I hope your Halloween was fun and festive! I was pretty happy with the way my crystal ball reader costume turned out. I will say that Coconut handled his first Halloween very well. He was an excellent crystal ball. I would ask people if they wanted me to read my crystal ball, rub my belly, and then pull out a fortune and hand it to them. (As a side note, I downloaded, printed, and cut the fortunes from this fortune cookie site.)

Matt had fun carving a pumpkin with our dremel. Hoss was happy that we didn’t attempt to dress him up…

In terms of ideas for next

Inspired by Amy’s advent calendar, I decided to craft some traditions for our growing little family, in the form of a Holiday Countdown Calendar. Here are some ideas for activities we could do together on December evenings:

• Make handmade holiday stamps
• Make gift-tags and cards
• Cut down an evergreen tree (or buy a potted one and plant it after Christmas)
• Decorate the tree
• Make origami paper cranes
• Wrap presents
• Write little notes to colleagues and neighbors
• Make baked goods for colleagues and neighbors
• Deliver baked goods and notes
• Decorate the house
• Write cards to family
• Make felt balls
• Drink hot chocolate and play

I’m trying to stay on top of the fall/winter holidays this year. One of the things that always happens to me is that I have to scramble to pull together a Christmast list of present ideas, per the request of my mom and grandma.

1. Subscription to Sunset Magazine
2. A personal screen-printing machine
3. Book: Making a Family Home
4. Book: Simplicity Parenting
5. KitchenAid mixer bowl

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