Just another CarleSpawn weblog

There’s an elf riding a reindeer.

The Santa breakfast has both pancakes and Santa.

The Ornament Smash – Another tradition is the pointless but satisfying destruction of glass ornaments. You hurl an ornament at the wall to shatter it. If there’s a golden ticket in it you get a prize. If not, they can’t take away the joy of hearing the glass crunch against the wall.

The Brownie troop had a bake and craft sale table. The girls made unicorn ornaments and brought other home made crafts and baked goods to sell. Ezri made magnets to sell. Her magnet craft made around $24 dollars for her troop. The troop will donate most of the profit this year’s sale to a holiday fund for families at the school who could use help and keep a bit in the troop coffers to pay for their activities.

Brownies, their leader, and Santa

This Monday morning Ezri told her little brother that it was Sunday and he would get to play video games.
I did not hear this exchange.
But when we told him it was Monday and he needed to get ready for school and he realized he’d been duped, he broke down sobbing.

Ezri apologized and faced consequences. She really thought it would be a funny joke when Ivan realized the prank.
Ivan was heartbroken. Ezri then cried because she realized she’d done wrong.

I find it super-funny in hindsight considering we all made it to school and work on time.

If someone had told me I’d get to linger in PJ bottoms with my coffee and then had shaken me awake and said, “Ha Ha, really it’s Monday.” Well, I can imagine how Ivan felt.

This year we built our gingerbread houses in December instead of January.
Quite a bit of frosting and candy was eaten, but a lot of it made onto the houses too.

Pie making with Aunt Amy

Pillow art with Grandma Liz

The lighted tree in Downtown Downers. We found some of the ornaments Ezri’s Brownie troop made for the tree though we couldn’t identify hers. We think it’s probably up high. It has a unicorn on it.

Ezri helped a little with preparation of pie and mashed potatoes this year.

We played Apples to Apples Junior, climbed trees, colored pillows, built LEGO ATV racers, read books and both kids ate a piece of all 4 kinds of pie.

There was a delicious feast with squash, turkey, green beans, gravy, stuffing, yams and all the best things. Ivan mostly ate turkey but Ezri likes stuffing and squash and cranberries.

It was nice to have family together and we have a lot for which to be thankful.

Making tied fleece blankets to donate to our local humane society

Making ornaments to decorate the tree in Downtown Downers Grove by the Main Street Station

The first frost brought down the leaves. Ezri picked these pretty red ones up to be a fall bouquet.