Leaf Pile

The other day when we were going around the dinner table saying good things from our day, Leah's contribution was that she was "almost finished" with her leaf pile. 

Here we are on our way to a spa-themed birthday party, so no big deal if she shows up with leaves in her hair. 

Amelie’s Art

Amelie's in Art & Theater Tech & has made a lot of art this year! This fan is from theater but the rest are from Fibers. 

These are fabric patches (of the characters from the Murderbots webseries that she likes) 

This is some kind of emerald moth. I like him! 

This one is trees plus some embroidered stars. 

And some more fabric squares - I have a bunch of these, too, from MUUSA - we should do something with them! 

 

Christmas Concert

 Jim's switched to percussion - he did brass all last year, so this is new since school started. He's doing great! Even though he keeps comically frowning at me!  

I got a clip of him playing the cymbals, too.

Magic Tree

We went to the magic tree on Christmas Eve eve. The regular magic tree is still on break (and it looked like some big branches were cut off) so it was the smaller back-up tree again. 

 Yes, I'm wearing an artic explorer coat while Jim is in shorts & a t-shirt. Also, yes, of course, my eyes are closed. 

Jim was, in fact, having a good time. He is just onery about the pictures. 

He hung off of all of the trees - that was a new one. 

I think the water feature is  more of a draw than the tree at this point. The light is too low to really get a picture, though!. 

We might go back again tonight!

Last Year for VU Holiday Lights

They announced that this was the last year for the Veterans United Holiday lights. (They started in 2020 during Covid.) Amelie & I got a sneak peek because she went out practice driving over there last weekend when some workers were putting up part of the display. 

We put on our Santa/elf hats and loaded up the van courtesy of Aunt Holly's employee pass. Nana Jana & Uncle Joe had a series of (small) misfortunes and so we went just us & didn't squeeze in. Leah did get in the front seat with Jim to see better once we were in the parking lot, but she spilled her (very hot) cocoa on him! So maybe he regretted that decision. 

The lights were super nice as always! And I got one of the workers to take our picture!

Link to last year! https://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2024/12/vu-bright-lights.html

Leah’s Artwork

Leah brought home a big batch of artwork yesterday, and told me and Sam all about it. Her art teacher is really wonderful!

This one reminds me of the dot picture I did that's in our downstairs bathroom (that Aunt Holly thought one of the kids painted!) 

I said the next picture reminded me of The Dot picture book, and Leah let me know they read it in class!

Doing line work: 

And making a map: 

Including: Sheepville, Stinkerbell, the GIANT worm, Island of nothing and whales!, the boot, ghost town, and forest of monsters, and some very questionable spelling "the Hart of the Ilind" - I did ask, that was supposed to be "island" but, since old-timey maps also had some questionable spelling, it was fitting. 

Theater Tech

 Amelie's in Theater Tech this year for her practical art & they're building the sets for the plays that Hickman puts on. We went to see the first production - Mama Mia - and to admire Amelie's wall/door/floor that she worked on. Look how professional!

Pickled Green Tomatoes

Posting this to save it for posterity (and myself). I love the pickled green tomatoes they serve at some fried fish places in the bootheel & it's a great way to use up all the green tomatoes left at the end of the season. It's kind of relishy and goes well with fish & white beans & anything really. (I like it with a lot of my side's thanksgiving food.) 

It cooks down a fair amount & the tomatoes release a lot of liquid if you're worried about it not being enough. We didn't put any hot peppers in - maybe next year!

We did a 1/4 recipe and it made about 2 quarts, so here's that translation: 

8 cups green tomatoes

1 cup onions

1/2 cup white vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons salt

Mix everything but tomatoes together til hot, add green tomatoes and bring to a pool til tomatoes turn light green, turn off heat, place in hot sterilized jars. 

Tonsillectomy

 Jim got his tonsils & adenoids out on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It's been a week and a half and I think he's pretty well recuperated - no PE for a couple more days, they said, though. 

In the waiting room:

His surgery wasn't until 3:45pm, which makes for a long day of no food! And nothing to drink, either, after noon. 

He ended up having to spend the night in the hospital and was Not A Fan. We watched the Jack Black Jumanji and had some popsicles and microwave mac & cheese. All in all a little crappier experience than maybe he was expecting! There was the holiday plus a snow day at school, so he only ended up missing 2 days. 

We brought exploding kittens, but only made it through one game.

Halloween 2025

Sam was excited about putting up lights for Halloween. 

The 5 of us also carved pumpkins & then roasted & ate the seeds. 

From left to right: Jim, Sam, Leah (only got a little help on 3 letters for "treat"), Amelie (she carved the same design last year),  Crystal (Jinu from K-pop Demon Hunters)

Nana Jana & Leah worked on a haunted doll house: 

We went to a Halloween party the Friday before Halloween & mine & Leah's costumes were different, but did we take any photos? Nope! Oops! 

Nana Jana loaned Amelie a cloak so that she would be warm. Jim walked around in shorts. 

Leah worked very hard over several days on her witch costume. She even made a little papier-mache bird/familiar. 

Amelie was also a witch!

And Jim was a scary dude in a mask! He did abandon his mask toward the end - so then he was just a teenager without a costume - and one house gave him some pushback on it. 

I wore my light-up ghost earrings to work & then for passing out candy. 

Amelie and Jim came home with the most ridiculously excessive candy haul ever. Jim did get 1 potato, and one house was having hotdogs so he joined in with that, too. 

We ended up with 57 trick-or-treaters total! 

Aunt Jenn & Uncle Joe got to come over & pass out candy & walk around the neighborhood for trick-or-treat this year! Since they're here in MO! Did we take a picture? No! Next time!

Here's the link to last year!