The In-Between Season

We are in that interesting little season between Halloween/autumn and winter/Christmas where some stalwarts purposefully put up a few sparse items in acknowledgement of Thanksgiving (I drove past a house with two blow-up turkeys the other day and even saw some brown and orange lights!), but most of us seem to be somewhere between old jack-o-lanterns still sitting on our front porches and ... fully-lit Christmas trees shining through our windows. 

I typically can't resist a strand or two of twinkly lights and a few sneak listens of Christmas songs somewhere in early November but don't get around to actual decorating until Thanksgiving weekend.

We sent Goldie a little package of pre-Christmas cheer though--lights and tiny trees, treats and pictures from the kids, etc.; and it's fun to see her eager to holiday up her little mission apartment. She's usually a hard and fast "no Christmas 'til after Thanksgiving" sort. But her first companion is getting transferred today, and she'll be training a brand-new missionary for Christmas. I wanted to send a few things to make her feel as homey and cozy as possible with all this newness during her first Christmas away from us.

(Looks like she's between holidays herself--what with the kids Halloween pictures and Christmas ones hanging side by side.)

(I thought a close-up of Jesse's Christmas Guardian [from some Nintendo game?] deserved a spot here.)

Mike is still going to be pretty heavy on work hours throughout November (well, throughout the remainder of this career actually), but they will lessen a bit in December! I got a taste of what having him around will be like last weekend when Daisy came up and sent us off to see Penny's It's a Wonderful Life (Daisy was going with several of the kids the next night), and then let us head up to the cabin for the night while she stayed behind--baking gingerbread cookies with the kids, folding laundry nobody even asked her to fold, and taking them to various places. (Best darn daughter and sister in the west!) 

It was so nice to just be with my Mike! And I'm anxious for an upcoming Christmas with Mike around a little more than he has been during the past several years' Decembers!

(After the play. We weren't allowed to take any during the performance sadly.)
 

I told Mike we needed to do some fun Christmassy things with him around next month, and so he ordered us all tickets for Peter Breinholt's Christmas concert! (Peter Breinholt always makes me feel nostalgic. We listened to him in Jerusalem all the time--especially his "Jerusalem" song; Mike took me to a small concert with Ryan Shupe and also Peter Breinholt when we were first dating; And Peter Breinholt's Noel Christmas album is one of the very first holiday CDs I bought when Mike and I got married. [I almost can't even listen to "Garten Mother's Lullaby" without crying and thinking of rocking my babies in my arms at Christmas time, and it's Peter's "I Saw Three Ships" that we turn on to celebrate each first snowfall]. My kids associate his voice so much with Christmas that if they hear one of his non-Christmassy songs during the rest of the year, ... they ask why we are listening to Christmas music.

Anyway. Here we are. Mid-November. (I placed my very first order of a few Christmas presents today.) And here are a few other pictures from this late-fall/early-winter time of year:

Anders' "Mesopotamian war strategies" project. He and his little group did it all on their own. And then we all got to come and see all the 6th-grade, Mesopotamian projects on display in the school library. There was even official voting. The girls likely would have voted for their brother's ... only ... one project was made entirely with Calico Critters. And there their votes went. Nobody could blame them. (Anders' group still got 2nd place--which he was quite pleased with.) 

I'm pretty sure I saw two ghost ducks as I drove home the other night. 

Last Sunday evening I was feeling a little heavy and discouraged. Luckily Mike was here. He took the kids down the street to feed apples to his Uncle Jodie's horses ... and then just stuck our kids, bareback, on one of his ponies!

Summer below:

Mette:

Daisy:

Hans:

Penny:

Hansie riding back home (he only just mastered bike riding this fall):

Trying to have a little family home evening.

This little turkey running in my front door after school:

I love our little bus stop and the morning ritual of walking and talking with neighbors. Did Nala finally have her puppies last night? And did all 11 survive? Do the ward boundaries really extend all the way over to the dump road? Where is Dick taking that old sway back horse to auction? And was it Becky's cows out the other day? (We laughed to hear Mike discovered cow hoof prints right outside our front door.) 

It seems like it would be a slightly better world if everyone had a fifteen-minute chat with their neighbors most mornings.

And these shows zero depth, but look at my view (first out front and then out back) just from sitting at our kitchen table. I know winters up here last long but think how pretty this will be all stretched out in white!