Christmas

I've got one post to take us from early December all the way through Christmas Day, so be prepared for the time warp that's headed.  We'll go from Christmas even (above) all the way back to early December when we started our annual Christmas cookie making!

This year's cookies were mostly the same that we always make with two changes:

1. More GF cookies wherever possible - its easier to just make the cookies GF if there is no difference and this year I think we made a total of 3 kinds GF - sugar, pepperkockers with edits that weren't the GF's fault and PB blossoms.
2. Linzer cookies!  These will come back next year - this year was a test year and its for sure a new favorite and worth the effort.  We made a double batch this year (non-GF) and they were exactly the hit I needed them to be.  I'm considering making them again for Valentines Day, but we'll see.  I "need" zero cookies but I "want" 1000000 cookies!

(2025 cocktail of the year - Pistachio Sour - more work than you'd like, but totally worth it in all respects! This is the new cocktail of 2026 - the one I'll be making for my favorite guests when they come over.  It's a labor of love but sometimes that's exactly what the doctor ordered.)

Family "Christmas Eve" party in Freeport featuring one of my favs - Rhonda!!

Ritterbusch Christmas - one of the best weekends of the year if you ask the kiddos!  They love spending time with their cousins and add in presents and it's a hard to top weekend!

Santa visited Kishwaukee Brewing the weekend before Christmas and we "happened" to be there too (to pick up a keg for the holiday weekend).  We said hello, logged our present requests, grabbed a photo and let him move on his way!  It's was about to be the busiest day of the year - he needed his sleep!

X-mas even "girls" hike with just me and the kiddos and the dogs - so, I suppose it's girls + one boy (Copper).  I needed some sunshine and outdoor enrichment and the girls suggested a walk at Marengo Ridge with the dogs.  It was a little muddier than we were prepared for, but I'm glad we did it.  Making memories, one hike at a time!

(The bag Hazel made for our Christmas present this year - adorable!).

Christmas this year was exactly what I wanted - low key and full of family and friends.  I love this time of year and while the year is winding down I'm already looking forward to this time of year next year.  Bring it on 2026!

1 Family x 12 (December)

 

Very few days qualify as "my favorite day of the year" but this is one of them and this year was no different!  Christmas this year was really really great.  I love Christmas Day and I am already excited for next year.  Though, the years with Mom and Dad are always better than not...so I've got 23 months until we repeat it and I am counting down the days.

Hawaii - Volcanos National Park (Part 3)

 

During our time on the Big Island we were able to visit Volcano's National Park twice.  If I'm honest, when we decided we were in for the trip to Hawaii I started lobbying hard for our destination to be either the Big Island or Oahu.  I wanted to check another park off our list and more than that, I wanted to see a volcano!  

There are 4 total volcanos that make up the Big Island but Kilauea is the only active volcano on the island.  It was projected to erupt while we were on island and you can bet that I was checking the live feed cams and daily updates on the regular.  It ended up erupting the day before we were scheduled to visit the park.  On one had I was disappointed to not see it in all it's glory, on the other hand it sounds like the part is a total madhouse because everyone wants to see the volcano.

You can see it smoking way in the distance in these photos.  

During our first visit to the park we were making the trek from the west side of the island over to Hilo and we had about a 3 hour drive as part of that journey.  The park is right on the way, so we stopped in and explored, but only spent a few hours there because we still had a drive ahead of us, plus a trip to the grocery story in our plan for the day.  We got the lay of the land, visited the visitors center, got our stamps (and of course a few things from the gift shop) and we had enough information to be able to make plans from there!

We did a short half mile hike from one of the overlooks (pictured above) over to some lava tubes but maybe the best part was that I spied the hike I wanted to do.  A 4 mile loop that took you directly through the caldera of a no longer active volcano.  If you look closely, you can see the path in the photo above.  It's the white line that cuts a path directly through the lava field.  How many times in your life do you have the opportunity to hike INSIDE a volcano!?!  I knew I could convince others to do it with me.  At a minimum I'd get Ryan to do it...maybe the girls. 

Two days later the 5 of us (including Erin) made our way back from our home near Hilo to the park to do this exact hike.  It was a four mile loop, but totally doable for the kiddos at this age.  Mostly flat, expect for the switchbacks to get down into the caldera and then back out again.  We started by hiking the rim of the volcano for about 3/4 of a mile, and the dropped down into the center.  From there is was roughly 2 miles inside the lava field.  In the photo above, we're standing on lava from the early 1980s, the most recent lava in this area.  

I'm so thankful I was able to convince everyone to come along on this adventure.  It might have been one of my favorite memories from the trip.  The caldera is so interesting.  First of all, we expected it to be warm down there, the sun is just blazing on the black lava rock.  It was in the mid-60s that day and you can tell by our outfits that we expected it to be a combo of warm and cool (potentially rainy).  We warmed up on our hike down but when we reached the bottom we found it to be super windy!  I'm talking (what felt like) 40-50 mile an hour winds!  It was so strong that you had to push your way into the wind, leaning forward and forcing your way through.  Even more interesting, about half way through the wind direction totally flipped and it was coming from behind us.  Ryan suggested it was similar to a football stadium and the strange gusts that happen there because of the high sides...maybe!!

