Besides all of the holiday fun, there was lots of our very, very normal life in December too.
Honestly, the normal days with our rhythm and routines are needed!
They feel restful and like a reset after days full of activity, which is something that the younger children and I need.
First let me show you a couple of Christmas gifts that were received that I forgot to add to my last post!
Kayla had Eliza’s name for Christmas this year, and gave her this hand lettering set so that Eliza could learn how to do this.
What a PERFECT gift for our pencil and paper loving girl!!
She has taken off with it and even spent one afternoon last week while on Christmas break sitting in a camp chair inside the barn with the goats while she worked on her lettering book.
SO cute!!
Eliza had Tate’s name this year.
She gave him a diamond dot craft – but she had it made from a photo of the two of them together!!
How cute is that??
He is really enjoying working on this craft.
They usually work on crafts together in the afternoons while listening to Adventures in Odyssey.
One night before bed, Tate told me that he was going to get up at 3 a.m. to keep working on his diamond dot craft.
It was more like 7 a.m. when he came upstairs that morning, but he was still my earliest bird!
One more gift to share – Tate gifted me these new knives.
I did not know I needed new knives until I had them!!
They are amazing and have a self-sharpening system.
Great gift, Tator Bug!!
Before Christmas weekend and our week long break, we were marching along with school, chores, routines, piano lessons…all of our normal days I spoke of above.
They are the best days!!
Early in December I had a day of illness where I could not stand up out of bed.
Anyone else out there having weird illnesses with weird symptoms??
Ok, then – not sure what was going on there, but I did have slight lingering cold symptoms after that day and no one else was ill.
I did give Eliza (and Tate) a craft I had bought as a Christmas gift that day so they had something to do while I slept the day away.
They enjoyed it, and are still enjoying those fuse beads very much!!
The holidays, cold weather, and end of the year always bring out the deep cleaning desires in me.
I just don’t make time for it in the warmer months when we are outside!
I also know how very precious our newer appliances are, and cleaning behind them and under them is important to their longevity!
We knocked out some deep cleaning in December – but I still have a lot more I could do!
As always, we are ever so thankful when a day includes my adorable grands!!
We met Kay’s at “Lane’s library” (as they call it!) and that was super fun!!
I also watched the children so that David and Kayla (and Saige!) could have their turn at date night.
I LOVE OUR DATE NIGHT SWAPS SO MUCH!!
We had such a great afternoon and evening together!
David and Kay picked up the girlies at bed time that evening, but I stole the boys for a sleepover!
Before Christmas I still had lots to do to be ready for Christmas weekend!
I finally ordered the Chatbooks I send to all the grandparents.
I am sad to say that at the end of downloading all of the photos I wanted in the books, I hit the button “make every photo square” and then did not even think to check what that did to some of the photos!
Well, I found out once those Chatbooks arrived here as there were several pages with photos of people with their heads cut off.
Sigh.
It was the thought that counts, right??
I sent them on their way anyway!
While getting ready for Christmas, I also spent an entire afternoon wrapping gifts and stuffing stockings!
Based on that story about those Chatbooks, I think this is how I feel about all things techy.
Ha, ha!!
We considered the week of Christmas a “break” and REALLY enjoyed filling our days with other things!
You know we like to be purposeful with our time, whether during the normal routines of life, or during something we call “break!”
It was a wonderful week full of wonderful things – we even took the children out to eat with a gift certificate we received and had their help with the bi-weekly grocery haul!
We also finally updated the paint job on our very chipped up island.
Blake worked tirelessly on this – and it turned out beautiful!!
He is really a talented painter and I am always grateful for that!
You know we ate in December, right?
I don’t think I included food photos in my November posts!!
Well, I am feeding a dinner party of seven still most evenings!
We have continued on with our family breakfasts as well where Blake stays home long enough to eat with us.
I spent some time over Christmas break looking for new recipes and researching sourdough a bit more – which fuels my desire to be in the kitchen being creative!
Thankfully I have cute helpers!!
I also started something new over Christmas break that has been on my “someday” list for a loonnggg time.
I have been wanting to do some fermented veggies – especially sauerkraut.
I always buy raw fermented sauerkraut and raw pickles – but they are expensive!
Fermented foods are very good for gut health and that is the main reason I wanted to do ferments myself.
I got this kit to make everything much easier – and I LOVE it!
One other thing that happened over break was getting this chicken feed.
We need our animal feed to be gluten-free to keep me safe, and it is expensive that way!
We asked our local farm store if they could make gluten-free for us because we were buying bags off of Amazon that were so pricey.
They told us we had to buy 1,000 pounds in order for them to do that for us, but the savings over all was HUGE, so we did.
I just wish we had a bigger garage sometimes!!
We finished off December and 2023 with a Hymn Sing on New Year’s Eve.
It was a wonderful evening with friends that was not only full of singing, but lots of laughter!
And now for some BEAUTIFUL skies!!!
I cannot wait to have some beautiful bright blue skies with lots of snow on the ground in the background – come on snow – we are ready for you!!
So long, 2023!
It was a year full of many blessings, happiness, and joy!
But it was also a year full of many challenges, heartache, difficult decisions, and sadness.
Please know that those things are very much a part of our lives too, but not things you will see photos of or read about here.
I am so thankful to know the One who purposes it ALL for our good and His glory.
How do people do it without that hope???
We are looking SO forward to all that is ahead in 2024, Lord willing!!
A WEDDING for one!!!
I cannot wait!!
Happy 2024, friends!!
I hope you have good things to look forward to too!!
