December

 Rebekah and Don sporting blue shirts. 

I survived my first band concert as a parent.

I found an excuse to make my favorite carrot cake cookies. 

With cream cheese frosting.

And my gingerbread bars. 

Also with cream cheese frosting. 

Rebekah and I had our 5th & 6th grade choir concert. I asked Don for a picture. He suggested we look like we like each other. 

The 5th & 6th grade choir:

After the concert my neighbor suggested she could take a picture. Glad she did. We're all looking mildly happy in this one. 

Rebekah started playing basketball this year. This is her with the team as they walked out before the girls high school basketball game. 

And finally, my church choir. Or most of them. I was going to take the picture but then they wanted me to put it on timer. Once I got it started someone suggested I move the stand. After I only had a few seconds and ran to this position. Not my finest moment, but still - the choir: 

Starting Christmas Season

Indiana got a giving machine this year. Apparently it's a pretty big thing so the church made a big deal out of sharing the news. We were asked to go and then share on social media. I pondered if this wasn't doing your alms to be seen of men, but we were obedient. 

Rebekah wanted to get the one that supported veterans. 

On the way out we took a few more pictures: 

There was a Dunkin' on the way home so we stopped and partook. 

Then we came home and put our tree up. 

We've had this pre-lit tree since Rebekah turned 2. It's held out remarkably well. 

I made peanut butter fudge cups for the choir members.

but it cost me my favorite spatula. Very sad. 

After church on Sunday I wanted our yearly family picture. 

Rebekah wanted one with her with the following pose. However, I'm not sure it's the best of me and Don. 

While she was waiting for us to show up she took this one: 

Then, because the choir consumed all the fudge cups, I made Don his favorite cookies. 

And thus the season officially began. 

November Books

One of the must reads about Andrew Jackson. The author spent a lot of time with his family and the drama surrounding his family, but there was much about his life and time in office. I feel like I know more about the man and his time.

Figured I should know more about this event as well. It was probably very well written, it just turns out I don't care as much as I wanted to. 

Junior history about the Japanese occupation of Korea. Very insightful.

"The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea" - the picture turned out a little blurry. Young Adult Fantasy. Young girl sacrifices herself to the Sea God in hopes to calm the storms. Turns out a lot more is going on under the surface. It's well written and highly recommendable.  

I really liked this fiction account of an older woman whose husband just passed so she tries to reunited with her old friend. I liked all the friends she makes along the way. But the end of the book takes a hard left turn and I struggled with the ending. 

I was intrigued with the idea of the man surviving Hitler's camps and becoming a highly successful American business man. However, it turns out the man was kind of a jerk at times so I was less impressed than I wanted to be. Not saying there wasn't probably good reason for him to be that way, however I was hoping for better. 

Junior fantasy fiction. Kind of a chain of events, nature feeds off of each other, can't have the good without the bad kind of book. It's okay. Not my favorite, but good. 

Junior fiction concerning a young girl born in America but her mother gets deported. They wait in America hoping to get her back. The story follows the girl and her father and the fiends they meet along the way. Very enjoyable and highly recommendable. 

It's short, to the point, and highly informative. 

I purchased this book years ago but never got around to reading it. It's a fun story. Charles Dickens never gets old. 

She was instrumental in creating the vehicle for the Covid vaccination. Her story is fascinating! Highly recommendable. 

Junior fiction about a young girl that has to live with her aunt while her parents go to rehab, her journey, a little about her parents and the aunt, oh and there's a dog. It's okay. Suppose to be written in poetry form, but I listen to the audio book so I may have lost some of that. 

Junior fiction about a family living in rural Alaska. Parents divorce, mom takes the family to Connecticut while the dad stays in Alaska, but the dad promises the main character that after a year she can come back. Her journey, as well as a bird she befriends, her family and the friends she makes. It's pretty good.  

Suppose to be an exploration of the most desolate places in the world. I found it on audiobook and was slightly worried I'd want the actual book for the pictures, however the author does an amazing job with descriptions. It's a fascinating view of the ability nature has to come back. Somewhat disturbing and very preachy at times, but I'm still glad I added it. 

I loved this junior fiction about a girl with dyslexia and her struggles with school. Think I finished it in one day. Highly recommendable. 

Adults

And then the new furniture arrived! 

And all the sudden we felt like adults. 

It gave the room an entirely different feel. 

Rebekah highly approved. 

And the video to make it feel more real:

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. We actually made food and had a dinner. Rebekah helped me with this pumpkin pie. It was delicious and lasted only a few days. 

Then she made this fancy toilet paper holder turkey for a centerpiece. 

The food. And yes, I do believe that's a bottle of ketchup. Sigh. 

And, in honor of my friend Kelly who taught Rebekah the proper way to eat whipped cream:

After the food we decided to do a project. We live in a house full of eclectic furniture. Since we were in the process of purchasing new living room furniture, I suggested we think about painting the caramel colored cabinet white. 

Because I'm rubbish at taking before pictures I went through all my old phots looking for a picture of the cabinet to be painted. And so I give you the following: 

Off to the right, upstaged by the cutie patutie and all the halloween candy

The only one I had of the entire cabinet - shadowed way in the back right

Behind Rebekah

A better view but one tends to get distracted by the feet

Or the globe-headed girl

And finally, this was the cabinet before we took the top part off 

By the time I remembered to take a picture it looked like below. This was just the primer, which we did out in the garage because the smell was so strong. 

To be painted we brought it in. Then we went to the store, yes on black Friday, to buy new handles for the new look. 

It ended up looking like this: 

And finally this: 

I really like the results! And I loved that the whole family helped in the process!