December at our house

Our boys spent a lot of time hunting this year...

had a few shots ... and missed ...

but 3 deer ended up hanging in our garage

from friends that the boys hunt with.

So we were blessed with a lot of canned venison,

chops and burger!

While the boys were out hunting, us girls

spent time creating ...with Christmas movies

playing in the background.

My favorite handmade gift this year were the

"smittens" I made ...mittens made out of

old wool sweaters and lined with fleece.

(19 pair total ...4 donated and 15 gifted)

I also really like the "snowman kit" that 

we made for Matt's brother and family.

Grace did most of the work for this!

Kit includes hat, eyes, nose, mouth, scarf 

and buttons.  JUST ADD SNOW!

World Geography highlight: 

We are currently studying Europe so the kids

researched Christmas traditions in Europe,

created a poster report and did presentations.

(This was fun!)

We adopted 2 of the traditions...

In Iceland, on Christmas Eve, families

exchange gifts of books then spend the 

rest of the day reading and eating chocolate.

We spent time reading and eating chocolate

on the day after Christmas.

(I like this tradition ..just add coffee!)

In England, "crackers" (cardboard tubes filled with jokes,

candy or small toys and wrapped) are placed

at seats for Christmas dinner for each person to open.

Grace made "crackers" filled with jokes for 

each person to open and read at our Christmas Eve dinner.

And we decided to make 

European Christmas treats ..

Kolachy

a Slovac filled cookie that is a family

recipe on my maternal grandfather's side

(My uncles get excited when Mom,

Grace and I make this!)

Linzer cookies from Sweeden

Yuletide Log from France

(Nathan's favorite!)

and Baklava from Greece

(my favorite!) 

In the afternoon of most school days in December,

you'd find Nathan and Grace reading (or rereading)

a Christmas book from our collection

and enjoying a cup of homemade hot cocoa.

On Christmas Eve, we hosted Matt's family

for dinner, time together, gifts, and went

to Christmas Eve service together.

Cousin Luke had fun helping Grace decorate

a gingerbread house.

While they decorated, Nathan went on a "secret mission"

to build a snowman outside ...to which

Luke added their "snowman kit" items

after opening that gift.

Here's Luke adding the kit items to the 

snowman Nathan prepped for him.

 

Matt's family

Us four on left, Nancy in middle,

Ben with his son Luke and girlfriend, Ginger on right

We had our traditional quiet, unhurried Christmas 

morning together at home celebrating

the Greatest Gift and sharing our

love for each other.

It was fun surprising our kids with a nerf

gun and bow that they's been wanting.

We continued our relaxing Christmas day by spending

the afternoon at my mom's eating fun food,

playing games and sharing gifts.

On the way home, we got free coffee and hot cocoa

from Sheetz and drove around looking

at Christmas lights and decorations.

We enjoyed Matt's mom staying with us

 the weekend between Christmas and New Years.

We went bowling, got pizza, and played lots of games...

even had a nerf battle.

And we had fun New Year's Eve and Day just us four ...

and spent time remembering 

God's faithfulness to us over this past year!

Happy New Year to you from us!