Merry Christmas!

We have been having SO much fun this month!! Crafts & baking & parties galore. We've had lots of snow & I got some new Christmas music from Andrew Peterson & havea voided the stores as much as possible-it's been perfect for feeling the spirit of Christmas.

First of all, we returned our last guide dog puppy, Fletcher :(

And then got our new guide dog puppy, Pixie :)

Pixie

She's a little pistol & isn't getting potty training as well as the first 3 dogs did. So, potty training a 2 yr old & a puppy is quite challenging. So, I've put off potty training the 2 yr old until the dog is done. The day we got her, we all came down with the stomach bug over the next few days, so it was bodily function central here!! ;)

I wrapped up all our Christmas books & put them in the book basket. My 6 yr old is especially loving picking out the book presents each day to read.

Here's a link to Holy Experience's Jessie Tree Devotionals and to Rhythm of The Home's Quarterly I have enjoyed both of these immensely. My family loves the Jesse Tree Devotionals. We're doing that this year instead of reading from Jotham's Journey, Tabitha's Travels or Bartholomew's Passage this year.

When I was looking for the boxes of Christmas things in the basement, I came across a box of my old journals from when I was young. I found one of when I was 13 & 14, read thru it & gave it to my 14 yr old to read. I was public schooled, so it was a different experience then what she is going thru, but I thought she might see that I do understand her feelings & that she might understand where I came from & who I was at her age. This was really cool. She wrote a blog post about it. First of all she thought it was really special that I trusted her with it & second she identified with me on a new level. I can't describe in words this experience-it was beautiful the conversation we had. And I do trust her-there's only a handful of people who really know me-and she is one of them. And she's the only other person who has read that journal. All my other ones are still only seen by me-so far. I love that girl. She posted on my FB page the words to "The Best Day" by Taylor Swift. Made me cry. :)

We had our annual Christmas Craft Day with our homeschool group-that is always a lot of fun & the kids really enjoy it. Then we experienced our own "A Christmas Story" experience. My dh came home with a huge movie theatre popcorn popper. I t was free as it had been sitting in the warehouse for 5 yrs & it needed a home. It reminded us of the "major award" scene. So much so that Hannah wrote "fra-gil-ee" on it. We keep saying it must be from Italy. If you haven't seen the movie you don't know what I'm talking about-sorry! :)

We had a great hunting season here-my dh got 3 deer!! So, we've been doing lots of butchering of our deer & other people's deer in our basement. And a very cool milestone-Jonah skinned his first deer! He's been helping butcher for years (he's 12) but had never done this-he was very excited & did a great job. Tonight we're having a butchering-sledding party with 2 families. We gave our 3rd deer to a friend who didn't get a deer, so they'll be here tonight helping. Both of these families are so much fun & I can't wait for all the food & laughter.

We also had a cow ready to go to the butcher. He is a friend of ours & my dh helped with the whole process. I went I helped wrap the meat. Pat helps out there frequently. When we went to pay they wouldn't let us & said "Merry Christmas." I was floored-that's a lot of money they wouldn't take. What a beautiful blessing.

Overall, there's been tons of snow, tons of kids (mine & their friends) & tons of fun. Jonah built a wooden sled w/ runners that they tow behind the 4wheeler. They have so much fun with that trying to get each other off. They call it "extreme sledding." We also have a great sledding hill. The kids are looking forward to skiing Christmas Eve day-a ski hill near us offers a day of free skiing if you bring canned goods in for the food drive.

Getting our Christmas tree is one of my fave activities of December. The tree farm we go to is enchanting-they have an adorable place with a real wood stove that a lady that everyone calls "Grandma" is in charge of. She takes the kids mittens & puts them on the warming oven, serves hot chocolate & cookies. There's a tree tunnel for the kids to walk thru, a bonfire & of course, we cut down our tree. Here's several pics of this:

Susanna & Alyssa in the Tree Tunnel

my little girlies

brown-eyed girl

THE wood stove :)

Ever since Hannah was 5, we've gone to Hill of Beans Christmas Tree farm. And almost every year, Hannah has made an ornament to give to Grandma. Grandma looks for Hannah coming every year-she is an absolute sweetheart & could be Mrs. Claus :)

The men wrestling

These 2 jsut can't behave ;) And somehow they got into a snowball fight with another family that was there-that was funny! Here's Jonah about to throw a snowball at me, but Pat stopped him just in time! The following day Pat & I went out to dinner & went Christmas shopping. That was such a fun date-Pat was so silly And it's so nice having a teenager that doesn't mind babysitting for our rare dates! She told us we need to do it more often-I think she's right-such a wise girl. :)

imminent snowball

Speaking of snowballs, here's a cool snowball project that Susanna & I did. You grate 4 bars of ivory soap, add 1/2 c warm water & viola. She made snowmen & she made snowballs with tiny toys inside them.

making snow

Also featured this month has been firewood, lots of plowing & getting the animals ready for winter. The farrier came to pull shoes off 1 horse & trim the feet of the rest of them. One of the old horses, Slugger, needs a blanket this winter. He's just getting to the point of needing help to keep warm & keep his weight on. Sweet old boy-he lets the puppy eat out of his bucket with him. I wish I had a pic of it. The young horses, on the other hand, are very fresh with all this snow & chilly weather! :)

And then we had our annual gingerbread making day with Grammy. Here's a link to a virtual gingerbread house and a really cool accordian gingerbread book to make. And here's pics of our gingerbread houses:

Grammy & all the kids

And then we had Hannah's 15th birthday!!

13 & 14 didn't phase me, but age 15 is kind of weirding me out a bit ;). She is amazing-she's one of my best friends. I remember when she was a toddler and people-even total strangers used to say, "she's cute now-but wait'll she's a teenager." huh-glad to say they were all wrong-she's an absolute delight. And, what an awful thing to say to a mother anyway!! Her best friend has the same birthday. She turned 16 & invited Hannah & 2 other girls to an evening of shopping at the mall, going to the movies, to dinner & then they spent the night in a hotel!! Isn't that cool?? They had so much fun. I'm so happy she got to experience that. So, we celebrated Hannah's birthday with friends & family the day before her birthday.

The last thing I'll mention is that we ordered a wooden kitchen set for the little girls. I am making all the food out of felt to put in their stockings. There are tons & tons of websites with free templates & tutorials. It is super fun & also super easy. It's very satisfying to do & I have become addicted. My dh said by the time I get done we'll have more felt food than real food in the house. LOL! I told him I'd prepare him a nice felt steak & potatoes dinner very soon ;)

So, as you can see, we have packed a TON into this month, but we lightened up on schoolwork, so it hasn't felt rushed or chaotic. We're having so much fun & December isn't done yet! I love making memories. Merry Christmas!!