Our new way of connecting with family in Oregon, Washington, and Southern Minnesota: Yahtzee on Google Meet/Hangouts and FaceTime. We learned a few things about cameras and scoresheets and the importance of seeing the dice when we’re playing, and it was so nice to connect in a way we’re used to doing in person. I predict many more creative solutions to come ❤️
The kids took the opportunity of a snowy afternoon to paint these three watercolors. They sent the originals to their Auntie Alli for her birthday.
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:
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.
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!):
Went hiking with Alli today on some trails above Boulder.
As you may know, my sister Alli designed and printed our wedding invitations a couple of years ago, and since then Andrew and I have been telling her that she’s going to be the next big thing. While we may be slightly biased, I do think it’s undeniable that Alli has amazing talents that produce beautiful, visually yummy designs.
It turns out she’s been working on an alphabet book for Griffin for the past eight months, and it arrived in the mail two days ago. If my socks could have been knocked off literally, they would have shot straight across the room. She got it “published” through Shutterfly, so it’s a real, hardcover book, and it could not be more beautiful. It’s so beautiful, in fact, that I’m not letting Griffin touch it. He can only look at it from a distance until his proclivity for eating books subsides. I wish I could post the whole book, but until it’s really published (and I seriously think it could be!) I’ll share a few of my favorite pages from The Incredible Edible Alphabet by Alli Stocco.
It seemed like just an ordinary web chat. Auntie Alli was getting caught up on all of the latest with Griffin, and he was looking cute for the camera. I kept trying to get him to do his new tricks, but he was so fascinated by the glowing red ring of the web cam, it was hard to get him to do anything other than stare. As Alli and I chatted, though, Griffin started sitting up on his own without support! Live, from the living room floor, Auntie Alli witnesses a milestone! It was quite exciting for everyone…except Griffin who acted like he’d been doing it his entire life. After we said goodbye, I played with Griffin some more on the rug, surrounding him with pillows to cushion the inevitable topple. It was then that the real fun started. Take a look:
The wind and rain let up enough today for us to get out on the lake. Griffin wore his brand new life vest. (I thought I would get laughed at, or reported to CPS, when I asked the sports store people if they had infant life vests… but they totally did!) He was a trooper for the first part of the trip, but definitely got fussy while we explored the eastern end of the lake. We didn’t want to push it, so we headed back to the dock after 20–30 minutes and left him with Grandpa Jeff.
