One of the nice things with Carl working for a park system is that we know when special events are going on! Carl called me this morning to say that there was a candy cane hunt going on this afternoon and we ought to get the kids to it. The kids had a lot of fun: hunting for candy canes stuck in the snow, eating s'mores, coloring pictures, doing a winter obstacle course (including climbing over small snowy hills, climbing through tunnels, jumping over things-- quite comical to observe since the snow was deep enough they couldn't exactly move quickly), and going on a carriage ride. There was a man dressed up like Santa Clause and Kjersten now insists that I am wrong-- Santa Claus really DOES exist and is alive and well! Sigh! I try to make sure I only teach my children about the true meaning of Christmas, but the world around us does a good job emphasizing other things. I know teaching about Santa isn't the worst thing in the world, but I just really don't want that to be the focus of the Christmas season.















We finally got a tree-- a big one would be too big to handle at this point and we're doing our primarily celebration at Kari's house, but the kids would've been disappointed without one. The nicest two things were the price tag: $4.64! :) (thrift store special that was 50% off the original price!) and it has fiberoptic lights imbeded into the tree, so no need to try to string lights and now burned out bulbs! :) Kjersten did all the decorating herself!