Cold Weather -- NOT

I've gotten behind on posting, too much holiday stuff going on. Last week Rocket Boy was out of town doing some training, so the twins and I kept each other company. The homeschool preschool theme was "Cold Weather" -- NOT that we had any. It was pretty silly. I saw people in stores wearing shorts and tank tops. But we did some nice little activities, including making snowflake cookies (out of tortillas)

and paper snowflakes (actually Mom made these -- boos just wanted to make paper airplanes).

Another day we "skated" around the house wearing pieces of wax paper taped to our feet (a big hit -- seriously). By Friday, Dad was home and could help us with this exciting project: putting rock salt and food coloring on big blocks of ice (made by filling old milk cartons with water and putting them in the freezer overnight) and seeing what happens.

Not much happened for quite a while, but eventually some serious melting and color mixing got going.

But so many other things are going on right now, parties and events, and there's so much to do.

Last Friday was Pearl Harbor Day, and Rocket Boy was going to a party, so he took a cake:

We were concerned that it was in horrendously bad taste. But some of the people at the party were old enough to remember Pearl Harbor, and Rocket Boy said they seemed to enjoy it.

Saturday was the annual Ridgecrest Christmas Parade, in all its hometown goofy splendor.

It seemed smaller this year than previous years, but there was still lots to see

and lots of candy was handed out. Boos just stood there and stuffed their faces. I always forget about that part -- we need to bring trash bags! Instead, I stuffed my pockets with the wrappers. I also stuffed my mouth with bubblegum, because I don't like the twins to have it. This meant that the twins kept staring at my mouth, shouting "Blow a bubble! Blow a bubble!" so sometimes I blew a bubble and then they would try to pop it. Tacky, tacky, tacky.

The horses in the parade are always favorites, as is the pooper scooper boy who follows along behind them.

I don't know why this rider is carrying a gigantic American flag. It's Ridgecrest, I guess that's the only answer.

And then on Sunday we drove up to Kennedy Meadows and over Sherman Pass to Kernville, so we could see some snow. There wasn't as much as we expected, but we did find one nice side road covered with white stuff, so we played there for awhile.

Boos had a blast, and since then they've been asking me why we don't have snow in Ridgecrest. Next year, they should get their fill of the white stuff.

And now onwards into more and more parties, cooking, shopping, and all the rest of the madness that makes up the holiday season. I do love it.