Hart Happenings

Feliz Navidad!  I have that song stuck in my head right now.  Ian learned that song on the ukulele and has been playing that and Mele Kalikimaka all day long.  They are lovely, but I could use some good 'ol english Christmas!
I met with my book club for our annual Christmas breakfast this week.  We were discussing a Tale of Two Cities.  Guys!  If you are looking for a book, try that one.  It is so worth reading.  One of those that I was kind of ambivalent about all the way through and then at the end I just lost my mind and loved everything about it.  SOOOO GOOD!
We also attended the glass blowing open house that Ruth mentioned.  We look forward to that every year.  We watched him make globes with glass shards inside, and some miniature teardrop ornaments, and the kids got to pick some new ornaments for our tree.  We took a couple of friends with us and had a really great time.
You have all heard about the falconer that comes and stays in one of our rental houses.  Well, this year his wife spent some time out here too and we got to get to know her.  They like to go out for pizza with us and we also went to see the light show they put up at one of the parks in town.  They are such fun people and have really adopted our kids.  They boys adore Fayed and Katie.  They are from Florida and the way they rave about how beautiful the snow makes everything has really changed my perspective about it.  It is quite lovely.  We went on a little walk around the property a couple of days ago to check out all the tracks and to take stock of our yard in the winter.  Jack noticed that the cold temperatures had cause the upper layer of snow to form some really good crystal formations.  We taste tested it and it was super crunchy.
Oh!  And we finally decided on a name for our property.  We have been working on one since we moved in and never could quite settle on one.  Well, Alex has been getting a word a day on his phone to try and improve his vocabulary.  The other day he asked me if I had ever heard of the word Xanadu.  I had, actually, because I am a word nerd, and plus I had just read Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Kahn (it's a lovely poem) a few days prior and the opening line is:
In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn
A stately pleasure dome decree,
Where Alf, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
     Down to a sunless sea.
While we were discussing the definition of the word, Alex said, "hey, that would be a cool name for our property!"  And I said, "you're so right!"  And that was that.  So, look up the definition and come visit Xanadu!
We participated in a fun community event on Thursday.  One of the guys who runs the local bike and running shop here is a huge fan of Christmas and organizes this night light run.  So people don all kinds of festive paraphernalia and run through one of the neighborhoods in town with the best Christmas lights.  So we bundled up all the boys and went out in the 14 degree weather and ran/walked through this course that had been designated.  It was so fun!  Jack took off with his cousin and totally beat the rest of us.  Peter got too cold and had to be rescued by Grandpa Hart in the van.  It was so invigorating!  And the boys all appreciated the hot chocolate at the end.  So, we may have  a new tradition!
I feel like I'm rambling.  And it is getting late.
Sure love you all.  Hope all is well!