Gingerbread

 

We were invited to a gingerbread party this year, joining a friend's longstanding family tradition that has been going since 1976. Days before the event, the family bakes and cuts gingerbread to very specific sizes, pre-packaging it all for a design that first appeared in Sunset magazine.

Candy is brought to the party and distributed among the tables, much to the wide-eye delight of my sweet toothed children. Working as a family we attempted to follow the blueprint design but quickly abandoned those plans for a quick-build that would allow for the candy application to come sooner rather than later.

Snowfall

We recently had our first real snow and our first SNOW DAY!
It's always a laugh when the first snow event creeps up on us and we scramble to locate and sort through the snow gear. Inevitably, snow pants and boots are discovered to have grown a size too small. Thus, day one is wardrobe of high waters and pinched toes. Throughout the following days we  shuffle through the collection of pants and boots, fine-tune the fittings, and get everyone properly dressed.
This snow day fell on a Friday - which is the best thing ever - and we dragged out the snowshoes that arrived last year from Santa. However, due to our real lack of snow last year, the boys never even got the chance to try them. I wasn't about to let another season go by while they collected dust. There was a learning curve which included many tumbles and laughs, but both boys got the hang of it eventually.

Mystery History

The eldest chose a more widely known historical figure this year. 

Can you guess who he was?

November

fall holiday

We recently had fours days off and we made the most of it.
The week preceding this weekend was cold and rainy and I, admittedly, wanted NOTHING to do with the idea of camping. I didn't want to be cold and wet and stuck in a tent, I didn't want to put in the work that it takes to plan, shop, pack. I was a big sour puss.
Thankfully Mr. Bejos persisted, I acquiesced, and we headed north.
Please excuse the photo dump. It was just so beautiful everywhere we went!

It turned out that it was exactly what I needed. Outdoors all day long in days that turned out to be not very cold, bathed in the sunshine.  We dipped our toes in the Colorado River, discovered the most amazing and secluded overlook of the river where we got up close and personal with a California condor (!), visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (check that off the bucket list), enjoyed a star party, and explored an amazing canyon.