A beautiful day for skating outside! I’m so proud of my new skaters.
Daddy and Maggie, not falling down.
Griffin, doing a great job without his chair.
Maggie working out the details.
Skating
Prairie Home
Sarah and I went on a great date to the Fitzgerald Theatre to see A Prairie Home Companion. We went partly to see Nellie McKay, who was amazing, but I’ve also always wanted to see Garrison Keillor in action. I have mixed feelings about the show in general, often rolling my eyes and changing stations when it comes on. But I have also, at times, appreciated both the full show and Keillor’s storytelling in particular.
It was a treat to see the show in action. It’s the first genuinely live radio show I’ve seen, and it was a impressive to see so many acts flow together seamlessly. Nellie McKay was certainly the highlight for both of us, but I also enjoyed watching Keillor do the Lake Woebegone segment, strolling around the dark stage weaving the tale with no notes.
Honesty
On the way to the cabin, we stop at Mount Royal Market in Duluth. Sarah runs in to pick up a few jugs of water.
Maggie: “I don’t like it when Mama goes. I like it when Daddy goes.”
Griffin: “I think Maggie likes Mama better than she likes you, Daddy.”
Maggie: “Yeah!!!”
Advisory 2014-2015
My advisory group came up with this idea and had a lot of fun with it. This was going to be our yearbook photo, but the form factor was wrong so we had to recompose the shot. I haven’t seen the new one yet, but I thought this one deserved to be published somewhere.
Little Falls Park
We had plans today to head downtown to see museums and monuments on the national mall, but it was a poor sleep night and a bunch of us were fighting colds, so we decided to stay closer to home. We walked down to Brookeway Drive, the street Dave and I lived on as kids in the ’70s. At the end of the cul-de-sac is a path up to the old railway tracks, now repaved as part of the Capital Crescent Trail. (I remember trains going by, and often put coins on the tracks for flattening.) The kids had a blast in and around the creek for a couple of hours, though I didn’t get the camera out for the epic meltdowns they had after one too many daring maneuvers led to cold, wet feet (and a butt, in Griffin’s case).
Christmas 2014
We spent Christmas in Bethesda with Grummy and Grandpa Stape, and all the Roy cousins. Fourteen people under one roof! Wonderful mayhem.
Decorating the tree
Happy Julia
Christmas Eve reading of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (aka “Twas the Night Before Christmas”)
The stockings were laid on the sofa with care…
Airplane!
Mine!
Stocking treasures
Caleb unwrapping
Queen Elsa with her wand
Fancy clothes
Wardrobe help from Grummy
All the cousins
All the cousins
The whole gang (except Caleb, who was sleeping)
Arctic Bocce
We didn’t let a little snow and frigid temperatures interfere with our Thanksgiving Bocce game. Grandpa Jeff got out the snow blower and made us a court. The teams:
- Griffin, Nik, Alli, Pam
- Maggie, Andrew, Sarah, Jeff
We played to 11, and it was close to the very end. In the final round, 10-9, team 2 landed the clinching point. They simply had superior mastery of snow-braking techniques.
The teams arrayed.
Bocce balls in the snow.
Coach Maggie
Grandma “Bocce Wizard”
Snow is fun!
Look at that technique!
Perfect follow-through.
The intensity was palpable.
Great sportsmanship to the end.
On the Roy side, the bocce tradition began at a rental house in Fort Bragg, California, on the Mendocino coast. We used to rent the place for Thanksgiving in the early 2000s, inviting friends and family for feast and fun. Here are two pictures from that era (with a slightly different climate!):
Fishy Relatives
Griffin, at dinner last night:
“How do people actually get made?
Like how did the first people get made?”
This was not a question about reproduction—we’ve had a few conversations about that—but more of an ontological question about how humanity came into being in the first place.
Sarah gave a masterful overview of evolution and we looked at pictures on Wikipedia of various stages of human evolution. Before losing interest in the details, Griffin got far enough to state, “So, we’re related to fish.”
Puffed Apple Pancake
Sarah investigated some breakfast options this morning that would make progress on our basket of aging apples. One of our favorite breakfasts is Pannukakku, so she chose something similar. It was delicious, the kids loved it, and it filled the house with the delectable scent of baking apples and cinnamon.
Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
2 large tart apples, cored and sliced
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
5 eggs
Powdered sugar, to serve
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
In a cast iron skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Saute the apples until they start to get soft, then add the sugar and cinnamon and cook until golden.
Whisk the flour with the salt and nutmeg. Gradually add the milk, whisking constantly with a large wire whisk to beat out any lumps. Beat in the vanilla and the eggs one at a time. Beat by hand for 2 minutes, or until foamy. Let the batter rest for 5 minutes.
Pour the batter over the apples. Bake for 20 minutes, or until puffed and golden
Serve dusted with powdered sugar. Serves 4-6.
Fine Scotch
Sarah giving Griffin some cough syrup tonight:
“Come on honey. It’s not a fine scotch. Just drink it.”