Sleepovers and Snow

Christmas Parade firefighters

This weekend marked two grand events: our first ever attempt at a full-family sleepover chez the Koller/Martin household, and our very first snowfall of the season.

Hanging with a stoic, yellow fisherman

The sleepover was, in some ways, a test -- is it possible to successfully have a fun family day with everyone, followed by a just-adults hang-out in the evening, capped off by everyone actually sleeping, and then also being functional the next morning? A tricky feat, indeed!  We chose a particularly fun day for this experiment: the Lunenburg Christmas parade/tree lighting.  The parade not only featured all the floats and marching bands that you would expect, but also a rather ridiculous amount of swag: firefighter hats, clown noses, and, I swear, more candy than they got on Hallowe'en.

Everyone (even Eva's doll!) got into the spirit

Then, after a delicious meal and some more play time, we all went down for the after-dark festivities.  These included marching a donkey down to the gazebo while singing Christmas Carols, listening to some readings, more carols, and then - the grand finalé - the lighting of the trees.

Ohhhhh!  Ahhhhh!

So how did it all turn out, you ask?  Definitely a partial success.  The day and the evening were super fun, of course.  It was a real treat to have a whole evening of laughter and board games and chilling just like we would have done - oh, 15 years ago, when we were all living together in a dingy little apartment with very few cares in the world. And besides a few hiccoughs (for instance, Juniper apparently "slept-walked" from the top bunk to the bottom, meaning all three girls were sardine-packed in for the night, and Linden was up at 5:30 am), a mostly-acceptable sleep was had by all.  Not me.  But that was not for lack of comfort or having to tend to anything - that is just my own weirdness in such situations.  I have confidence, however, that I can push past that if we just do it a few more times!

SNOW!

The next day, we didn't tarry long, as Zsofi and Will and family had another party to go to in the late morning (and we'd all been up for quite some time at that point, anyway). As we drove back, it started to SNOW!  I know this is old news for most of the rest of the country, but this was our very first snowfall of the season.  It was large, very wet flakes: the kind you know will not last long, but are fun to watch come down.  Linden could not wait to get home: he practically bounded out of the car and into his snowsuit the minute we pulled into the driveway, and proceeded to happily spend the next couple of hours (often all by himself), playing and doing all the snow-related things he could think of.  The end result was one very wet child, and one super-funky snowman.

Check him out! 100% hand-crafted by Linden

Seeing as everyone was plum-tuckered out (especially me - my head was literally swimming), the afternoon involved Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (still good after all these years!), followed by ordering out for pizza.  A pretty decadent but satisfying way to end an epic weekend, I'd say. This week, of course, marks the beginning of December (and all the ridiculousness that has come to entail - especially in this household), so my guess is that things will only get more epic from this point forward.  I'll keep you updated!