Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells, all seem to say, throw cares away

Christmas this year began as Christmas does--way ahead of schedule! But for us, Christmas began, really began, with Dawna's famous Christmas Party! On its fourth year runnin'! :D Her parties bring so much cheer and laughter! They fill the soul with art and beauty and "Oh Dawna" 's and "this is so beautiful" 's! These pictures simply do not have the ability to stand up to actually being there! Though . . . perhaps they will help. :)

Ah! The feast table! The theme this year was medieval!

Get your thinking caps on! Now who could possibly be our special guest?

Oh! Don't you see? Dawna IS spendifferously brilliant, is she not?

Totally wonderful!

Cinnamon sticks in the drinks for spiced grape juice and ginger ale!

Clever! We used the sticks like a straw and, oh boy!

You certainly had spiced drinks!

Nuts and dates and pomegranits have to be the most medieval of foods!

Couldn't you just eat the picture up just by looking at it?

One of the joys of living in the country! Most anything--"outdoors-ish"

can be found right out your front door!

That's where she found cedar boughs to decorate the table!

Well . . . not directly outside the front door.

It's more like--out the back door, down the walk, past the chicken coop,

over the gate, down the road, through the pasture, and to the woodland.

Still, it's--really just out the front door!

Ginger snaps were actually part of real medieval feasts!

And guess what? Dawna found Gluten-free ones

in our lonely little co-op!

I lOvE!

Medieval, Yes! Ethan enjoys dressing up for every occasion!

He found it no hard task to dress for this one!

His imagination goes rampant for things like this!

He looks rather regal here!

So does Joseph!

He received a green beret hat for his birthday and just couldn't take it off!

He asked Dawna if it looked medieval and if he could wear it to the party.

"It would if you stuck a feather in it!"

So low and behold! A turkey feather would do the job!

Splendid, isn't it?

The two knights ready for battle!

And our special guest is . . . (drum roll please)

??? Rob Roy? Wait a second!! Dawna, that's not very medieval!

She did fool us!

First we unwrapped "Eight Below", which we already owned!

Then, we got Rob Roy! Which we were delighted to have! Wonderful story!

But not what we had really hoped for.

But when we stuck it in, we watched all the commercials, got all settled in,

and Dawna stops the movie.

"I have to ask you a question," she says.

"Would you guys really rather watch Rob Roy or . . ."

And she digs into her pillow case. "The Black Arrow"?"

Of course there were screams of delight and ecstasy!

For the Black Arrow was our childhood's favorite story!

Nothing could top it!

I don't know how many times we thanked her!

She bought Joseph and Ethan black capes and put a white cross on them,

like The Black Arrow had!

She made Hannah, Mom, and I crowns which were beautiful!

Mine was green!

Then we played games!

We jousted, which was running down a line on the floor,

a balloon around your neck and your jousting stick made of card board.

Pop your opponent's balloon first and you will probably receive a handsome prize!

Then we played Knuckle Bones--Jacks.

Which is a real medieval game, too! That was fun,

and believe it or not, quite challenging!


Let the feasting begin! And was it a feast!

Okay, stuffed mushrooms! My new favorite food!

Remember these from last year? This time they had chocolate filling

instead of raspberry! Deeee-licious!

Our spiced drinks!

And Gouda cheese again, with sausage!


The King! William got a crown, too,

but he didn't allow me to post of a picture of him in it.

Poor William!



The Black Arrow! Mysterious looking, isn't he?

All said and done we had a marvelous party!

I can't WAIT for next year!

Ahhh! Ya got me!

And another shocking revelation for you all:

we have only two cats now. Yes, I know. Shocking.

But we gave all our female cats away and now just have

Boots and Fat Louie.

They are quite enjoying their winter in the house.

And we had another party for the Maurer girls!

They are SO precious!

We made snow men out of French Vanilla coffee creamer bottles!

That was the best idea! And they turned out adorable!

Sorry! No finished picture of the snowmen! Perhaps later!

And 3D snow flakes! Those are amazing!

And I don't have a picture of them either! Sorry!

Hannah helping her boyfriend, Gabe, decorate cookie houses.

That was a lot of fun!

They also went sledding and made a snowman in the front yard!

That family is such a blessing! It's really wonderful that God gave us such friends!

And the puppies have enjoyed their winter "In" as well, as they always do.

They were so excited one evening and both wanted attention very badly--that's not bad, except

that they wanted it both at the same time and I happened to be reading at the moment.

So . . . I got them down the floor, rubbed their tummies with one foot each and

read aloud to them. They got bored and went to sleep in the above position.

Cute.

Ah, yes! And Christmas came at last!

These are my gifts!

But the best gift of all was watching Mommy open up

the red coat she's ALWAYS wanted and put it on!

I gave her a black hat, like the one I got, only mine is brown!

And Dad got her a black purse!

I CANNOT wait to see her dress up in it!

Pictures! I promise you!

The calm after the storm . . . and the mess!

Ethan and his new Playmobile Sheriff's Office.

All the boys, including Daddy, got Airsoft guns!

They had a great time outside playing Elimination!

We didn't have a lot of snow, but what snow there was was really icy!

Christmas morning a deep frost fell upon everything!

Sometimes I can't believe how beautiful things are!

And the sky! Such a radiant blue!

William bought us Settlers of Catan!

Awesome game! Thanks, Bilby!

Us three girls got some late stocking stuffers.

Ornaments that change color!

Oh! Mommy changed their room around!

The bed used to be under the window!

I like it so much I feel like going and changing my room around!

Dawna and I bought commented, that when the sun shines through their curtains,

it's very much like New England.

Never been there ourselves, but we agreed it was like it, indeed.

Hannah and I bought Daddy the first season of his favorite

TV show, "Combat!" Hannah and I like it so much, too,

and transformed our room into a mini-theater for Christmas break.

With a big screen and Daddy's projector from school.

It's been very fun to have everyone lazing out about our room.

Not to mention watching the show. The characters are so good!

So well written, and so well played! They're so real!

How often is it that you have characters with character,

Values and principles, and who are also good soldiers?

That's a rarity in our world today!

Well, that is the extent of our vacation!

Thank you for stopping bye!

Happy New Year and God Bless!

This is my wish for you in the coming year: