December is a short month for Explorers at the Farmstead. We started the month with the last full moon of the year, the Cold Moon or Quiet Moon, known locally by the Cherokee as the Snow Moon. The Cold moon symbolizes the end of the year and a time to look back on the year’s successes and make final preparations for the shorter days of winter ahead. While we dreamed of snowy days leading into our Winter break, all we had was a whole lot of rain! 
With the rain, we spent a lot of time together huddled under our tarp, making winter crafts, and noticing how the rain changed the color of tree trucks (they’re darker when they’re wet!) and turned all the fallen leaves into slippery mudslides! We loved watching the thick fog roll through our forest classroom on foggy days, making it hard to see friends just down the trail. We also noticed how the green from firs and other evergreens really pops on the dreary gray days and how there are still lots of mushrooms growing in fallen trees all around our forest. The mud makes it easy to see deer and raccoon tracks and to know if anyone hiked up to our tarp during the winter break.
We used the quiet calm days of early winter to build some new trails, rebuild some of our forts, and prepare ourselves for the rest of Winter yet to come!