Gingerbread Houses

We made gingerbread houses again this year.  This is a fun tradition, but it can be a lot of work.  I usually make the house pieces a day or two ahead of time and collect the candy over time.  Many years I remember doing this while Scott is either sick or out of town which makes it seem even harder.  This year on the day I was gearing up to assemble the gingerbread houses Scott was taken down with a migraine.  Poor Scott.  So the kids and I worked on these while Scott rested.  I made the first batch of royal icing and assembled all the houses (structural assembly) and then started the decorating with the two youngest while the older kids finished up their activities.  Here are John and Emma decorating.

I was surprised that Emma liked the gingerbread cookies so much.  She is a picky eater and refuses to eat things as mild as plain pasta or white rice.  But she loved the gingerbread cookies we made.  We made lots of little gingerbread people with the extra dough.  Emma ate a bunch of them, even with no frosting.  I like gingerbread too, but its not for everyone.  Here's Emma working on her house some more.

John making good decorating progress

After helping the younger two kids and running out of the first batch of royal icing I thought maybe we should be done for the day and I could work with older three kids the next day.  Grant talked me in to making more icing.  He didn't want to wait.  I whipped up more frosting, per his earnest request, and the older three kids worked on their houses. Matthew said he is still interested in decorating a gingerbread house, in spite of being almost 14.  His school even had a gingerbread house decorating contest in which you can take pictures of your house at home.  I don't think the middle schoolers participated in their school contest, but I'm glad the older kids still had fun with this.

Our finished houses.  It seemed that many of us did a rush job this year.  I'm considering making smaller ones next year.  Less dough to make, and you probably get just as much fun out of decorating something a little smaller.   We will see.

Christmas Trees

 and other December adventures

Earlier in the month we went to get a Christmas tree at a Christmas tree farm.  Apparently there are several tree farms right in our little town, but we drove down to Oregon to get a tree with Scott's parents and his brother's family.  We haven't been getting together much because of COVID - we're trying to really limit our interactions with people - so it was nice to see family outdoors in the fresh air.  All the kids found trees they liked.

Matthew found a good one

Emma was a pretty good tree finder too

Here she is showing her perfect tree to her cousin, Ben.

She did a good job, maybe she will pick our tree another year

We found our tree!!  It's a Guptill family tradition to sing "Oh Christmas Tree," sometimes with creative lyrics, around the tree once you find it.  I would like to learn the lyrics in German for next year.

Scott and some of the kids worked to cut the tree down

We eventually got it cut and carried it out

I didn't carry it at the farm, but later at the house I did.  It was heavy.

The tree took up lots of space in our home.  It was pretty full at the bottom and our living room is kind of small.  But it will work.  We decided the best place for the tree was in this corner, which kind of blocks the doors to the office, but we left enough room that you can still open the doors and get in there.  Here we are working on decorating the tree.  Finding all the Christmas decor post-move was a bit of a trick but I think we found everything...eventually.  I wanted to buy new Christmas stockings this year, so you can see we have some on the mantle, but not all.  I ordered them online and they came a few at a time.  They have all arrived now so I'll get a better picture soon.

We started this tradition recently where each kid gets to pick a new ornament each year - my thinking being they can take those special ornaments with them when they move out.  Many of the special ornaments they have chosen have been breakable (I try to choose non-breakable ornaments myself because of kids and moving a lot).  Over the few years we've been doing this lots of their special ornaments have broken.  And I couldn't find any of John's after our move.  Eventually I found his special ornaments and he immediately broke one.  :(. Oh well.

It was John's year to put the star on the tree.  Next year will be Emma and she is very eager to do it.  John did not feel comfortable or safe being lifted.  Can you see the tension in his body?

He got the star on and Scott safely lifted him up and down but John was nervous about it.

And we got the tree all decorated!

We changed this ornament to have the star on Washington.  We got it when we lived in Gilroy, then moved the star to Utah.  Now Washington.  About an hour after decorating stopped, our tree completely tipped over, spilling water from the tree stand all over the floor and breaking many ornaments.  Luckily no kids were around so no one was hurt, but it made a huge mess of water and broken ornaments all over the wood floor.  The lit up tree star also broke - or stopped lighting up consistently.  I have been working on fixing it.  The base of the tree had been a little off center in the stand and wasn't as stable as it could have been.  I think it wiggled a little looser while we were moving it for decorating and then it tipped.  So we recentered it in the stand and it seems much better now.  Hopefully no more tree catastrophes.

Scottt and I replaced the fuses in the plug for the tree star - which was much trickier than I expected.  They are so tiny!  I replaced a burned out bulb, which did get it to work again for a time.

