January 3

Our day started with watermelon. Unlikely, but true. We'd somehow managed to get used to its green roundness in our kitchen and forgot to eat it in its prime. It was still good for a few nibbles and started one of those conversations we are likely to have many times over in the coming months...if I had a corner of the garden all to myself, I think I would like to grow...watermelons! I'll save the seeds!

We spent the morning just doing - Ani and Eliza read some new magazines to themselves, then got interested in how ice is formed, which led to an impromptu you're-water-molecules-and-i'm-turning-up-the-heat-oh-no-now-i'm-putting-you-in-the-freezer! game,which led to timing how long it took ice cubes to melt in a pot on the stove. (2 minutes, 37 seconds) Eliza then worked on finished a story she started upon waking this morning, about a Queen Fairy named Tinsel - a re-working of the Cinderella story, I believe. This is story number 3 since Christmas day, but who's counting? I was feeling up for getting outside, so out we ventured...

not much snow, but it was COLD! (I know, Wisconsin, we don't know from cold, but we're still in our warm little Seattle-Virginia bodies and this feels COLD) It was a good lesson in "say, next time let's remember that an extra sweater and snowpants would really work well in this weather, and maybe boots instead of sneakers?" The lesson cost us time outside - I think we were in the woods for maybe 20 minutes - but was hopefully well learned. The outside clothing battle is one I really try not to have, but it is difficult to let only-just healthy kids outside without enough stuff on.

The girls were squirrels in the woods, looking for nuts, and when we saw nary a squirrel nor a nut, they decided that today might be the day to make these feeders to hang in our backyard:

We decided to watch a 1973 movie version of The Borrowers, starring Eddie Albert - it was pretty funny (ahem, bad), and the girls loved it. They immediately began a game as Borrowers themselves, which then morphed into creating a lovely home for a family of Borrowers. Here it is in its early stages.

We received a sweet gift of wooden spools that used to belong to Dan's Grandma Nee - a whole box full - and they were put to good use in this little house. I'll try to get a picture of it tomorrow - it's to be left alone this evening, in hopes of luring a tiny family to nest there.

A good day, and tomorrow begins Winter Quarter...I took a cue from my sister-in-law, who routinely asks her boys what they'd like to learn about. We started a new list for the coming months, and it looks something like this: swimming, but not with lessons; karate (can I learn that on my own?); cooking; ballet; crocodiles; bunnies; more time with Papa. We have loved December with Dan - Eliza looked crestfallen this morning when she realized he was going back to school tomorrow. "I thought winter break meant he was going to be home all winter." It will be a good quarter; we are all feeling more renewed and connected than we were when fall quarter started. As hard as it is to be far from family at Christmas, it was exactly what we needed to make a good start for the next 6 months.