Tonight the Fab Five started the second instruction book of Lego Hogwarts Castle with the eighth bag of pieces.
I had a Chardonnay from Australia…I’m not a huge fan of white wines, but I like this kind pretty well.
For today’s brooch, I went with an Erstwilder snowflake, placed on a “sausage dogs” scarf, also from Erstwilder:
We’re looking forward to St. Nicholas Day tomorrow!
Wednesdays are also busy for us between catechesis for Chickadee in the late afternoon and the Advent midweek service at church in the evening, so today was another day for building just one bag of Lego Hogwarts Castle. Bag seven also marked the end of the first of four instruction books, but the Fab Five are certainly not a quarter of the way done with the set yet!
Finally, a red! Tonight’s wine was a Tempranillo from Spain, and I really enjoyed it.
My brooch for the day was a retro Christmas ornament which matches my kitschy Christmas tree print skirts from The Oblong Box Shop.
Today the children built the sixth bag of the Lego Hogwarts Castle. Tuesdays are a busy for us, because we have choir in the evening, so it makes sense that it was a day to build only a single bag.
Tonight I tried a Rosé Merlot from France…I didn’t even know that was a thing!
And my brooch for today was another Erstwilder piece…a lovely pair of ice skates with baubles that jingle a bit…I’m looking forward to wearing this one all winter long!
On the second day of Advent, the Fab Five built bags four and five of the Lego Hogwarts Castle set:
Today’s wine was a Sauvignon Blanc from Chilé:
And I wore a Christmas basset hound brooch on a shirt that bears a striking resemblance to a candy cane!
Advent has always been a big deal in our home. Hanging an ornament on the Jesse Tree each day, reading special stories, opening the doors on Lego Advents calendars that don’t always match up with the actual number of days in the season (although this year they do!), lighting an increasing number of candles in the Advent wreath during evening prayers are all things we look forward to. But this year, I added a few extra special things in!
The children are going to build the big Lego Hogwarts Castle throughout the days of Advent this month (to go along with their Lego Harry Potter Advent calendars). I got this idea from a friend last year, and we were able to afford the mammoth set this spring, which I’ve been saving just for this season. They will be building between one and three of the 37 bags each day of Advent (they started with bags one through three today), and the castle will be complete on Christmas Eve. I can’t wait to see it come together!
I also bought Advent calendars from Aldi for Ryan and me this year. Ryan’s is a cheese variety, and I will be trying a new type of wine each night. I haven’t had my own Advent calendar since I was in high school and sold chocolate Advent calendars for German Club! Tonight I enjoyed Rosé-Brut from Spain:
And, as long as I’m keeping a record of our Advent activities this year, I’m also going to track the Christmas brooches I wear. I probably won’t wear one every day, but I intend to wear them as often as possible!
I’m really excited that we have something new to do to help make this season of anticipation extra special this year!
Thanksgiving week is always a light school week for us…just two full days, plus some fun activities on Wednesday. We do manage to cram a lot into a short time, though! The main theme in our two regular school days last week (aside from our scheduled Thanksgiving reading about modern-day Thanksgiving celebrations, especially the Macy’s parade), was tests, tests, and more tests. It was nice to have so many of those out of the way before the holiday, though!
We always visit Cahokia Mounds around Thanksgiving (well, except for last year, when my ankle was broken), and this year, we went twice! The second time we went, later in November, was actually a more pleasant trip, weather-wise, than our first was…it was a beautiful day!
We also played a game based on one Native American children might have played. I made the pieces years ago, following the directions in More than Moccasins, and it’s still just as much fun to play!
In between helping me make pies on Wednesday, the children also found time to make their hand-and-footprint turkeys for the year. Well, except for Turkey, who discovered that the paper we use is now too small for his hands and feet, so he went with a Minecraft-style bird, instead…I love how creative he is!
Tomorrow we’re back to our regular schedule…I haven’t decided yet if we’re going to have two or three weeks of school before our Christmas break. I also haven’t figured out what ornament we’re going to make this year…I guess I should get started on that!
Christmastime is here! Today I’m looking at what is, at least for me, a somewhat unusual outfit pairing, one that consists of what some might consider “clashing” greens. I actually got the idea for this combination right after Christmas last year, based on a card I received from Pinup Girl Clothing. I kind of tested the idea out in March for St. Patrick’s Day, and decided I like wearing this olive green peasant top with a very different green, and this time it’s with my very festive ornament print Bella skirt:
I had a lot of fun accessorizing this look, from my most Christmas-y Splendette Duchess bangles to an Erstwilder holly brooch that makes me think of White Christmas, and a new bow belt that wraps up the outfit!
I have to admit, I really enjoy an unexpected combination!
I’m so excited that it’s finally time to start wearing all of my favorite Christmas pieces again!
A ton of hard work went into it, but just like that, our traditional three-day Thanksgiving celebration has already come and gone!
I started baking pies bright and early Wednesday morning, while we watched some of our favorite Thanksgiving shows. As always, everyone chose a pie for our dessert table. Bunny made the caramel apple pie, and I made the other six (with some help from various children). Our lineup this year was fairly standard…pumpkin, caramel apple, cranberry apple, butterscotch, pecan, s’mores, and one new addition, peanut butter brownie, which may be the finest pie I’ve ever made!
Before I closed down the kitchen for the day on Wednesday, I also made the cranberry sauce and the stuffing, plus prepped for the turkey soup we had tonight. I was back to work Thursday morning while we watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the National Dog Show (we were so excited that chonky Thor won!), but I did take a break to enjoy a cranberry beer from a local brewery:
Our dinner was actually ready a little early, which was nice, because everyone was hungry! The menu was fairly standard…turkey and gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower (a new addition to our Thanksgiving dinner), cranberry sauce, and rolls:
I love making the table look pretty!
It was a delicious dinner!
After cleaning up and watching Holiday Inn, we had pie. Lots and lots of pie:
I always have cranberry apple on Thanksgiving evening:
We always have pie for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving, so I got to try the peanut butter brownie pie this morning:
And we got to see Moose play with his school band in the town Santa Parade:
As always, the Fab Five built a Lego set following our lunch of turkey sandwiches. This year, it was the Winter Village Fire Station, and it’s a really nice set!
I got to build a Lego set, too…a nice free-with-purchase Christmas tree that is the perfect addition to my modular Main Street:
Tonight’s dinner was another Thanksgiving favorite…turkey soup. I really think the day after Thanksgiving has better food than the actual holiday!
And I finally tried the pumpkin pie tonight:
Yes, I did work hard, but I have to admit, after doing Thanksgiving on a broken ankle last year, it seemed a lot easier this time around!
Every Thanksgiving, each member of our family gets to request a pie for me to make for dessert. Chickadee always chooses pumpkin, and she was very excited about the finished product!
And a bonus picture from yesterday, when she helped make her pie!
Happy Thanksgiving!
