christmas day

The morning started slowly, with the opening of books that Santa always leaves at the end of our beds. Then we came to open stockings and presents. It was hard to take many photos as I was trying to help Harkin open all of his presents. He thought everything was grand and was so cute when every time he would exclaim "wow". Then we spent the day at home enjoying our presents and snacking throughout the day, with a pretty simple dinner. It was a family day just the way we like it.

christmas eve

We spent a quiet day at home. Boxes arrived from far away family so Mama said it was OK to open gifts from aunts and uncles. It was fun seeing Harkin's reaction to the presents. He wanted us to open them for him but then would be so excited as to what was inside. It made for a fun evening. Then there was the traditional reading of The Night Before Christmas from Daddy.  And off to bed in hopes of a bright and early morning!

cookies for santa

William made the sugar cookies and then the boys decorated a few for themselves and one each for Santa.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a lovely day.

some more of our makings

A few things that the boys have been making over the past few weeks.

A tree out of tinker toys: Landon

A clay Santa: Landon

Salt dough ornaments: William

Peppermint bark: William

We spent the weekend catching up with Eric, aka Daddy, since he had been away all week in Texas. Lots of reading and resting, some outside time, and plenty of hugs and kisses.

needle felting kits

I have been on a big needle felting kick since Thanksgiving. I am making all kinds of little things for the boys. They too enjoy doing it and Landon has made several surprises for Christmas for everyone. It is all free form, but occasionally he really wants it to look like a particular thing.

While I was scouring the internet looking for some kits for him I came across these, made by thistle hill farm. They already have the underneath form made. All you have to do is add the colors and decorate.

This was perfect not only for him but for our home school group I thought. I was right. We gathered on Wednesday and all of the kids had a great time learning a new craft. It was so much fun to see them all working so hard. We were able to do a group buy so it was well worth it. Only 6.00 for the whole kit, including shipping. Plus there was plenty of extra wool roving to make your own projects with.

It really is such a fun craft and very relaxing to do. Just watch out for the needle point!!

photo contest

William entered a photography contest this fall and the results are in. These two photos of his won.
The Bear and A Sample of Fall

I am very proud of him for giving it a try and he was excited to find out he received a ribbon for each photo. He has taken over my old camera and loves to take pictures. Very excited for him.

some makings

Our days at home have varied from pretty mellow with tons of outside  sledding time to packed full of creating goodness.  There has been homemade wrapping paper, dozens of cookies-all made by William-, special crafts for gifts, and then some new decorations just for us.  The time is going by so quickly. I can't believe there is only a week left before Christmas. I feel like Thanksgiving was just yesterday. We will be finishing up much of our crafting this week and then just playing with maybe a tad bit more baking.

how harkin embarrasses william

Harkin has his own hat basket. We keep all of our gloves, hats, etc in there. Lately as we are leaving the house Harkin wants to wear his neck warmer as a hat. It has not been too cold so I let him, not worried about the hole on top of his head. However, William is not too amused. He thinks he looks weird and said he didn't want to know him while we were out at the Dr.'s, grocery store and library.  He soon got over it though and continued to play and talk to his little brother.

I thought it was rather funny and he did get a couple of smiles from onlookers, but a toddler can get away with it all. I will need to hide it though as the temps drop and he needs to wear a real hat.

decorating the tree

The boys took it upon themselves to decorate the tree yesterday while I was lying down. I was not feeling great. They helped Harkin put a few of the non- breakable ones on and he was just so excited. As are the boys. They also took all of the pictures of one another. So backsides it is. 

But the tree came out great and it is always fun to see the ornaments. We try to add some homemade ones every year and then they each receive one as a present each year so when they move out they will have their very own collection. I had started with Hallmarks but have since moved onto Danforth Pewters being that we are living in Vermont and they are made here.  Plus I think they are nicer.

All day today Harkin would go over and admire the ornaments and take a few off so he could put them back on on again. He is such a funny little kid. Right now the big boys are so excited for Harkin to celebrate Christmas. They think he is really going to get into the whole present thing, which I am sure they are correct.

candy cane making

We went to a local candy shop to watch a candy cane making demo and then everyone got tot make their own candy cane into whatever shape they wanted to. It was fun to watch and do but a bit overcrowded for our liking. Harkin thought it was pretty cool to stand and see it all happening however. He had fun making his candy cane but hasn't given it a try quite yet. The boys said theirs were tasty.