. And look what we received 30 months later: metal WY State Parks badges and the one-of-a-kind Junior Ranger coins!

 At Wilson Farm, we made a gingerbread house

and brought it home, where Tundra immediately went to work on the frosting

And here's what it looked like 2 weeks later. The girls nicked the candies, but the frosting removal was all Tundra, one lick at a time

  On the solstice, the ice at Arlington Reservoir froze and was fantastic

(actual photo taken right before Erin's wake-up for school)