The wind was one thing, but the perspective, scale and overall size are hard to capture.  While we were walking I asked Ryan "how far is a football field from here" and he gave me what he thought was 100 yards.  I said no way, it must be 3 times that distance.  In the end, he was right (of course)!  How did we know?  He stepped it out with the kids counting.  Twice.  And he measured the distance he walked with his AppleWatch.  

It was truly one of the coolest hikes we've ever done.  One that I'll remember for a long time.  

Fall Crafts

As we near Thanksgiving weekend, it's time to close out this Fall Crafts post and start working on the Winter version of this post.  I made quite a bit of progress across a handful of projects this season!

 

(Sept 23)

I was somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 way through this sampler blanket when I took these photos and I'm really happy with how it's coming together.  It's fun to knit a sampler...as soon as you get used to a stitch patter you change it up and get to try something new.  Keeps it interesting.  I'm a little worried I'm going to run out of yarn before I run out of pattern, but that is a problem for another day!

I needed to cast on and finish up these two national park hats before we hit the road for Hawaii in November.  It was hard to pause on the purple blanket and pick these up (I was in a groove with the blanket) but these hats come together so quickly.  I can do one in less than a week and I wanted to have them finished up before we left and, like every time I start something new, it's a little hard to begin...and then it's fun once you get started.  

I'm really happy how these turned out.  After doing a few of them now I decided I wanted to try and size up the needles to see if I can get them to be a little bigger in the hat band portion - the ones I made previously were a little too tight, especially for men's heads.  I sized up a needle size (for both sizes) and its so much better.  I am making a mental note (and I suppose also a digital/printed note) that I need to do that for these hat's going forward.  I had more than enough yarn to accommodate the larger needle size (and hat).  

Two fully finished hats, ready for gifting!  I gave on to Erin and one to Abby and I can't wait to see them out in the wild this winter season!

(Nov 2)

I reluctantly had to put this blanket down for two reasons: 

1. We were headed to Hawaii and at this point its way too big to try and cram into my carry on and knit in the airplane
2. I needed to get going on a hat for Homemade/Handmade Murphy Cuzzies gift exchange!

(Nov 5)

I cast on just before we left and had zero concerns about my ability to finish this hat until I realized how the patter was constructed.  I think I'll get it done in time, given where I am today, but its going to be tight and I don't have the luxury of being able to knit anything else until this one is finished and wrapped and under the tree!

(Nov 12)

After nearly zero time to knit while we were on the Kona side, the Hilo side was a great opportunity to get some rounds into this hat.  I hope whoever gets this hat can smell the ocean in it's stitches.  It traveled with me a lot of miles in order to get this done in time for Christmas.

While I really needed to be donating all of my crafting time to knitting, I ALSO needed to get this quilt finished up so I could clear the space for the Christmas train/Lego village on my quilting table (ie: the pool table - lololo!).  Nothing gets projects finished more quickly than having a deadline!  

(Nov 23)

Isn't this quilt beautiful?!  I love it so much!  I don't know who this one will go to, but Abby had a great point, it would be an amazing winter quilt, for Jan-March.  Maybe this one will live on my couch!?  We'll see!  It still needs to have the backing made, be quilted and bound and then it'll be ready to find a home.

Based on where I'm at with my knitting and quilting, I'm thinking I'll have a good number of finishes in my Winter Crafts post (yep, I sure did jinx myself by saying that!).

Christmas Tree Cutting

 

Our tree is cut and the house is fully decorated!  It's not quite Thanksgiving yet, but we tossed caution to the wind and cut the weekend before this year.  I personally love this new option we found during COVID.  I know lots of people say "no Christmas til after Thanksgiving", Ryan included, but to me, this creates time to let each tradition have it's space.  We have a full weekend ahead to celebrate Thanksgiving and family without the pressure of trying to get a Christmas tree down and decorated too!  Plus! (The real bonus!) - The line to see Santa was short and the tree farm wasn't a zoo!

The kids did 95% of the tree this year!  I was going to have them do the lights but the were both busy doing other jobs I'd asked them to do...and....half the strands were broken this year, so I had a trip to Menards in my future I wasn't planning for.  But, they did all of the ornaments and all of the extra decor around the house themselves.  I think next year I'll fully pass the torch and leave it up to them to at least get it started!  How else will they learn!?  Before I know it they'll be decorating their own trees at college and in their first homes.  For now though, I'm going to enjoy the moment and the magic of the holidays!

1 Family x 12 (Nov)

 

Family photo with a Volcano!!?!  How could this NOT be our picture for the month?  It erupted the day before we got there, but it was still cool no matter what!  I've got a full post on the park coming soon, but for now, our November family photo. 

Hawaii - Hilo (Part 4)

 

Hazel's Hawaii bucket list item was drinking out of a coconut and boy did we deliver!  As expected, only Erin and I actually liked it, but you gotta try it to know!

