W-w-w-winter F-f-f-fun

We took the kids out of school and headed to the Wenatchee national forest for some snowshoeing and winter fun. We've been reading the Little House on the Prairie books with the girls and were billing this as "Pioneer Weekend". Mitch rented a forest service cabin right on the river. Unfortunately, it was only 9 degrees when we got there and the only heat source was a little wood stove. Look, you can actually see the kids' breath while they waited for the stove to heat up! You can also see how anxious Seamus was for one of the kids to get up so he could take their spot.

When they saw the um, facilities, and realized that they had to unfreeze the toilet lid from the seat in the outhouse, the girls cried foul at the boys' luck in having penises that they could shoot off the porch. Did I mention we're a classy family? To cheer them up, I handed out some treats.

Finally, Olivia could stand it no longer and had her daddy take her to the outhouse and Seamus wasted no time in keeping her spot warm.

About this time, the river, which was completely frozen over, had an ice break or something and trees and water began flooding right up to the house, Mitch coolly collected dog and children into the car while I began tidying up. Yes. I'm extremely competent in an emergency situation. The ice finally broke and the water was able to flow again, so we ended up staying. It was actually a pretty fun evening. The kids made their own tv shows and if Mitch and I didn't like them, we would click the pretend remote and they changed their story. And we had plenty of wine.

The next day there was still not enough snow for snowshoeing or sledding, but the kids played with ice. Henry exclaimed that he hadn't felt his feet for two days and Seamus was shivering uncontrollably, so we left a day early. I know! We're totally awesome at being pioneers.

Shopping

We have a tradition of sending each kid into the Dollar Store with their own money and one parent to buy a gift for each family member. It's usually pretty hilarious what they pick, and since everything is only a buck, they get free reign to pick anything they think the receiver would like. Their styles are vastly different, though.

Jack goes in by himself and comes out 3.5 minutes later, mourning the loss of his dollars but not his time. He's a busy middle schooler, for crying out loud, and has texts to make and his ipod to mess with.

Henry is thoughtful, but doesn't buy the cats anything. He also gets Jack the worst gift he can find him. He is embarrassed picking out girl stuff, but he usually gets the girls something along they're lines of interest.

Olivia is like a mini Jack, throwing stuff randomly into her basket so she can be done. The exception is when picking out gifts for the pets. She spends a long time pondering what she thinks they might like, and usually ends up getting them each two things.

Grace is the worst. She wants everyone to have the perfect gift, and at the Dollar Store, that's pretty much impossible. It takes at least an hour of putting stuff back and contemplating each selection's value to the recipient. For her dad, she really wanted something special and it was kind of driving me crazy, because, hello, the Dollar Store? Ick. Anyway, to hurry things along I suggested a daily calendar of trivia. "No, Dad doesn't need that. He already knows everything." This went on and on until she settled on two things, but obsessed all the way home that he wouldn't like them.

Then they pick out their own wrapping paper and wrap all their gifts with no help. Let's just say it's a good thing I buy scotch tape by the case from Costco.

December already

Yin and Yang. Jack and Anthony before the big Thansgiving feast. Gerry kept calling Olivia "Stephanie", and she was getting ticked off, so I believe it was Grandpa that told her she wouldn't get in trouble if she gave him the Curtin Salute the next time he did it. The opportunity presented itself right in the middle of dinner. I think Gerry was more delighted than anybody that a six year-old in ringlets flipped him off. Here are some of the cousins showing Grandpa his favorite hand gesture:

Just keepin' it classy. The kids know that being with Grandpa, anything goes, but once we're back home, you know, there's rules and stuff.

And now it's December and we've started our holiday traditions. My least favorite is making the annual gingerbread house. I spend half the day making and rolling out dough and melting little candies into stained glass for the windows. This year wasn't too bad, though. It's supposed to be Rapunzel's Tower, but her hair got eaten or something.

While the kids were busy decorating, Mitch set up the Christmas tree. This year, he and Henry just brought one home, rather than all of us going up to the mountains and picking out a spindly, crappy tree and getting in fights and freezing our nuts off. Yay for new traditions!

And isn't it a beauty?

While I was off refilling my wine getting a glass of water, Jack took my spot on the couch where Mitch and I like to relax and watch the kids do all the work. Ha. Ha. So. Funny.

Saturday was the annual picture with Santa, and Jack was beyond thrilled to be a part of it.

I'm sorry I haven't written more. I've got carpal tunnel and basically have to type everything with my left hand right now. And I'm lazy.