more holiday cheer

decorating the tree at Grandma's house

Binky 8 years ago... how time goes by

pinecone ornaments painted by Goose

some serious sugar cookies

our house is filled with holiday cheer

and a winter sunset to remind us of the beauty all around!

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

blog love

Anet and Noah from Purple Squirrel Homeschool sent us this lovely and delicious package from Michigan!

What a treat it was to find in the mail!

It was filled with gingerbread soap, yummy!, really delicious coffee, pretzel and chocolate treats, a beautiful ornament, hand-painted by Anet, and some wonderful nature treats for our mantle.

I LOVE the ornament Anet painted!

Did you know that The Purple Squirrel is the first blog I ever found?

Sometimes I wish we lived in Michigan so we could all hang out together!

Thank you Anet, Noah and family!!!

And Happy Holidays to you!

I had to post this photo of Scratch.  He has taken permanent residence in this basket near the heater.

Goose and Binky posed for this photo the other day.

They were so happy and cute in their colorful clothes.  I couldn't resist.

Today we are baking, yes, again, cutting out snowflakes, visiting with friends, making gifts, reading and enjoying tea by the fire. 

I hope your day is filled with warmth!

almost winter in the garden

With 7 days of rain in the forecast, I packed up the kids yesterday morning and headed to our favorite botanical garden.  It was cooold, but so beautiful out.

There were signs of winter everywhere.  Bare trees, carpets of leaves, damp, cold air.

Green, brown, white, and yellow.

And Tux, the garden cat, was right where we left him on our last visit.

Today we are baking, making gifts, playing with friends and snuggling by the fire.

My kind of rainy day!

cinnamon mobiles

Goose and I made these adorable mobiles to fill the house with the scent of cinnamon.

We used this recipe I found here.

We used the first recipe, which needed more cinnamon, and also added glitter.

They took several days to air dry but the house smelled so good!

Goose came up with the idea of a mobile.  She is giving them as gifts before Christmas so they can be enjoyed throughout the holidays.

Yesterday she delivered some gingerbread cookies to our new neighbors across the street.

We give cookies to our neighbors every year.  We're adding fudge to our goodies this year!

Oh, how I love baking holiday goodies!

holiday cheer

rolling out the dough

adding the icing

eating them as fast as we make them!

holiday angel

Binky's favorite decoration.

the tealight he made for me in preschool

one of my favorite ornaments I brought back from Nantucket Island about 6 years ago

the tree.

Happy Holidays!

first craft fair

Goose participated in her first craft fair yesterday!

She made over 60 fabric bags to sell.

She sat at the sewing machine for 3 days making them.

I did all the cutting and ironing.

She sold over half of them!  She was sooo excited!!

I am so proud of her.  She worked so hard and it all payed off. 

We had fun.  Some of her friends were there selling their creations, like tie-dye clothing, crocheted headbands, handmade books and lots of yummy food.

Today is our first day home after house-sitting for my mom.

Being gone all week was hard.  I feel like I've missed a week of holiday prep and fun here at home.

But today we are going to make up for it!

Christmas music is on the radio, gingerbread cookies will soon be in the oven, and if it doesn't rain, we'll

pick out our tree!  I am so happy to be home!!

house and dog-sitting

The kids and I have been house and dog-sitting for my mom since Wednesday.

We can walk down to the waterfront and climb trees,

watch the birds,

find shipwrecks,

and enjoy nature.

This is Johnny.  He loves to sleep on the couch.  He also loves Binky!

Goose and I have been making these little fabric gift bags for a homeschool craft fair we are participating in next week.  We are making several sizes.  I do the cutting and Goose does the sewing.  We've never done this fair before but we are very excited about it.  The proceeds from the raffle and soup lunch go to a local women's drop-in center.  I am also selling photo greeting cards in sets of three that come nicely wrapped in a fabric gift bag.  Tonight we are watching a movie, eating chocolate and snuggling with the dogs.

Life is good.

t u e s d a y

baking together

reading by the fire

dance of the water molecules experiment

candlelight to celebrate the season!

Autumn Fires

by Robert Louis Stevenson

In the other gardens

and all up the vale,

From the autumn bonfires

see the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over

and all the summer flowers,

The red fire blazes,

the gray smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!

Something bright in all!

Flowers in the summer,

Fires in the fall!

Pier 39 and Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again. 

Time to light the tree at Pier 39.

It was also a blue moon last night!

It was cold but beautiful in San Francisco yesterday.

Christmas music is already playing on the radio!

This was a little shocking to me.

It seems the holidays are coming whether I'm ready or not.

We are spending Thanksgiving at my mom's house.

I will be doing all the cooking!

I want my mom and Joe to have a relaxing day with the family.

Joe will be on the tail-end of his chemo for the month, so I know he will be tired.

So we'll cook, play Apples to Apples, and watch football.

Sounds lovely to me!

How will you spend your Thanksgiving?

Homeschool Day at Monterey Bay Aquarium

Grandma, the kids and I spent the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It was so warm and beautiful.

We had to stop at the beach before going into the Aquarium.

Binky took this picture of one of his favorite animals.

The sea horse exhibit was one of my favorites.

There was a room filled with exhibits and touch tanks.  And lots of docents to answer questions.

We watched a sea star grab a tiny shrimp and carry it down to its mouth.

Goose stopped to draw in her journal.

Binky found some old friends.

My favorite is this beautiful octopus.

She is usually hiding in a corner, but yesterday she gave us quite a show!

We also found a lovely pearl inside this giant clam.

I think we're gonna keep her!

We just had to stop at the water one more time.

Before getting in the car, we stopped at Ghiradelli for some ice cream and chocolate.

It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful day.

Thank you Grandma for joining us!