On an Outdoorsy Christmas

We spent the second half of our Christmas break mostly outside--and by "we" I mean mostly Chris and the children.  I really am a cold weather wimp, but to be fair it was awfully cold for the baby out there.  We made Christmas for the animals and hung up our birdseed ornaments just in time for the snow to hit.  Chris had the most fun ever on a nature walk when he realized that the Potomac River was frozen over enough to walk out on and explore.  He kept coming up with excuses to drive the children places so that he could stop with them and go back out on the ice.  I can appreciate how fun it must have been and I'm also glad I wasn't there to ruin it with my worrying.  That's the kind of adventure it's better to hear about later, after the fact, when you know nobody actually fell through the ice ne'er to be seen again. 

We had a very successful fondue night, New Year's Eve celebration and the next day we celebrated my birthday with a low key lunch at Chris' favorite restaurant.  I also got a night out with a dear friend who obviously understands me since she gifted me the most adorable little bit of honey I've ever seen.  Of course a bit of adult conversation with no children screaming in the background was all the gift I needed :) 

I also made an epiphany cake that involved candying grapefruit peels which I have never attempted before but were pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  Of course the children didn't actually eat the Epiphany cake since it also included dried fruit, but they did dig through their pieces with forks until someone found a gold coin.  I had ordered a bit of a prize for the king or queen but it never actually arrived, which reminds me that I should check on that again.  I got a Christmas jigsaw puzzle with a roll up mat for the kids as one last Christmas present and we all had a pretty good time piecing it together. 

Alas.

Once we were done we found that we were missing one piece.  One piece.  I think it would have been better if three or four had disappeared--at least then we wouldn't have been so close to actually finishing the thing.  Now I'm not sure what to do with the puzzle.  Keep it for next year and hope the piece reappears which it never, never will?  Or throw it away knowing that as soon as it's gone the piece will miraculously reemerge somewhere exceedingly unlikely that I never thought to check?  It's quite the jigsaw puzzle conundrum. 

We took the tree down on Epiphany and had a giant, and I do mean giant, tree burning bonfire.  I mean if the tree must come down, at least you can have the satisfaction of watching it burn.  It really takes the sting out of the lack of twinkle lights in the house. 

How did you wrap up your Twelve Days of Christmas?  Did you let your children do anything dangerous?  Or perhaps light anything exciting on fire? :)