Christmas Music and Halloween 2022

The younger kids are downstairs (well, not down downstairs, I'm in the loft and they are just below me) dancing to Christmas music. They've pulled out Santa caps, and Mette has unwrapped her remaining Halloween candy and brought it over in a little bowl to share. They are shouting up asking for hot cocoa (Summer promising she can make it for everyone and Mette gamely saying she'll help by making it for Starling). Hans just delivered an invitation to "a play about Jesus". And Starling is happily following their every move (not even knowing how lucky she is to have older siblings who are already well-versed in holiday making). 

Never mind that our front porch is still covered in jack-o-lanterns or that they are dancing next to orange lights and mason-jar mummies. (Or that Goldie would shake her head at Christmas music on Nov. 2nd. [Hi Gold! Sorry!]) I'd promised Summer, when she asked about Christmas music yesterday (now that Halloween was over), that they could listen to some the first time it snowed. 

And this morning we woke to this:

Not an enormous amount, but enough to feel exciting (and pretty with all the red leaves still on at least one of our backyard maples). I usually pick the kids up from school as they walk home, but today I just let them make their way home without a ride knowing the extra giddiness they always feel the first snow day. And when they came in with Mette and Summer talking eagerly about all their plans for music and hats and cocoa, well, there was nothing I could do but help them connect our Christmas play list to the bluetooth speaker.

But for all of that, we still ought to mention Halloween!

Not a one of our oldest three were home this year. But Abe did send pictures of how he went about campus that day. (Darth Maul.) He seemed pleased that a security guard stopped him at the campus library to make sure it was paint and not a mask. And equally pleased when he won  his ward's costume contest. He did do quite an excellent job painting his face--though perhaps it might never have been if Daisy hadn't rushed him over some paint brushes to ready himself with.

And Daisy felt festive enough to throw on this darling witch hat with a black dress and some stripey tights.

Goldie told us she didn't manage any costuming this year, and Penny, who had made herself into Sherlock Holmes got ready at a friend's ... and had discarded most of her costume by the time she arrived home late that night, so no picture of Sherlock Penny either. But here are the rest of the kids. (Jesse felt too old to trick-or-treat this year, but he still donned his Charlie Brown shirt and went with Mike to help kids around the block.)

(Our front porch the next morning. Anders wanted the "caution/keep out" tape up--though our door sends a bit of a conflicting message with "keep out" tape and a "welcome" sign.)

(Our friend Melyssa asked if they'd come up and trick-or-treat at her house a day early while she had her older kids home for dinner. I was a little worried about sacrament meeting with Mike up on the stand, but Melyssa usually keeps most of my littlest ones by her, so ... church has been rather easy!)

It was a fun Halloween. 

And here are a few other pictures from the last week:

Jesse learning to fix bike-tire flats.

Jesse entertaining Starling with snap circuits while I try to get everyone else ready for church one Sunday morning.

Kids homeworking and coloring:

Kids in a streak of evening sunlight:

Starling making more people with arms and legs coming out of their heads:

Abe did end up doing his nine-pitch climb! It took them five hours of climbing the 1000 feet. (And then he rushed back--hiking down in near dark, frantically showered, realized Daisy had the car, so rode his bike as fast as he could the three miles to where his Saturday-evening-adult session of stake conference was being held; arriving just in time to see everyone exiting the meeting to go home. Haha.)

And lastly, Anders finding Christmas in the store on Halloween day.