It's a Cheesy Carmona Christmas

Noah's fort in the woods

Holiday Parade

The Black Mountain Christmas Parade is a highlight of our holiday season. We have our annual spot in the grass in front of the mortuary and our favorite parade viewing family, the Fowlers. It is really a small town parade; one marching band, lots of churches, cement mixers, and of course, Santa on a fire truck. The Christmas season really is here!

Gita waiting for Santa

here he comes....ho ho ho

Noah, Sava, and Banyan

Nim, Mullein, and Salome

Out of towners

We welcomed some wonderful out of town family in for the Thanksgiving weekend. We were planning on Alex Carmona (Gramps) , David and Alex's dad, to arrive for the holiday. Because he was intending to arrive later in the day on Thanksgiving we planned the big meal for Friday. When he got here, he brought more than holiday cheer ~ Mikey (David and Alex's younger brother) and his girlfriend Jen had flown into Chicago from California to drive down with Gramps and surprise us. And surprised we were! We spent the weekend together, eating wonderful meals, enjoying the sunshine, watching movies, and we even got babysitters for the kids so the adults could all go to a show. We had a great visit and we were sad to say goodbye.

Mikey, Jen, and the nieces and nephew.

Kelcey and I whipping up some pies

Nimmy, Jen, and Mikey

The Carmona fellas (how'd that bottle of whiskey get there?)

All the adults at the Abigial Washburn and Dave Rawlings Machine (Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch, and 3 guys from Old Crowe Medicine Show) show. Loved it!

A boy and his skateboard on a sunny November day

Noah wakes up early to head down the mountain to the skatepark most Sundays. He is out of the house before we even get up...lunch packed and everything. I have sent him with the camera a few times but he forgets to take pictures or to ask his friend to take some of him. He is totally into skateboarding and from what I hear, he is improving a lot. He missed the chance to go to the skatepark this last weekend because we had Carmona's from out of state visiting for Thanksgiving. But Saturday was gorgeous and we found ourselves at the park in Lake Lure. While the park lacks the skatepark aspect, it does have some paved basketball courts so Noah was able to show me some of his tricks.

Friday Painting

Gita's note

I woke up the other morning and came into a quiet living room, assuming all the children were asleep. Soon Noah came down from his loft and joined me on the couch. After a few silent moments, Nimuae woke up and joined us. I basked in the quiet company of the two older children for a few moments before I realized I had not yet seen Gita and she is usually the first to wake up. I asked Nim if she saw Gita upstairs. She had not. Just as I started to feel a bit worried, Gita walked right in the front door.

"There you are Gita," I said. "I was worried about you."

Gita responded with, "But Mom, I went to the see Alex and Lili, and I left you a note."

Near perfect Sunday

We had the most wonderful Sunday! The weather was absolutely gorgeous ~ clear blue sky, warm air, gentle breeze ~ heavenly! We invited our neighbor Brandon over for breakfast after Noah got picked up for a day at the skatepark and Nim headed over to Soleil's house for the day. We enjoyed a wonderful little breakfast while Gita and Willow played. Breakfast eventually turned into coffe and the best pumpkin bars ever (link to recipe here), which led into an hour or so of yoga in the sun. By mid-afternoon, the girls were still playing happily, Brandon left to check in back at his house, David went on a bike ride, and I got a perfect nap. We shared some delicious chicken soup and homemade bread for supper at Brandon's house. A day full of wonderful people, delicious food, and sunshiney goodness. That is just about as perfect as it gets!

The girls asked the dads to come outside for a suprise...then threw handfuls of leaves at them...Here they are looking totally innocent....

yoga with friends

mid morning heaven in the kitchen

bestest friends, Gita and Willow

photos of parents, by Gita

Pirate Cove Cafe

The kids of the Forest Children Homeschool Co-op were recently given stewardship of a wonky little structure in the Forest Garden at Earthaven. They decided that it really should become a pirate ship. So they set to work gussying it up and making it as pirate like as possible. In the meantime, they worked on a short pirate play while studying about pirates, making costumes, and coming up with a pirate-like menu for their cafe. The parents were invited to a "soft opening" of the Pirate Cove Cafe on Thursday, in preparation for the "real thing" next weekend. The little pirates did a fantastic job acting out a story full of pirate antics, complete with the capturing of a princess!

Nimuae, all pirated up

The Forest Children pirates

Nim with her beloved teacher, Amakiasu

pirates taking a bow

Halloween

The rain and fog did not dampen the Halloween spirit around the homestead. Two little witches set out to practice their trick-or-treating at a certain little dragon's house early in the evening. Then they were joined by a tween devil to head into Black Mountain to meet up with some friends for trick-or-treating around town in between rain storms.

Ninja, Tropical Pregnant mama, little green dragon, Polka Dot, Mail girl, Funky-pink witch, Funky Disco-bot, Funky-green witch, mini Princess, Hayduke, Freida Kahlo, tween Devil boy, Pirate, and Blue man....what a crew!

We even ran into Gita's best friend Willow....

We ended the evening with a pizza party back at our house, along with a Halloween costume box themed impromptu dance party. A Halloween success!

Miss Lilikoi

Our favorite (and only, as of now) niece, Lilikoi, turned 2 years old the week before Gita turned 5. I feel so blessed to have their little family living right next door to us, especially because our other nephews/cousins are in Utah and Iowa, so having some family close by feels so precious. Lili walks over to our house at least once a day and just walks right on in and absorbs herself into our family happenings. Sometimes we don't even notice her admist the choas, that is until Alex or Kelcey comes over to let us know Lili escaped and did she possibly come over to our house? I sure love that little girl and am so excited to see her grow and develop and (early next year) become a big sister!.

Lili with the coolest balloon hat ever at the LEAF festival

snuggle bum

Happy 5th Birthday, Gita!

We celebrated Gita's 5th birthday on October 20th. She was so excited to open the stack of presents that had been growing over the past week, asking each day if she could please open just one. Her best friend, Willow, came over for the day and chased Gita on her tricycle as Gita zipped up and down the gravel road on her new 2 wheel bike (with training wheels). David says she needs to have a good solid (but not too painful) fall to put a little bit of fear in her, because as of now, she has none. I came home from work early to frost the cupcakes David made (!) and prepare dinner for the neighbors. All the neighborhood families came together with happy birthday wishes for some pre-dinner cupcakes and then a pasta dinner. Gita took full advantage of the day claiming everything was "for her birthday." Like the response to, "Girls, why don't you go upstairs and put a movie on?" is "I'll choose which one because it is my birthday movie."

Happy Birthday, Gita Pi Luca Carmona!

Little Readers

Camping at Tsali

David and the kids took a camping trip at Tsali while I was working at the conference last weekend. It was the first time David took the kids camping by himself and according to the kids reports, he did not even forget anything important like tent poles or breakfast (I will admit that I had my doubts as while my husband excels at many things, forethought is not one of them). By heading out midweek (yet another perk of homeschooling), they had the whole area to themselves. The kids enjoyed hiking, fishing, and of course, smores!