Halfway holidays

December has been full of festivities of one kind and another.  We did school up until a week before Christmas.

Lizzy in particular baked a ton of Christmas cookies this year, and took the lead on decorating them.  Ada made plenty as well, so we’re swimming in sugar now.

Also the week before Christmas, we squeezed in a Halfway Day celebration.  

And the next day, Caleb and Ada, along with their fellow piano students, serenaded us with a Christmas recital in the lit-up park.

Caleb did excellently in his first recital.

And he got to blow off steam for a few minutes on the playground afterwards.

Then, once we had finished out the week of school, we packed up the family and headed to a cabin in Tennessee.  

We spent the week cozied up playing games, watching Christmas movies, snacking, and enjoying the private outdoor hot tub. 

The basement game room was very cool, with a foosball table, a pool table, air hockey, an arcade console, and a row of theater seats in front of the ginormous TV.

There were beauty spas, pedicures, hair styling, fuzzy blankets, Parcheesi, lounging…and some pretty fierce competition.  

One evening we were visited by this fuzzy little guy right next to our deck.  Watching him, we were reminded why you definitely do not climb a tree to escape a bear…he leapt as gracefully as a songbird into the branches, even if the tree was almost breaking by the time he poked his head through the canopy.

We returned home the day before Christmas Eve, with just enough time to wrap all the presents that arrived via Amazon while we were gone, decorate the last of the cookies, and get all the Christmas brunch dishes stowed in the fridge.