Festivus for the rest of us!

Ah, Festivus. The kids started this tradition. I'm not sure what year we started it but here are a few of the earliest pictures I could find along with some of this year. For some reason the kids wanted to go to the garage for something. Then I guess they just wanted to go outside barefoot. Naturally, I didn't want them to (get some boots on! wear a coat!) but once they made it clear it was a competition...well, that's different. Far be it from me to discourage my children from attaining a goal. Then of course they had to see who could go the farthest. Here Kristjan makes for the basketball hoop. This was in 2003 so I guess he's 9.

And here he is this year completing a walk all the way around the house with Danny and Brandon.

Here I am on my very brief dash. I like to participate but I have no delusions about winning.

I went farther this year but I'm still last.

And here's Nastassja, I guess she's 13 here - definitely beat me.

And once again, Nastassja takes the ladies division by storm - she even went twice...

Here's the toughest part, at least in my book. The AFTERMATH. You think it's over, but no. The snow is stuck to your feet - now we keep towels handy to get it off as fast as possible. It doesn't really help. Oh but the exhilaration of another successful Feats of Strength!

We usually hold Festivus on Dec. 26th (Daddy's birthday) but this year we bumped it up to New Year's Eve since Nastassja, Anthony and Ray wouldn't be there until Dec. 28. We kicked off the festivities with Mexican food - enchiladas, the kid's favorite. Then Nastassja and I went for our walk. It was a little hazardous this year since we had had a couple of warm days in wich the snow melted and then refroze. Then it snowed again - about 6 inches, so there was powder with a layer of ice underneath, nice. Oh, and the temperature was 12. When we finished the boys took their walk around the house. When they got back there was some dispute about the winner. I had declared Brandon the winner since he was last, even pausing for his photo to be taken after Danny and Kristjan went in. Some declared there was too much, um, complaining during the trek ( I believe the accusation was "Brandon screamed like a girl the whole way") So the boys decided to take it to a new level by making snow angels with their shirts off. Then they decided to do it face down! Too much fun....

A reader wants to know "what about the airing of grievances?" No dear reader, we don't do the airing of grievances....unless one counts "screaming like a girl" while walking around the house. Oh, and I must point out that the girls didn't "scream like girls!"

Fall Colors

As you may have guessed, South Carolina is not known for a spectacular display of fall foliage. At least not the New England variety. Here we do have a unique fall color - PINK. This is sweetgrass. Our area is famous for sweetgrass basketry. All along route 17 (which is called Sweetgrass basket makers highway) you can see stands where baskets are sold. Usually with the proprietor sitting there working on another one. The grass is ideal for basket-making. The blades are smooth and round rather than flat like most grasses. And in the fall the grass blooms a lovely bright pink. 

Here is a woman weaving sweetgrass baskets at the open air market in Charleston. This art has been passed down for centuries in families of African descent. Baskets like these were made by West Africans who continued their art after being brought to the lowcountry as slaves.  

Sweetgrass Basket History

Jumping on the bandwagon

I'm jumping on somebody else's meme. I'm supposed to put up the 6th picture from my sixth album. Gee, I wonder who might be the subject of that photo? The odds favor my little Ray of Sunshine....with his cousin Ivy.

And then I got to wondering about five of five -

and four of four - 

three of three -

 

two of two -

one of one - 

Sukkot w00t! and muddy football players

Here's our Sukkah going up. We've spent the last week trying to locate reed fence because - you guessed it - we left ours in Va Beach when we moved. We tried Home Depot, Lowe's and even our trusty Sweetgrass Ace Hardware, to no avail. Just when we figured we were going to settle for a wood frame, plastic mesh and sticking all manner of grass, reeds and brush into it....I took one more lap around Lowe's and there, in the garden center stood a whole pallet of reed fence! Oh joy, rapture! So we picked up two of them and today when there was a (brief) break in the rain Danny and Yeshi got the frame up and then while Yeshi was at football practice Danny and I tied the reed fence to the frame. Then we drove over to Park Island (just a few blocks from us) where they are building a bunch of new homes and scavenged for palm leaves. Well, ok, I did cut fresh ones but I took them from several areas so they wouldn't be missed. I think a lot of the stuff will be cut out when they build the houses. The leaves will make excellent roofing material. Naturally it started raining again while I was trudging through the swamp but the big palm leaves kept most of it off. When I first went in to get them Danny yelled out to me to watch it (he was only wearing flip flops and I had on sneakers so I ended up doing the cutting) because he saw a really big spider. Turns out it was a little brown crab. They were all over the place and went skittering in every direction as I slogged through the squish to get my palm leaves. Tomorrow - hanging up the lights and decorations!

Oh yeah, don't let the look fool you. He had fun practicing in the rain. Apparently some rolling in the mud was involved. Gee, getting muddy playing football? Who would have thought? Note the gray sky - yeah, it's still raining.  And the pants used to be white...

Aaaaaah.....Fall!!!!

Phew! Just when I thought we couldn't possibly take any more heat. It's been wonderfully cool the last few days.Highs around low 80's and even down into the 70's during the day - 60's at night. The AC is OFF. My goal is to keep it that way until next summer. I've had my fill of $350/month electric bills. 

I love fall. The weather is perfect, bugs are on the way out and my favorite holiday approaches - Sukkot. What could be better than a holiday in which you build a fort? Although we don't really have any fall colors to speak of (yet) I thought I would post some from previous years.

Father's Day Frisbee

In which Danny shows Yeshi the finer points frisbee tossing...

Yeshi of the Glorious Hair

State Track Meet pt. 2 - State Champions!

At Monday night's practice we found out the team won the State Championship and the coaches passed out the ribbons. These are a few shots from the meet "aftermath". Yeshi put on his superman jammies over his track shorts - the ladies thought this was cool.

This is our setup at the meet. It's a long day (in this case weekend - the meet started Friday and ended Sunday) so everyone just camps out. Those are my feet on the cooler and that's Yeshi's practice discus. It was in the mid-90's and humid. You have to shift your chair around as the day wears on to stay in the shade. Danny was out in the sun all day. He volunteered to help with discus so he just got a break for lunch and that was it.

And this is hauling all the stuff back to the car...then a 3 hour drive home. Quite a difference from football season when we spent a mere 2 or 3 hours at the field!

South Carolina State Track Meet pt. 1

Here's Yeshi and his buddy Liam running the 1500. Yeshi did great, knocked 20 seconds off his time and got a 5:42. 

He placed 7th in discus....only the top 5 advance to regionals however, one of the kids has dropped out and if one more drops he will get to go. His technique is looking really good and he's really added some distance in the past two weeks. We got him a discus to practice with at home (track practice is 3 times a week) and he's been out there every day working on it. 

Here he is with some of his buddies in the  Mount Pleasant Track Club.