morning fire pit.

Morning fire pits are a tradition we developed last fall and winter, and we introduced Gabe and Noah to it on Saturday. I remember having a fire pit one evening the first weekend we adopted them, back in April (yes, we like to make fire pit season stretch as long as possible), and it was nothing short of terrifying. I was every moment afraid they’d stumble into the fire, touch the hot stone surface, throw random objects into the flames. What were we even thinking?

Fast forward six months, and we spent a much more relaxing hour together around the fire. We all slept in ’til 7:30 (and Judah until nearly 9!), David started a French press of coffee then went out and built the fire, while the three youngest kids and I bundled up a bit and headed out to join him.

The boys did fantastic. Of course they were closely supervised the whole time, but they’ve learned an amazing amount about boundaries and had a healthy fear of the fire. They loved it, especially helping Daddy add sticks to the flames. Noah shrieked for a good 20 minutes with sheer delight over the “pire-works” (no we didn’t have fire works; anything related to fire is a pire-work). David and I even got to sit and finish a full travel mug of coffee while the kids played together. We’ve come a long way.

Here’s to a winter full of fire pits!