Letter to Santa

Lucky FFM got a package from Santa last week. Inside was an elf with a letter all about F. At the end of the letter Santa said, email me anytime! Here's my email address! Once FFM read that bit 'o news he moved heaven and earth to figure out how to compose an email. Mom helped by setting him up with his very own (heavily supervised) email account. 

Here's exactly what he wrote:

My Elf is  named Wonder. I want you to hear my piano Music. I just want surprises this year. I am learning Spanish. I hope you stay warm. MERRY CHRISTMAS!                                                                               From Finn 

Even with super slow hunt and peck he already likes typing better than handwriting.

Fashionista

No, not any of the adults in this family.  FFM. And I'm not sure males are called fashionistas, but I couldn't come up with anything better. FFM loves clothes. Colorful, stylish, hip clothes. He knows the names of his favorite designers/brands and will always pick those shirts and pants before what he calls the 'plain' ones from Gymboree or Crazy 8. When the catalogs come he pours over them, pointing out the outfits he wants.

F outgrew pretty much all his long pants over the summer, blowing past those NWT ones I had stored from last year's end of season sales, and what do you suppose he asked for? All skinny colored jeans,no blue ones please Mom. His favorite pair right now? Teal. Followed by the red ones, the light red ones, and the golden ones (his words, not mine). Every shirt he picked out this fall was button down. He'd wear button down shirts with slacks every day if I'd agree to spring for that many 'fancy' shirts. (with a tie every few days just for kicks).

The dark side of all this, little boy shirts aren't usually made of that spiffy stain resistant/wrinkle resistant, looks great out of the dryer fabric that men's clothes are made of. Here is a sign of the depth of my love for my child:

I DETEST ironing. I had to do a fair bit of it as a youngster and as an adult I only iron if I REALLY REALLY have to. As soon as I started buying my own clothes I avoided anything that had to be ironed. Thus the true, bottomless love of a parent, I iron down the worst parts of his shirts. No starch. How long before he can afford dry cleaning?

F's Semi-Famous Hot Oat Pucks

This spring we made some adjustments to our food storage so FFM could easily reach and prepare meals on his own while I recuperated from hip surgery. I still avoid having him work with sharp knives and hot surfaces unsupervised, so it was tricky to figure out some of his favorites. He prefers to make his own breakfast a lot of the time, which is great since I'm not super chippy in the mornings. Thus F's Hot Oat Pucks were born.

 We keep a bag of these in the freezer and he can help himself and microwave a couple anytime.

F's Hot Oat Pucks
  4 C milk
  2.5 C water
  4 C regular oats
  1/4 C maple syrup (or sweetener of your choice or leave out if)
  2-3 T cinnamon
  1 C toasted chopped walnuts
  Raisins, Craisins, and/or frozen berries of your choice

Bring milk and water to a boil and add oats.  Cook about 5 minutes, or until your preferred consistency. Remove from heat. Add maple syrup and stir through. Add cinnamon, walnuts, and fruit and stir until well combined. Let cool for 5-10 minutes

Spray two 12-count muffin tins with cooking spray. Alternatively, use silicone and skip the spray. Fill cups all the way to the top with oat mixture. We have various sizes and I try to fill them so that the pucks will all end up about the same size. This means filling giant cups only halfway.

Place all your tins in the freezer for a few hours until totally frozen. To remove from a metal tin you may need to run a little warm water across the back of the tin. To remove from silicon pan simply pop out by pushing on the back of each cup. Put into a freezer bag and return to freezer.

When you are ready for Hot Oats, place 2 pucks into a 2C glass measuring cup and add a splash of water or milk (more if you like your oats runny). Heat for 2 min and 30 seconds for a 1000w microwave.  To serve F's favorite way, tip into a bowl and add 3 generous spoonfuls of yogurt and stir.  Yum!

I don't usually sweeten his oats, so I don't always put in the maple syrup. Sometimes I have smooshy bananas around and I mix them in at the end, too. Nuts go in when I have them handy, and if you're an adult you might like to add half a teaspoon or so of salt for your palette.

The Three Amigos Go to Boulder

Last week we had parent - teacher conferences. Our school has two non-student days the week of conferences so after your thirty minute meeting is over you've got a bunch of free time to kill. F and I rounded up some pals and headed to Boulder to tour the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory (free!).

Sipping at the tasting bar. Tea aficionados for sure.

Getting up close to the Sleepytime Bear

Obligatory hair net picture.

 Boulder was great fun and we all got really worn out. The following day FFM and I headed to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to see the new Mythbusters exhibit. F doesn't watch much TV so on the way over I had to explain what the show Mythbusters is all about. He is HOOKED! On the way out I ended up buying one of the DVDs. This worked out really well since I spent the whole day Saturday helping my Mom clean out her basement while FFM binge watched Mythbusters.

Posting with the robotic shark from the episode celebrating Shark Week.

Now we're enjoying our lengthy fall (no blizzards yet!) and the not to hot/not to cold weather that we've had the last couple of weeks.

Colorado Skies

Fall is full of change, here we can have 80F one day and blowing snow the next. Shoot, sometimes that's all in one day! It make for interesting skies, and here are some we've had lately.

On the way home from a Broncos game the sky was soft blues, pinks, and oranges.

Travis caught a sunrise from his office this week

 Last weekend we went to Glenwood Springs for an anniversary getaway. On the way we saw the last of the fall colors.

And about ten minutes later ran into this:

 Not much snow, but the road was a solid sheet of ice for a couple miles. Travis did some remarkable driving and saved us from half a dozen near missed. There were several time we were sure we'd end up in the ditch, preferable to colliding with someone, but we made it unscathed. The pass closed shortly thereafter and some of my family were stuck for three hours while a string of accidents were cleaned up.

On the way home on Sunday our drive looked like this!