Happy Christmas week & Solstice!

Happy Christmas to everyone!

We've had several day of winter/Christmas fun around here, with a few pictures to share.

We had a solstice/yule celebration at Jenny's farm this past Thursday. Lots of food --a delicious vegetarian stew -- and drink and kids playing inside and out. We built a small cave, and at 5:22 pm (our local time solstice) we filled it with candles and a small mother-child figure (made of sparkly gold pipe cleaners for the baby sun). Several of us sang a solstice song for/with the kids. At one point in the evening, someone broke out the guitars and mandolins, along with some other instruments for some wonderful music.

Sometime it seems the more fun we had, the fewer pictures I remember to take!

This is Andy flying his Vectron -- it's a remote controlled hover craft. Both boys received one from their Zayde (my Dad) for Christmas. Right now they're flying them in the house. Maybe later today it will be warm enough for us to fly them at the park.

This one was taken just a millisecond before the hover craft landed at Dan's feet. He'd already stopped sending power to it and was trying to have it land on his head. The RC hover crafts don't have a directional control, only power to go up, and no power to let them drift/fall down. At one point, as Dan was flying his, I heard Andy say "you can't tell it where to go -- it's a free-thinker!" I can't imagine where he'd have heard a phrase like that!

Andy with his Metroplex -- the big gift for Xmas this year.

Dan with his new toolbox -- a Home Depot model with kid-sized tools (not toys!). He is thrilled with it, tho it's not something he'd asked for specifically. One day last week, Gary said 'I know what Dan could really use -- a tool box! (as he said it, I had the same idea and knew he was going to say toolbox - it was just too perfect).

A week or so ago, when Dan had some money to spend, he chose to buy a power drill. He'd been talking about the power drill for weeks, having seen it at Target some time ago. I was skeptical that he'd be able to use a real drill, but he insisted. I was wrong -- Dan found the perfect drill at Target.

The drill as such a big hit that Dan chose a cordless drill as his Christmas gift to Scotty. Who knew real tools would be such a big hit with a couple of 5 and 6year old boys!

Some music at the Solstice party at Jenny's this past Thursday. To answer the inevitable question -- that's Dan in the lower right corner. I first thought it was Scotty, but on second look realized that's my own kid! It's really amazing to both me and Jenny how much the boys look alike, especially now with longer hair.

The cave we made for the Earth Mother & Sun Child. We lit the candles and filled the cave with them at 5:22 local time, the moment of solstice. Susan made our mother & child figures -- too small to see here -- from two pipe cleaners; yellow for mother and shiny for the sun baby. We sang a solstice song with/for the kids (do I remember the word now? only a few....).

We had a great time at the farm on Thursday. As we left at about 10 pm, one candle was still burning in our solstice cave.

Really a very nice welcome back for the sun. And now the days are longer -- whether or not I can notice the difference, just knowing there was more sunlight today than yesterday is nice. We've spent most of the week at home -- baking, playing with new toys, and just being. The last two months have been busy and transitional, so it's nice to just rest and have fun, while getting ready for Christmas.

Happy solstice -- and Christmas and New Year -- to everyone!