Our stay on the Hilo side of the island was amazing.  The house Erin picked was so cool and unique.  I feel like it might be the most interesting house we've ever rented, and the view was impossible to beat.  We were literally on the edge of the coast!  When we arrived the first night it was dark by the time we got there and the waves were so loud and so close Hazel got concerned that there was a storm or Tsunami coming.  She's been nervous about storms for awhile now and I think arriving in the dark didn't help.  To her defense the waves were impressively loud.  The next morning when we went for a walk we talked to a local and found out that the tide was unique - called a king tide meaning, larger than usual.  I'd estimate the waves were 15-20 feet tall (though if you read my post about Volcanos you already know I am not as good at guessing sizes and distances as Ryan). 

We visited a few waterfalls on that side of the island and did some shopping in Hilo.  Hazel found her favorite souvenir of the trip - a spirit animal fortune deck and most importantly, we didn't let the rain get us down!  This side of the island gets nearly 100 inches of rain per year.  To contrast, the Kona side gets about 10 inches, so as expected, we spent a good amount of time dodging the rain and making the most of it.  We actually lucked out quite a bit.  Of our 4 days there, we only really had enough rain to slow us down on one day.   

Somehow I ended up with zero photos of the cool little zoo we visited there where we saw two tigers up close and personal.  Like, I'm talking about being the only people viewing the lions and them being less than 15 feet away with only two chain link fences between us and him.  It was WILD!  I'm sure the rain kept people away, and the fact that it was a Thursday.  But it was a pretty cool experience.  They had all sorts of animals for us to view, but the lions were the biggest hit by far!

We explored a little less on this side of the island.  Partly because of the weather, partly because we were running out of tourism steam at that point, partly because there's generally less to do on this side and partly because our house was so cool to just hang out at.  It was a slowing down of the pace that I think we all needed before we geared up to head home. 

Our last day on the island our flight didn't leave until 9pm but we needed to be out of the Airbnb by 10am so we found ourselves homeless for a good part of the day.  Erin had the idea of booking resort passes back at the Hilton (where we swam with the dolphins) and it was the perfect way to use up a day relaxing without feeling like we were just looking for things to do to pass the time.  On our way back to the Kona side we took the "saddle road" through the center of the island.  Its the quickest way to move between the two sides of the island.  While only 45 miles across it took about an hour and a half to cut over.  I personally didn't love the up and over route, but I expected that.  We went from sea level in Hilo to 10,000 feet as we crossed over Mauna Kea, the largest volcano on the island.  It stands over 14,000 above sea level and if you included all the way down to the base (way under sea) it would be the largest mountain on the globe.  Higher than Everest!  I don't do well with elevation change, especially that quickly, and it was near freezing temps when we arrived at the observation lookout so we didn't spend much time there, but that was probably a miss.  If we ever go back, we'll add spending some more time up there to the list.  It was pouring rain and too cloudy to see anything but it sounds like the star gazing is amazing there and Dean told me later that you can see the curvature of the earth from that point.  Who knew?!

We had an amazing time exploring the island but my favorite part about the entire trip was having the kiddos along.  I was worried about the school they'd miss and how hard it would be for them to make up the work (admittedly, it was hard for Abby!).  I was worried about the time change, and about traveling for 15+ hours, but in the end, it all turned out fine.  Let this be a lesson to future me....let it go!!  It'll all be fine - they are more resilient than I think. I'd do it all again (not tomorrow...I'm not quite THAT ready...but soon!).   

Hawaii - Dolphins (Part 2)

I left out one adventure from the Kona side - our chance to swim with dolphins!  Early on when we told the kids that we were headed to Hawaii this year they both made a short list of things they wanted to do while we were there.  Abby picked swimming with dolphins, Hazel picked drinking out of a coconut.  When it came time for the girl's birthday's Dan asked me for gift ideas and I suggested this activity.  It wasn't inexpensive and it was so generous of him to do this for the girls.  Joey and I got to swim with dolphins when we were kids and it's a memory I still remember to this day.  I wanted to be a part of that for the kids.

The experience only allowed 6 people per session, so Dana chose to sit this one out but honestly it was so nice to have her there too!  She took all the pictures for the day and without her we'd have been stuck ordering from the company.  The price for the photos was OUTRAGOUS ($250!) so we're going to go with these photos that are a little far away and grainy...but I just didn't have it in me to suck for the professional ones.  We'll have our memories!

The experience was short - only 30 minutes in the water with the dolphins but they really make the most of it.  You get to touch them, and swim alongside them.  You get to observe them underwater and you get to feed them.  You get to pose next to them and learn a ton of facts about them.  We got to learn about their personalities and how the organization works (and how our millions go toward supporting the dolphins there and out in the wild).  Overall it was a great experience for the kiddos and one I think (hope) you'll remember it for a long long time and that someday they'll do the same with their kids.

(Look at Abby's smile!)

The dolphins were housed on the grounds of the Hilton resort and we ended up buying a day pass back to the resort on our final day in Hawaii.  We spent another hour or so watching the dolphins train while we ate lunch there on our final day.  It was great add on to the Hilton and I am sure they book a lot of tours by being located right there.  I don't know how you'd say no to a kiddo if you were staying there!