I hope everyone enjoyed Christmas yesterday and spent time enjoying their families. To me Christmas is a time to rest and spend time with my family. This post is mostly a recap of our Christmas fun.

Before Christmas

Last year we started a new tradition of looking through our toys and giving away a few that are no longer played with. Lucian and Fiona looked through their toys and put a box together to give away. This was a very hard task for our 5 and 3 year old. We had a long discussion about sharing and giving toys to kids who don’t have any. Our box only had a few toys in it to give away but its more about the concept than the amount of toys leaving the house.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at my sister’s house for our family’s Christmas celebration. The kids made ornaments, frosted cookies for Santa, and went sledding before we all had dinner together. The kids played one organized game before opening presents. At Thanksgiving we had each child draw a name for who they would be getting a present for at Christmas. It was our first year of drawing names and it worked quite well. My sisters and I also drew names for what Holidays we would be hosting during this next year. I managed to draw Thanksgiving again. The kids had a great time but were very tired when it was time to go. Spending Christmas Eve with my sisters, parents, grandma, and nieces and nephews is one of the best parts of Christmas for me, that and Alecia’s hot chocolate!

Christmas Day

Our day started later than usual because the kids slept in after too much fun playing with their cousins. When we were all awake we opened our stockings then took turns opening our presents. Lucian is old enough to shop for others now so he was very happy when we unwrapped presents from him. I think it is important for him to learn to

give gifts and think of what a specific person would like. Lucian received a farm set and Fiona a stable that we set up in our playroom/attic space upstairs where Penelope can’t destroy them and try to eat the small parts. I would say that Fiona’s favorite is a new play-dough set with dough scissors that Lucian picked for her and Lucian’s is a harmonica. He wanted me to play with him so I dug our my Clarinet, which I haven’t played in about 2 years, and Fiona strummed the guitar on the floor while Penelope used it as a drum. We had our own little jam session which was really fun. The kids played with their new toys, we played with each other, everyone took a nice nap, and we had dinner with Grandma “da” so we had a great day.

On The Farm 

Even though it was a holiday chores still had to be done. The weather has been temperate at about 30 to 35 degrees so the goats have been going outside everyday to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. The chickens are even starting to venture out into the light. They don’t appreciate all the snow and while I should shovel their yard out a bit I have focused on walkways and the porch. So far we have accumulated approximately 2 feet of snow so I’m limiting where I shovel.

Our new horse, Melody, had a bit of a scare yesterday. All the snow whooshed off the lean-to roof and scared her. She went running and squealing so Jack had to run and go check on her. She was still freaked out when I fed them their grain and I had to coax her back into the lean-to. Fiona likes to feed Jack out of her hand so she kept him occupied while I convinced Melody it was safe to come inside.

Not only did we have a relaxing day at home we also worked on hauling a bit of firewood into the shed. Doing firewood is still one of Lucian’s favorite things to do so he was happy as a lark loading wood onto the trailer and watching the wood-splitter split the big logs.

We had a great Christmas Day spending time with each other while still accomplishing a few necessary tasks and we all took a nap. I hope everyone had a day just as lovely!