Last California Christmas

And it was certainly a memorable one~

"Christmas Eve at the Barn" was a highlight for us this Christmas. The 100-year-old barn is located 1/2 mile from us - also in the midst of the strawberry fields where we reside. It was such a sweet service, and the animals in the pen outside (goats, chickens, rabbits) were a hit with our crew - especially our rowdy 20-month-old who wasn't especially keen to sit through the service.

The kids got to dress up and sing "Away in a Manger" from the front stage, and the monkey elected to be a king. (The other two declined to participate - this time.)

 Our Christmas tree, all decked out and waiting for Santa!

We had a lovely Christmas day... The kids delighted in their gifts, and we enjoyed having HF's friend/colleague Joe and his girlfriend Andy join us for our traditional calzone dinner. Very nice day.

Doing December

We have scaled down our advent and December activities quite a bit this year. We aren't doing a Jesse Tree this year - way too time and gear intensive. There is not enough room on our little kitchen table to break out our advent wreath for our Sunday advent dinners, so we just use a candle. And, while we are decorating amply (the kids, especially Monkey, could not have it any other way), we do not have a tree. Correction: we have a bonsai tree for our Christmas tree. See photo below.

The rationale for this is:  a) we are moving exactly 9 days after Christmas and are thus awash in moving-related activities (mostly administrative related to home-buying, mover-coordination, and travel arrangements), b) we have virtually no extraneous space in our house, and c) we still have an 80-lb dog with a massive cone on his head who cannot fit through the doors (much less into his crate) and knocks children over willy-nilly at all times of days. It's a crazy time.

We have managed to listen to Christmas carols at every.waking.moment.of.the.day. To bake and decorate sugar cookies and a gingerbread house from scratch. To have our annual Scherrei-Arico Christmas dinner (last one of its kind, sniff sniff.) And tomorrow night we are going caroling with our friends the Coopers. So I'd say we're doing pretty well still, all around...

Yesterday was the kids' last day of school, rounded out by a lovely luncheon potluck that included parents, siblings, and teachers. They said their goodbyes and took their photos with friends and such... They - and I - really enjoyed their school and will miss when we move.

Maker of bags

I don't sew... but HF most certainly does. Not only does he patch our clothes when necessary, when they are too far gone to patch, he makes them into bags for our kids. Exhibit A: formerly-Daddy's-khaki's-bags. That's a cool dad.

While he had the sewing machine out, he also assembled our fourth child stocking for the mouse... He sewed the other three last year, and this one was cut and ready to go, but not yet done. But now it is. Seamster extradordinaire.

(And go, fab 4 at Yuletide...!)

Here we go again...

Six days before we left for Virginia on our house-hunting trip, Angus' ear started swelling. He has chronic ear/yeast infections and has for years; we treat them periodically as the need dictates. Well this was different. Big.

The day after Legoland, HF took him in to the vet to find he has a hemotoma. We began extracting fluid from his ear with a special syringe, once to twice daily. Not fun - for him or us. When we left for a week, our friends/neighbors the Jamisons took over the job as part of their care of him (now are those good friends or what?)

When I got back though, it was no better and was in fact much worse. It was like a triangle shaped balloon sticking out of the side of his head, full of fluid and infected.
Next stop was surgery, we knew, so yesterday I took him in for the procedure. When I picked him up at 5 pm, I had to lift him into the car - and could barely make it in there because of his cone (which has to stay on for at least two weeks). He bumps into all the walls and door frames in our tiny house... Awkward.

Never a dull moment with this one - surely among the highest maintenance dogs, health-wise (and possibly overall) we've ever known. But we love him!
Get well soon Ango.

House-hunting

Whirlwind week for the PCW crew! Whew.

Last Monday night I dropped Monkey and Roo off for their first ever friend sleepover at our dear friends (and fellow homeschoolers), the Coopers. Josh, age 6, is one of the monkey's closest friends, and we all enjoy his older sister Michaela (9); mother Jenny is a good friend of mine. They kindly and graciously hosted our oldest two for 5 nights so that the remaining five family members could fly east for a Virginia househunting trip. We flew at 8 AM on Tuesday and met up Aunt Katie in Baltimore shortly after landing, over dinner at Chick-Fil-A... She and her crew kindly and graciously hosted Goose and Mouse for 4 nights and 3 1/2 days. At that point, kid-free, HF and I drove south to the Fredericksburg area and rolled up our sleeves.

We spend three days house-hunting all over our soon-to-be-new nearby town, visiting every single listed house with 5 or more acres. Our realtor is friends with a widow who is vacating her home - the house where she got married (right in the front yard!) and raised her family. Though it wasn't listed, he thought it was perfect for us - and he was right. It's a fantastic fit - the house we visited first and last. We wrote up an offer on the third day, and she accepted and signed it the same day. We were ecstatic.

It's a 1916 farmhouse with several updates and additions, and it's on 20 gorgeous acres. Four or five bedrooms and 2 baths, a large eat-in kitchen, a front porch and a screened in back porch... We both love it. It's more than we could have hoped for.

It will need some updating and a few projects - wood paneling and shag carpets to replace; pink bedroom walls to paint over; some flooring to upgrade. But even right now it's a lovely place. Some photo evidence:

Everyone did well in their respective homes during our days in VA, and we're back home at the mircofarm, amidst clouds of paperworks being gathered for our lender. The move is supposed to occur around Jan 4... And it finally is starting to feel like it's happening! Just four more weeks here in California before the eastward journey.