Culminating leaf raking, first snow, Christmas tree, and ice skating!

Ok, this blog post will be much shorter than the last and is just a few random scrapbooking tidbits that I figured the girls would not want me to exclude! And we are seeing if I can finish this first or the girls can get the house cleaned up and themselves ready for bed. The race is on! We had a fun evening tonight with a friend over for each of our gals. Only Alida's buddy is remaining overnight (and that pair is the main source of the mess so I'm glad they are feeling inspired to remove the tripping hazards from various floors before we bed down for the night)!

So we are ALMOST done raking leaves for the year. We had some beautiful good weather days and made great progress. Now we are just needing one more good dry weather day to get two more loads to mow/chop up for compost toilet indoor cover material for the year. Then we'll call that task complete! We've had some great help with compacting the pile!

The first dusting of snow came (and went) and was beautiful. It decorated the large leaf pile magnificently.

Sunday was day 3 of hog butchering and was mostly clean up. We all worked hard to get things done so we could do "tree scouting" together! Every year we wonder if we will be able to find an adequate tree on our own property that is not well placed to remain there long term. Every year we think that we might be about out of options. Then that magical thing happens: baby trees grow! And we find another good option. This year was no different! In fact, I think we found our most normal looking tree ever! Maybe a little large but what is this time of year if you aren't bumping ornaments off the tree occasionally! 

And, finally, our delayed November family night (planned by Terah) finally happened last night! The ice skating rink in Bridgewater is now open for the season and that was easily Terah's first choice of activities. As we headed out, the moon was rising on one side of the sky and the sun setting on the other. It was a chilly evening, perfect for skating!

It was so much fun! The girls quickly got back to the level of their skating from last year and then built from there. When I first got on the ice with Terah, I figured it was going to be a LONG evening and I was going to have a very sore back leaning over and keeping her upright. By the time we left, she had almost done a full lap by herself without holding on to anything. After about 1.5 hours of skating pretty much nonstop, Terah and Alida both determined they were no longer having fun. And by the time we were walking to our car they wondered when we could come back again!

Teeth brushing and giggling is still emanating from the bathroom, so I guess that means I won the race!