Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Farm

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  This post is written in honor of my dear mother-in-law who gently reminded me that I have been neglecting writing on my blog.  I will try and do better!

 

This year we once again made our annual pilgrimage to Red's Tree Farm to select the family tree.  We brought along two additional helpers in the form of Miss President and Car.  We were watching them that day.  This year we found one in the first three minutes of looking.  Of course, we still had to make a long circuit through several acres to make sure that we had found the one we liked the best.  We had so went back near the entrance and cut down the one we had found early on.  Tradition!  We are thinking of adapting our tradition and to start planting our own spruce trees in the spring so that we will have our own here on the farm in the future.  It won't happen for another few years though.  They have to have time to grow tall.

The children decorated the tree and did a fine job.  It looks really nice.  

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner.  We had filet mignon (one of the perks of buying a side of beef) crab legs, and a plethora of side dishes, all very yummy!  After dinner we had the traditional opening of the gifts.  We went from the youngest to oldest, each opening a gift and going around until the gifts are gone.

 It is so nice to see my DH relaxing again. He has been home and is once again participating in family life.  We were able to sell our original Old White Farmhouse just before Christmas.  Such a relief!

Michelle and Thomas enjoyed their corresponding shirts.

I gifted my DH a tractor with lots of attachments.  It is something we could really use.  Unfortunately. it was 1:16 size.  The boys really enjoyed laying with it.  They get bigger in size, but they are still boys at heart. 

Christmas morning was our traditional brunch breakfast for the family.  Our family makes and serves a big breakfast to all the family.  Mom gives everyone a stocking filled with small gifts.  We open those at the table.  We made an amazing broccoli quiche, baked apple and baked berry pancake, grits, homemade nut rolls,  scrambled eggs, sausage and OJ.  Very Yummy!

Miss President is a big 'Little House in the Prairie' fan.  She was super excited to have a dress that was like Laura Ingall's. 

My kids missed their cousins in the Philippines.  The rest of the cousins are significantly younger and, although fun, don't enjoy the same activities.  They were very excited as they were going to be moving to a new house the next day!

My baby sister and her husband were very tired as they had spent the last week packing up their house to get ready to move.

The two Mr. Readers.  They both personalized their plastic water glasses with the phrase 'Dad Reader'. 

Elizabeth loves being a country girl!  She can't wait to get a horse of her own!

The family then gathers around the tree.  Everybody gets two gifts.  One from Grandma and Grandpa and one from either a cousin or a sibling, depending on which group they fit into.

Grandpa helped Elizabeth figure out the walkie-talkies she got.

In the afternoon, our friends the Morrises came over.  It was good to see Dan the Man again.

The men sat around discussing theology and other important topics.

T-Bob looks so short in this picture.  Actually, he is almost the same height as I am (5'9").  He is growing quickly, but so is Thomas.  He is quickly passing up Michelle.  We had a lovely day and played lots of games and enjoyed good fellowship.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Mangos at the Old White Farmhouse and the Red Barn Farm!!!

(If you were here today, it looks completely different.  We had about 4" of snow overnight!)