Advent Adventures

 

First week of Advent was already upon us (where did this year go?) This marks the first day of the new Liturgical Year.

This deer had a nice rack but had CWD so landed itself into the deer dumpster down the road. So we had 1 edible deer and 1 not-so-edible deer.

Instead of Elf on a Shelf we have our daily route to Bethlehem with Mary and Joseph.

Just hangin' out. Country life.

We had a, absolutely fabulous Thanksgiving celebration with most of Aragorn's family. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. I think everyone had a great time.

Squeezing the 38 cousins in to one photo! (Actually it was 37 as Galadriel could not be there, but there were 2 wives...) The photo is soon to be obsolete since cousin # 39 is due any day now! Can't wait! (prayers for a safe delivery!)

These 2 are buddies. 

Pied Piper Kili off to battle while playing the recorder.

I was reading to Kili and he informed me he took a picture of every page. To be sure, I did not post every picture! 😂

It was a long, long walk to Bethlehem.

We have had some VERY glorious days in the 50's in December in Wisconsin. No complaints! We know what's coming right around the corner.

No idea why there is a very, very old washing machine (from long before we moved in, out in the woods but Kili found it a good place for a photo shoot.

Getting ready for St. Nicholas Day

Our TKD school offered free mini-lessons in person after in-person classes were cancelled due to "emergency" order #857 or something like that.

My kids said now that I'm going to be a grandma I needed to get some curlers. HAHA!!!

We found a size 19 yes 19 pair of shoes at St. Vinnies. If anyone is looking for that size.... they are in Waunakee.

Someone is at the nog again.

We got behind with hair cuts. Yikes! Aragoran thought we should grow Bilbo's a little longer and make a re-make of the Little Prince.

My niece in CA was in a play which was painstakingly put together piece by piece by her school into a fabulous video format. It was splendid to be able to watch Ceci in the play! What a great job they all did!

Merry participated in 7 weeks of zoom video tournaments. It ended with a "tournament of champions" where he placed 2nd in the world. 

Bravo to these 2!

Week 2 of Advent also happened to be the Feast of St. Nicholas. Stockings were all hung on the bannister with care.

One of Belladonna's beautiful stockings!

My mom made (or bought) the stockings for all our kids.

Aragorn had found some large awesome waffle irons so we could have waffles! Homemade batter is FAR superior to Bisquick. We only had Bisquick in the house because it was part of our eat our way through the states.

On St. Nicholas day we open our new addition to our Fontanini (gigantic) Nativity.  Since this year we had 3 weddings, I thought the flower shop was appropriate. 

A local group also had a live outdoor Nativity! We noticed cousins' car way ahead of us! This was definitely something to support especially in a town where the school mascot is the blue devil. Seriously.

It was complete with live animals. It was very sweet, very precious!

Oddity of life. A friend gave us a baby bottle from a baby shower that had gummy bears in it. It was actually a piggy bank but Marigold decided to take a swig.

Samwise welding

Most of this deer went into the freezer. We will make sausage as soon as our pig gets back from the butcher. For the record the hanging weight of the pig was 388!!!!

Knight in shining chain mail

December 8th - Feast of the Immaculate Conception when we celebrate that Our Blessed Mother was conceived without sin. 

To celebrate Rosie made a delicious Angel Food cake

DMV is properly socialist distanced. 

In a photo school by our resident photographer Elanor, Marigold was wearing my grandma's fur coat and the muff and hat from a dear friend.

Burning cropland. Not sure what I think of that but it is something done fairly regularly

Eowyn, Rosie, Eleanor and I attended a zoom chunky blanket class put on by a local lady. It was great fun!

Even Kili got in on the action.

I am wondering if a certain God child needs a replacement noise maker HAHA!

Kili insisted on performing his form in a pirate costume.

Flip flops?!

It's been aggravating trying to get beef into a butcher since most were booked out with larger contracts, the little farmers were basically shoved aside. Finally thanks to a diligent relative, we were able to get some beef in! We still have hamburger as we had butchered extra for Galadriel's wedding but then ended up being 1/2 the amount of people. 

Eowyn made these for her CCD class, how cute?!

Some of Rosie's paintings

Kili?! Why do you have 2 different size boots on? It's for a movie. Oh boy. Can't wait to see this one!

Our TKD school has gone extra lengths since quarantine to keep the spirits up with various game nights and events. This one was an awards ceremony and games as well as demos by featured black belts.

We won an award for Moh's Family of the Year. 💕💖