December 2012

Tim and the kids went in search of a Christmas tree and came home with an unusually big one!

                  

Preparing for another trip to Wisconsin – to bring Kate home for Christmas… 

and another special package or two  :)

      

What do you suppose would fit nicely in this box?

                                                 

How about a couple Jersey heifer calves?!  :D

                

One for the Popper and one for the Cattleman ~ Merry Christmas!

{modeling a new calf blanket}

Valerie wasn’t too sure about the new favorites  ;)

{but the photo is actually of Keiko -- I think I need an editor!}

 

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Gina’s Master Muffin Mix was a fun and easy gift to give some special friends.

After Kate arrived home, we got busy with goodies in the kitchen…  caramels, butterhorns, maple nut coffee twist coffee cake (new recipe Kate brought home), chocolate covered pretzels and nuts and more, giant cinnamon rolls…

      

      

                    

Putting ornaments on that big ol’ Christmas tree

  

Appointments for hair cuts… Abby chose to send some to Locks of Love, but still had enough length for a pony tail.

    

~ Sisters ~

 

Happy 18th Birthday to Abby!

          
   
             

We sent her on a treasure hunt around the house in search of her 18 packages to open  :D

We lit her special candle from China ~

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Baking cookies…

…and frosting them.

   

Snow!

Sleeping by the tree on Christmas Eve…

The Christmas Day Breakfast Buffet!

Eggnog, coffee, maple nut coffee twist, biscuits and gravy, sausage, bacon, potatoes, scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles, apple sauce, grapefruit & oranges

         

We did something new this year.  Instead of opening the box of family books on New Year’s Day (and then having not very many vacation days left to read them), we let everyone who had their school work finished open a package each day at the beginning of Christmas vacation.  Sooo, the kids had plenty of new books to read while they waited for the family to gather and open gifts on Christmas Day  :)

                    
  
     

  

                 
                                
       
                 
  

     

The rest will have to wait for Part Two!

playing catch-up {still}

 

Thanksgiving 2012

We traveled to Grandma F’s house in Wisconsin…  where Aunt Janice had decided to rearrange the bedrooms.  As in switching beds from this room to that…

  

… and cleaning as they went of course. 

 

   

 

They still had time for sharing a movie with cousin T.

 

It’s not a holiday at Grandma’s without playing table games…

 

Matthew & Jessica and their one-year-old dolly (E)…

 

Ticket to Ride… Settlers of America…

  

 

Some games are invented as they go – the boys are playing with one of those pop-up baby toys, but it was some sort of race … silly boys.

             

 

More UNO Extreme…

         

 

 

A neighbor had an extremely large flag flying on their farm.  Kate said it was lit up at night.

 

Black Friday means buying flannel at JoAnn’s – this year I shopped in Wisconsin.

    

 

 

At home again – December 2012

Before Christmas I took the time to make up some blankets with the older inventory – and catch up with overdue baby gifts  :)  The blankets on the right were for twin boys at church – mama elephants are called cows, right?  almost fit the cowboy/farm theme… ha.

   

This blanket had to go via USPS to a special little girl near Seattle…

Matt & Jess chose this new fabric for little E ~ love those birdies

 

 

And this large blanket went to a big girl who wore her baby blanket to literal shreds over the past several years of constant companionship.  The original blanket flannel had kittens on it, so she called it Kitty.  You can see why I chose this piece for its replacement :)  I thought the extra doll-sized blankie might serve as her new travel companion ~ not sure if her mom persuaded her of that or not.

 

Boys at work… Note the short sleeves and bare ground

  

 

Next up:  the Christmas tree!