Elf on the shelf

 I planned on starting something special this holiday season. When I saw the Elf on the Shelf box at Target, I brought that elf home. Jackson named our Elf Tikki Tikki Tempo, then changed to Chang. 

At the beginning, this conversation happened every day.

Norah: How does our elf go to North pole?

Jackson(rolling his eyes): Probably Mommy or Daddy changed his location every night.

Norah: How does our elf hear and see us?

Jackson: ....

Later Jackson learned to play along with Norah. Once I forgot to move the elf to a new location, he helped me move it.

Then Norah no longer slept in! She would wake up early each morning and look for the elf. 

Today at home learning, I heard her told her class multiple times of our elf sending daily reports to Santa so Santa could decide on the good gifts for good behaviors. 

She is such a believer. And I'm heart warmed to see Jackson is helping to entertain her. I could see a few times the self control he had to muster to not share with her the truth. 

Halloween 2020

 We were blessed with superb weather this year's Halloween.

We had an impromptu (again) phone shoot with Grandparents at Flag Pole Hill.

We carved pumpkins in the morning. And roasted pumpkin seeds. 

After nap, we dressed up to visit Paula and Ken. And stopped by the Crawford's house. 

In the evening, we made S'more at the outdoor fireplace. We had a wonderful Halloween. 

Attempting friluftsliv

A few years ago, I ran across the Scandinavian (?) phrase "there's no such things a bad weather, just bad clothing." Recently my feed seems to be full of this phrase's cousin, friluftsliv, or roughly translated to "open air life" as a way of coping with Covid.  (For instance: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/well/mind/Scandinavia-Norway-Winter-Mindset.html).

When winter arrived suddenly this week, the parents were ready to shelter inside, but Jackson and Norah were undeterred!

Jackson lost his front tooth and questioned tooth fairy existence

 This day has come. Jackson lost his front tooth on Saturday and tried to test both Will and I about tooth fairy existence.

Jackson (nonchalantly) : Mommy, I lost a tooth. Are you going to give me a dollar for it?

Me (faked shocking look) : Me?! No! It's the tooth fairy's job.

Jackson smirks: I thought it was you or daddy.

When he discussed with Will, he doubted how could tooth fairy or Santa could take care of so many kids' need around the world. 

This was his 4th teeth lost. Maybe tooth fairy won't need to sneak pay him the rest of the 16 dollars.

Norah is 5!

We celebrated Norah's 5th birthday the past weekend. She was counting down to her birthday about two months ago. She packed her overnight bag for the sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's about two weeks ahead. Then she packed all the goodie bags herself. And one week ahead, she wrote all the thank you letters to her neighborhood street friends. 

Getting ready for a backyard birthday party

Opening goodie bags

Opening presents scene 1

We took another family portrait

All the cousins

Opening presents scene 2

Family portrait

When school asked for a family portrait, all I could find was a photo of 4 of us last August. This weekend we had an impromptu photo shoot at Flag Pole Hill. 

On our run last week, we found a grove of persimmon trees. I told the kids about the trees and Jackson was interested to check them out. I dusted off the camera, charged the battery, took the tripod and remote with us on the walk.

 In the evening, we celebrated Grandma's birthday in September. 

Monopoly

 One month ago, our neighbor Read gave us a deck of Monopoly cards. We started to play the game and now all of us are hooked. It's additive and we play everyday. The first thing Norah asked after she got back from school was: Have time for Monopoly?

Norah couldn't read the cards yet but she managed to memorize all the cards and developed her strategies to win. It's the cutest thing to see Norah and Jackson plotting to win. And they are getting so good at it.

Before I had kids, I visualized our happy family playing cards together. Now 7 years after we had kids, this dream came true.