First Fridays are for nature journals & adventure reports! Except I don’t have any nature journals to show off as we didn’t do any in December. I do have a few pictures of us enjoying the outdoors that I’ll show off instead. 🙂

The first week of December the kids and I flew to Michigan to celebrate my Grandma’s birthday. While we were there the kids had a chance to explore her property a bit.

You already saw some of our snow shoveling in the December day-in-the-life post. I did find a cool wasps nest in the neighbor’s bushes while shoveling but I just took a picture without drawing it into a nature journal. I also saw a sundog on one of the days that it was below zero but I didn’t get a picture of it. It looked like a little patch of a rainbow. That “below-zero” thing is part of why we were not outside as much in December- it was super cold! Even bundled up and moving there’s only so long you want to be out at -30F (not long!).

After Christmas, we had the opportunity to go ice skating/play hockey with family and friends. We got the kids a new sled and also had a chance to test that out. The weather was about 75 degrees warmer than it had been the week before (so 40F above zero). Everything melted and then re-froze so the hill was super icy. My brother came to hang out for the afternoon and took a run with them.

The kids also received some nature-themed gifts for Christmas- a 1000-piece botanical puzzle, a “flower garden”, a gem hunting kit, a birdhouse, and a compass.

And, as a final update, we re-did our bathroom in the last week of December/first week of January. Another reason we didn’t spend as much time in nature. We kept the shower but moved the location of the toilet & vanity and built shelves in the previously inaccessible area next to the shower. Updated lighting and painting, adding an exhaust fan, and re-plumbing the whole house were all part of the project. We still have to trim everything and put up the vanity mirror but otherwise, it’s done. And so, so much nicer.

Hopefully, we’ll get out more over the next month and record it so I have something to report in February. Happy New Year!