Resuscitated!  It still will randomly go out and I'm not sure what's causing it.  I bought a new small string of lights and my next step will be to try and replace the whole light string in there.  It's limping along for now.

We got an advent candle and have been burning a little bit each night. 

Some nights we have forgotten and had to burn more the next night.

The kids hate it when we forget.

One night we went to the Portland Zoo to do their drive through zoo lights.  Normally you can walk around the zoo to see the lights, but this COVID year you get to drive through, which was also fun and possibly cheaper for our family.

A light snake at the zoo

Another night we went to an event in downtown Camas.  Several of the shops in downtown were handing out individually wrapped cookies.  We walked around to the shops and bought a few things here or there to patronize the small businesses there.  Its was nice.  

We found a few favorite places already including a bakery, where we got these tasty cupcakes, a soap shop and cafe with tasty hot cocoa.  They also have a fun shop that sells shirt and things with our local high school mascot on them.  We got a few things there for Matthew and Anna who will both be at that high school soon!   Here are a few non-Christmas pics.

This is dumb, but I wanted to take a picture of this moment.  This is the first time ever that we have finished a pan of enchiladas at dinner.  I make enchiladas every so often and usually make a full 9x13 pan of them (vs. a smaller pan) even though they never get eaten.  Sometimes we finish only 1/3 of a pan.  Tonight we finished the entire pan!  And I only had one enchilada.  This is my current favorite enchilada recipe.  I've tried a lot of different ones over the years but have had trouble finding a favorite, but after making this many times, I think the search is over and will probably put it on my food blog next time I make it.  I have to get a picture before it gets eaten though.

Scott will eat just about anything I make, even if its not that good.  So he's a reliable eater of enchiladas - these ones were good btw. But today Matthew, Anna and Grant all had some of the enchiladas!!  It was amazing.  Very gradually my kids have been eating more of what I cook.  Anna is a pretty adventurous eater - she eats lots of things - she will eat sushi, loves hummus and is open to trying new things in general.  Grant has been trying a lot more things lately and he is always the most likely kid to eat a vegetable.  Matthew used to be more open to eating things but has been picky in the past few years.  Now he's older so can be reasoned into trying things, which he does from time to time, and is often surprised that he likes them.   Some of his current favorites are gyros and Indian butter chicken, which he nervously tried the first time.  So its silly but it was an exciting moment for me when the dish of enchiladas got devoured.  Hooray!

Also in eating news, this is a pot of Mississippi Roast getting ready to be cooked.  We had this a week or so ago.  This dish, which everyone likes, has become the center of a migraine controversy in our house.  We think this dish caused several migraines in our house and this was even after I cut way back on the MSG content.  Scott and Anna both got migraines after having this for dinner.  Both have been feeling not quite 100% after their respective migraines.  Scott has seen the doctor about his migraines.  Anna hasn't yet, but she has had two recent episodes, both after eating things with high amounts of MSG that she doesn't normally eat (that's our current best guess for what seems to trigger them for both).  So, time to go to the doctor for her too.    I am working on revamping this recipe to make it migraine safe.  The original recipe has a packet of au jus seasoning and a packet of ranch dressing.    I replaced the au jus seasoninig with non-MSG substitutes because au jus seasoning packets has been a problem for Scott in the past, but even the ranch dressing mix, which has MSG too, seemed to be problematic.  I'm making my best guesses at what the causes are.  So either I replace a good ranch dressing mix with no MSG or we don't make this anymore.  Trying to be smarter than the migraines.  Scott was pretty wiped out for a week or so after and Anna complained of feeling nauseous and having headaches the following week.  Not fun!

We got another frame from Ikea for our US poster.  I've had this for several years and we finally hung it up.  The world map we hung this past summer in Utah.  We've already been using the maps a bunch.

Matthew helped me arrange things on this entry table in an aesthetically pleasing way.  

Still a pile of mail sitting there, but it looked nice.

And here is John waiting for Emma at the bus stop with me.  Emma goes to kindergarten two days a week and I had her start riding the bus.  Since I have other kids at home to get on to school work, taking her to school and picking her up was getting to be a problem.  And we are on the bus route, so I decided we would try it and arranged for her to ride the bus.  Then I started feeling really nervous about putting my kindergartener on the bus.  It turned out fine.  Emma is excited to ride the bus, the bus driver is nice and Emma has her own little seat she is supposed to sit at each day.  Rumor has it that the elementary and middle school kids may be going back to school in some hybrid form in January or February so we are waiting to hear more about that.  When that happens all kids will ride the bus.  But for now just Emma and  it makes it easier for me to help the other kids with their school each morning and afternoon.  More adventures to come.

