He has been renamed and shall now be known as Kevin.

Ethan proposed to Doug the tree. We brought Doug home, trimmed the branches, and put him in a stand. Ethan then renamed the tree Kevin because "Kevin is the name of a bald man, who lives in his mother's basement." Seeing as Ethan and the tree seem to have a special relationship, I figure he has naming rights. We then set about decorating Kevin. I find him charming. I am a lone voice in a wilderness of naysayers.

All lit up, Sam is jumping the gun a little and putting ornaments on before the garland.

Everyone started hanging ornaments.

After using the blog to ascertain who topped the tree last year, Sam gleefully announced it was his turn to put the angel on the tree! Last year we used a new star I picked up at an after-Christmas sale and the kids were heartbroken.  They begged to have the angel reinstated. I bought this angel back in my very early twenties, to decorate our household tree. When I went to select a topper, there were only about four varieties left, so I picked what I thought was the least ugly of the uglies.  I had no idea my kids would fall in love with her and insist she reside on the tree every year. She's been gracing a tree for almost twenties years now!

Everyone got new Christmas jammies this year. We are resplendent in fa-la-la-llamas, a tree rex, a penguin, and a santa cat riding a unicorn. Everyone picked their own jammies, in case you were wondering. Michael also has a santa cat riding a unicorn top but could not find it. Instead he took the picture. The Christmas spirit is strong at our house!

Free Christmas Tree

Grace is a fourth grader this year. Every fourth grader gets a pass to get into national parks free during their fourth grade year. Included with that, the National Forest Service offers a free permit to cut a Christmas tree with the package. Grace gets a free Christmas tree! The only criteria was that we needed to pick up the permit, drive to a national forest, hope we didn't get stuck on the snowy forest service roads, find a tree that didn't look absolutely pathetic, cut it down, tie it to the car, strip out of our soaking wet clothes and then drive home.  Her free tree took about four hours and a quarter tank of gas.

The mountains were gorgeous, we did not come close to getting stuck, and it was even snowing a little. Sam enjoyed catching the first snowflakes of the season on his tongue.

After hiking up and down step terrain looking for a tree, Grace lost her will to live. I pointed out getting wet wasn't going to make her any more comfortable. She thought laying down was worth the damp underpants.

Ethan is...

Libby is..honestly, I don't know what they were doing. Probably being grumpy I was taking their pictures.

We finally found the least shrub-like tree in the forest. Michael suggested the one further up the hill, that we had just come down from, looked better.  I said, "I don't care what tree comes home with us. No one's married to this tree. We can hike back up, if you want."  At which point, Ethan took off his ring and proposed to his soul mate "Doug". The kids were pretty much done looking for trees.

Michael bowed to the inevitable, and started sawing.

Ethan drug it back down the hill, with some motherly help getting it across the creek.

As Michael finished tying the tree off, I passed out the hot cider. It was deemed good.  The tree was deemed almost adequate.

Why Even Bother?

Why do I even keep a blog? It is such an outdated platform. When I first started blogging, it was what all the "cool" families did. They posted pictures of their kids, their successes, their failures, and we all followed each others' blogs.  Slowly, everyone joined Facebook and found it easier to share pictures and recent events with family and friends that way. Now Facebook is almost passe, as everyone is moving to less cluttered platforms.  Now all the "gucci fams" are on Instagram and Snapchat.  No one uses Blogger anymore. Of all those families I used to follow, only one has updated in the last three months! Only one! (Hi, Kortnai!)

Why do I even hang on to such an antiquated platform? Well, every year when it is time to put the angel on the Christmas tree, the kids pull up the blog and check the posts from last year so they can know whose turn it is to put on the angel.  They scroll through and laugh at the things their younger selves said. They remember half-forgotten events. I remember half-forgotten events. I know Facebook could do this, but just not as well.  This is a journal; Facebook is a text.  Past texts are sometimes interesting, but they frequently don't make sense without context. With this blog, the kids can scroll through past years and months with ease, searching for their birth announcement, an important birthday, or pictures of a past family trip.  This is our history. Facebook and Instagram can't replace that, as they only seem to focus on the present.

I keep writing this for myself and my family.  I share with others, but it is mostly for mine and my family's benefit.  This is where I keep our memories safe.

Halloween

We didn't get pictures of all the kids this year. My phone camera is currently close to useless, and we didn't have enough time when Michael was around to photograph all the kids. I guess you can try to use your imagination. Grace was a kangaroo, reusing Sam's costume from last year. Sam went as Zeus for our co-op party but deemed the costume impractical for trick-or-treating. He then dressed up as a fire fighter for Halloween night.

Ethan dressed up as an old man and found a costumed old woman (who was a male friend) at the school dance. They spent the evening yelling at their peers and saying "Are you my grandchild!?" together and won the costume contest!

Libby decided to dress as a unicorn; a really colorful unicorn. She did not win any contests, but still loved her costume and looked great!

The Monday before Halloween we carved pumpkins, and every kid other than Sam carved their pumpkin by themselves! Woohoo! I feel we've reached a milestone. From the left the pumpkins were carved by Libby, Ethan, cousin Amanda, Grace, and Sam/Michael.

Halloween night my kids scattered to the wind. Libby invited six friends over, they grabbed Sam, and went trick-or-treating. Grace went door to door with her friend in the neighborhood. Ethan went over to his friend's to watch a movie. He didn't get home until 10:30 because they were watching "The Godfather"! When I looked at him disapprovingly he said, "But Mom, we turned off Saw." Michael and I enjoyed a quiet evening at home by ourselves. It was fun but also a bit surreal.

Nap Time

There's that moment in the life of all parents of a toddler: They are outgrowing naps and won't nap in the afternoon, but right around dinner time they collapse somewhere. We then struggle with deciding to let them sleep or wake them up and deal with cranky, miserable people until bedtime. I remember vividly when Grace and Sam went through the stage at the same time. I was so thankful when we passed it.

I didn't know it would happen again when the kids became teenagers. Excuse the blurry photos. I seemed to have ruined the lens on my phone. Michael is trying to remedy the problem.

My poor, tired humans. They are almost as cranky as toddlers when I have to wake them for dinner.