Family

The Huckleberries

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One of Our Secret Huckleberry Stands, Fabio Comintti

We took a trip up to see our favorite huckleberry stands today.  It’s been over 4 years and it took some doing to get up there and actually remember where they were.  The berries weren’t all the way ripe yet so we only got to taste a few.

These plants are really amazing.  First of all huckleberries smells delightful and when they are ripe, there’s nothing like them.  Like their cousin, the blueberry, they have proven difficult to domesticate.  In fact, there has not been a successful domestication of these plants yet.  They grow in odd areas.  Clear cuts or burn areas that have had 10-20 years to regrow are the best.  The plants mostly exist underground and only the tops are visible and berry producing.  It takes a decade for a plant to even start producing berries.  They truly are one on nature’s mysteries.

In search of new huckleberry stands we drove up above the Laird Park campground. We didn’t find any berries but I did get a chance to take my first photosphere. Check it out. It’s pretty cool  It’s my first one so it may not be the best quality, but it’s still cool.

I look forward to returning this summer and getting some for jam and pie and other wonderful creations.

 

 

Up Above Laird Park

The Gingerbread House

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The Gingerbread House, Fabio Cominotti

Today, my daughter invited me to her school to help her create a gingerbread house with her class.  She has been practicing her songs and talking about if for several weeks now.  She even gave me large guilt trip since I missed her last little activity at Thanksgiving.  Needless to say, I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.

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The Gingerbread House, Fabio Cominotti

The gingerbread house was, in fact, graham crackers, vanilla frosting, empty school milk cartons, and candy.  It turned out really well and fun.  She enjoyed it and we loaded her house and “yard” up with candy.  And, as soon as she got it home, she of course wanted to eat it.  That’s okay.  It didn’t quite make the trip home as you can see in the photo below.  The roof collapsed and knocked a wall over.  It’s been really nice going to her school activities and helping her with her homework.  It will have lasting memories.  This weekend we are going to make Santa hats and watch old-school Christmas shows like Rudolph and Frosty.  It’ll be a great weekend.

 

 

 

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The Finished Piece, Fabio Cominotti

The Christmas Tree

Unsurprisingly, I have very few Christmas tree ornaments this year.  It’s still more than I’ve ever had before.  The whole trove consists of two boxes of shiny Christmas balls and not enough hooks. There is never enough hooks.  Surprisingly, I do have a tree.  Since my divorce, I haven’t really put up a tree.  Last year was the first and my mom left the one she brought from Boise.

Well being poor and fund less, my daughter and I decided to make some ornaments this year.  Actually, she decided we were going to make some ornaments.  I had the choice of helping and keeping the mess contained or cleaning for a long time when she decided she was done and running the risk of glitter and glue and all over my dinning room.  She’s very determined.

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The Beginning, Fabio Cominotti

We started with some paper, ribbon, glue (regular and glitter) colored pencils, crayons, and a few printed coloring book pages of Santa, Angels, and reindeer.  Oh, and one bossy little girl.

Like her previous gingerbread lady project earlier in the week for school, I had no creative control. Although, I did get a lot of positive feedback with the gingerbread man

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The Gingerbread Girl, Fabio Cominotti

.  I heard, “That’s beautiful Daddy” and “Good job Daddy, you’re good with the scissors.”  She’s such  a little supporter.  Anyway, I was given a lesson on using colored pencils.  According to my daughter, I’m not supposed to press too hard or they will break.  If they break, I have to put them back in the box until we can find a sharpener.  They pretty much work like crayons, but are for big girls.  And finally, she’s been using the light red so it will probably break soon.  She also directed me in making the paper balls to hang on the tree, which consisted of wadding up pieces of paper and sprinkling glitter glue of different colors over them.  I also had to color the snowflakes that I cut in a specific pattern according to my little boss and cut out the pictures that she colored.

All in all it was a great time and one that I think will become a holiday tradition.  I can’t believe how confident she has become in giving directions and leading.  I’m a proud father right now.

We came out with quite the hall of home-made ornaments.  We even have a paper angel to put on top of the tree.  I think that the tree turned out pretty well.

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The Final Products, Fabio Cominotti

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Christmas Tree 2014, Fabio Cominotti