Thanksgiving

and other November adventures

We had a small family Thanksgiving this year because of coronavirus.  It was still nice.  Scott and I quickly assembled all the dishes.  Over dinner we commented how good everything tasted and wondered if we were getting better at this Thanksgiving dinner thing. Each year it seems a little easier to get it done. The fact that our kids are older and more independent probably makes it seem easier too.  I don't have to carry a baby around while trying to cook or stop to feed someone.

We had our usual things to eat:  Roasted turkey, freshly made cranberry compote, cornbread stuffing, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, roasted Brussels sprouts, fruit salad and freshly baked rolls.

I was there too

We bought pies - mixed berry, pumpkin, strawberry rhubarb and apple.

The apple one was actually a gift from our real estate agent

Pie was enjoyed by all and it was a nice holiday

Next year maybe we can do it with more family

Being in the house with the whole family a lot can be a little weird.  I have been trying to encourage the kids to get some physical exercise each day.  The older three kids can manage that pretty well and I help the younger two a bit.  I take the little ones on walks or to play on the rocks behind the house.  John and Emma aren't allowed to go back there without a grown up so it's kind of like a special treat to them when I take them back there.

Climbing on the big rocks uses lots of big muscles

I was able to get new Nike's from the Nike store and I love them. They are the latest Nike Air Pegasus Trail running shoe.  Nike went back to the old shoe style that I liked and fit me very well, so they are back on my good list.  After decades of wearing their shoes they changed the style too much to be comfortable, but apparently it was only a temporary blip.  I love these shoes and wear them for muddy walks and rainy hikes.  And we got them greatly discounted at the Nike employee store (for which we had a temporary pass).  I have other shoes I use on the treadmill so they can get as dirty as I want.

Views behind the house

Mt. Hood view

This is in a wild space behind our house.  There are plans to have a housing development built back here, but we don't know when that will be.  We will enjoy this open space while we can.

We're getting exercise

Another day I made the older two kids go on a walk/hike with me at Lacamas Lake near our house.  They weren't too resistant but probably wouldn't have gone if I gave them a choice.  I just wanted them to get out for some exercise and thought it would be fun - just older kids.  We did have a good time and got hot cocoa after.  It was foggy and chilly.

more of Lacamas Lake 

Another day we went on a lunch time rain walk near our house

Anna went with me, John and Emma.

Nice views of the Columbia River on our walk

Anna encouraged us to find lots of fall colors on our walk

Another evening rain walk with the two littles

It is rainy a lot, but its not that bad so far.

We got the family some new rain coats from Columbia

and we're working on getting everyone rain boots

Scott and Matthew match

Matthew has moved into wearing adult men sized clothes - he is almost 14.

Stop growing up Matthew!

Emma started going to kindergarten in person in November.  She even rides the bus now.  She goes two half days a week.  The other half of her class goes two other days.

Emma at school for kindergarten

There is talk of other kids being able to go back in January or February

School is tough.  We've been remote learning all year - and the end of last school year.  The middle school kids can keep on their own schedule pretty well, but the three elementary school kids (Grant, John and Emma) need help staying on task, getting on their zoom calls at the right time and completing work.  The elementary kids got lower grades for things like music, PE and library because I didn't get them onto their zoom calls regularly enough.  In my defense they are at a different time each week and I already have many alarms set on my watch to get them on their regular calls.  When things get changed up it messes me up.  So I feel responsible for some of those lower grades.  We're working on it.  Here is a tower John built for a science project.  John is often working on his school work well into the evening.

He is persisting...for now

Anna has been taking part in a rock painting class through her school.  We got some rocks from behind our house - there are large granite rocks back there and we found some smaller jagged pieces.

Some pretty trees Anna painted (she tells me they are birch, not aspen)

Anna likes trees.   She likes many biology topics.

Scott kept telling me to take her down to the river to get some smooth river rocks.  I imagined we would go down there and have to dig through the dirt to find a rock or two.  Finally I ventured down to a local swimming hole on the Washougal River called "Sandy Swimming Hole."  It wasn't as sandy as advertised.   Maybe the water level was low.  There were literally thousands of large, smooth river rocks sitting there by the river.  We took a few for Anna's painting class.  No more jagged rocks.  I guess Scott knows what he's talking about.

At the sandy swimming hole

Scott and I finally hung some pictures around the house - here are some

We took a picture for the school Veteran's Day assembly

I like having everyone at home but with all the kid's school work and school schedules my brain feels overloaded.  And it seems like I should be exhausted after each day, and I am, but I can't get my brain to turn off and as a result, have trouble sleeping.  So that's fun.  It's been a weird year and I think its ok to just try and get through it one day at a time.  Hoping for good things in the new year.