Weekend Things--Winter Solstice

We had a fairly relaxing weekend, considering it was the last one before Christmas. 

Saturday, we went to the Victorian Christmas at the WW&F Railway museum down the road. 

Where the boys were a bad influence on all the little kids with their nonstop snowball-throwing. 

And Santa promised them plenty of coal.

Ice came during the night.

It had been too rainy Saturday night for our Solstice rituals, so we watched a movie instead (trying to get these kids to watch a Christmas movie is almost as hard as getting them to take baths...they just want me to read to them, instead. Don't they understand the true meaning of Christmas is Christmas specials???).

And we went out Sunday, instead, to feed the birds the seed ornaments and popcorn strings we had made the day before.

And hiked down to the river before the trees started breaking for a bonfire.

M helped me make some peanut better balls and peppermint bark--with somewhat disastrous results (melted chocolate from spilled peanut butter balls rolling all over the freezer, slightly browned white chocolate, peppermint candy exploding all over the kitchen), but the results tasted pretty good, and since we're not planning on giving any away, it doesn't matter how they look, right?.

M played Christmas DJ all weekend (for some reason, all of the Christmas music on my computer is Chris Isaac, Willie Nelson, EmmyLou Harris and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, so it was a very country Christmas all weekend), E suddenly discovered--and became obsessed with--Mad Libs, and Z wrote and then typed up the world's most elaborate fruit salad recipe (I think there were 40 kinds of fruit in the end). 

Hope your stockings are hung in anticipation of whatever is to come! Happy holidays and lengthening days to you, my friends!