We baked a lot of cookies this Christmas. Since it was going to be a smaller group we did about half as many batches as normal. We decided to add in gingerbread cookies and divinity.
Mixing the divinity
Meanwhile we baked some ginger bread cookies
Rolling out Christmas cookies with four kids is always exciting. I divided the dough and had them come in for shifts this year and it worked well.
Cutting the divinity. It turned out just right!
We returned to the Cougar Mountain Zoo for a covid-style Santa visit. We had a great time visiting all the animals and our masks kept us extra warm!
The wolves looked deceivingly cute and cuddly
Here’s the rest of what we were up to in November:
A trip to the mall! We don’t go west of Issaquah much these days.
Service project at the YAC (Youth Activity Center) for Scouts
Leftover turkey sandwiches
Bike upgrade for Layla
The boys stopped by James’ one afternoon
Layla and Savannah having a dance party
We finally sold the “I love you” couch. (We were sitting here the first time Jonathan said the words.) We were a bit sentimental saying goodbye to it!
Riding lessons
At Cascade View
I refinished our kitchen table in November
The Dollar Store opened where the old IGA was. This is what the boys brought home from their first trip there!
Uh oh!
These two got bike upgrades as well. All the kids did this month.
Court of Honor
Open swim at The Club
Brrrr!
Phoebe loves the laser light more than the cats
Jonathan and I had a Christmas shopping outing at Bellevue Square. We got lunch to-go at Din Tai Fung. SO good!
Bath time for a muddy dog!
At preschool
I’ve got to hand it to Jonathan. He and I talked after committing to a Washington DC trip for Avery about having him earn money to pay for part of his trip. Then in November we discussed that perhaps Jonathan could do some woodworking projects with the boys. He decided on his own to teach the boys to make wooden reindeer like the ones he made for a Boy Scouts project as a kid and sell them online. Avery and Silas opened up a factory in the garage (Kieron thought the saw was a bit too loud). In the end they grossed nearly $700! It was such a cool thing to do and I think the boys learned a lot from the experience!
It was a quiet Thanksgiving at our house this year. Just us because of Covid and the stay home order. One nice thing about having a bigger family is that we have critical mass even when it’s just us though. The day was pretty relaxing and low-key.
New tradition: pumpkin pie for breakfast
Watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Zoom with the Avery’s
We had a concert and all six cousins played music for us
Opening up their Christmas jammies
This turned out to be a mistake. Turkey didn’t agree with her.
More Zoom pics
