Christmas Day

We let the kids open their stockings before church.  I did not want to feel rushed. 

We had a special musical church meeting at 10 am and some cookies and treats afterwords.

Then we came home and changed back into jammies to open the rest of the presents.  Miss L is very hard to buy things for.  She has all the toddler toys inherited from the older kids. The main trouble is that she prefers to play with the big kids.  If they ignore the "baby toy" then she will too. That in mind, I found this learning car garage set that I knew her brothers would like too.

Brother S received the connectable construction site learning car set. These two gifts were from Grandma Suzy and Grandpa John.

Brother M is still into bugs. He received a bug playground and big guide book to insects of North America from Grandpop and Grandma Judy.

Big sister A likes history, but she always LOVES learning about Egypt. This Archeology Pyramid was perfect for her. Thanks Grandpop and Grandma Judy!

Quadrocopter from Grandma Suzy and Grandpa John. It's like a drone, only has no camera and was way less expensive.

More snapcircuits for my electrical engineer.

Miss L loves animals, especially cats.  She likes to pick out cat books from the library. She received these 2 cat books from Grandmama and Grandpa Jim.

New shoes for daddy --he selected them himself and I wrapped them.

The kids went to the dollar store with daddy this year and used their money to buy each other small gifts.  They were fun to open and cute to see their reactions to giving to each other.

Big sister A could not wait to start her archeological digging.

Hubby likes to surprise me with presents. I heard about the vintage nintendo remake from my sister and said that would be fun, but that I actually preferred the Atari. Those were the only video games that I really played.  

He bought this vintage Atari remake for me that has 100 games built into it. We have had some fun evenings playing it together.

Farm Fresh: Winter Update on Our Critters

 Ducks do not seem to mind coming out in the snow like the chickens do.   They just stop every so often and tuck their feet into their feathers. See that bit of orange on this drakes left side?  They walk along, plop down, shake the snow off of a foot and then tuck it in.

 

 Of course they also like to find places to escape the snow entirely.

 The ducks and chickens are both still laying pretty well - about 1 egg/bird every other day. Note: Those colorful ones are the wooden Easter eggs that we use to tell them where to lay.

The cats stay outside all the time.  One night it was about 10 degrees and windy and I tried to see if they wanted to come into the basement for the night. They came in to warm up and look around and then they wanted to go back out.  I made these warm nest beds for them in the barn.  They sleep there every night. The one on the right is just a cardboard box full of straw. The one on the left is their cage, which was also full, but the straw in not staying in as well.

 They also like to hang out in the hay on the floor of the rabbit house. Here is Theodore:

 And the 8 month old kitten -- Superman.

 And Superman's sister -- Strawberry.

 I think it is funny that our cats match. The three friendly ones are all black and white.  Sapphire is as elusive as ever. We see her just often enough to know that she is still around.

When it is extra cold or windy, I close up the rabbits house on the back side. It's not as good for aeration, but that is the perfect part of hubby's design. If it starts to feel stuffy, I open it back up.
Here is the newest addition to our herd. His name is Jackson - we call him Jack Rabbit.  I bought him at the rabbit show.  He was in quarantine for a few weeks to make sure that he did not bring any sicknesses home from the show with him. He is the nephew of the 2015 National Champion for his breed.

 He has an extremely thick coat and very even coloring.  He is only 4 months old and so frisky and curious.  I had a hard time getting him to stay still for his photo. He kept hopping around and then coming over to nudge my hand.

 This is Dieter D.  He is our main buck - the daddy of all the current litters.He is also friendly and curious.

 

 This the runt of our last litter (below).  I left him in with Alice so that he could try to bulk up (nurse longer).  I will need to cull him unless someone wants him for a pet.  Sad.

 I like to give the does dry oats as treat and so they have plenty of milk for their kits.  Alice (and Scarlett our other doe) were bred again on the same day this time.  We should have 2 more litters of kits on Jan 29th.

 This is Miss Scarlett (below).  She has had trouble learning to make her nest and have her kits in the nest box.  She has lost two litters now.  We are going to try a different kind of nest box this time and see if she likes it better. She is small for a doe and more bony. I give her a vegetable treat every day to try to help her bulk up.

  The hardest part about rabbits in winter is these water bottles.  They freeze and I have to bring them all in to thaw and refill. At least they snap in easily and are not too hard to fill.

 Here are the other two kits from Alice's litter.  They are about 10 weeks old now. I will see how these 2 bucks grow and hope to sell them for breeding -- since the chocolates are still very rare.

Christmas Eve: New PJs, Snacks, and a Movie

 Aunt H gave me some of her extra knit fabric and some of it was Christmasy. I had just enough to make matching jammies for all the kiddos. I let them open them on Christmas Eve.

 I was feeling nostalgic for a special Christmas Eve that I spent in France.  We had lovely French snack treats (I remember caviar on crackers being one of the items) and watched a movie.  I let the kiddos pick out a "special" snack treat for the dinner.  We don't usually eat pre-made snacks like this so it was a big treat. They had taquitos, bagel bites, Chinese dumplings, and I chose samosas.  We also had a fruit tray and some fancy cheeses with bread. They watched Charlie Brown Christmas special and Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Family Schooling Summary: Electronics, Sewing, and Cooking

 For FHE one night I thought it would be fun to take apart and fix our electric pencil sharpener.

  Big sister A is very interested in how things work.

Little sister L, on the other hand, is very interested in sugar. She learned how to open the fridge and has been using stools to climb up to everything.  She is driving me crazy.  She has even been caught scooping handfuls out of the sugar bucket! I have to make sure that it is all in tightly closed containers or else it is fair game.

 Big sister A has been honing her sewing skills with pillows and even a rag doll.  I helped her with some of it, but she has great skills.

Design your own pizza night - aka make a hug mess in the kitchen.

  At least the results were crown pleasing.

 

 
Hide-and-seek is a new favorite game among our kiddos. They have found a lot of creative hiding places, like these shelves in the boys' closet. Baby L likes to count to 5 or 6 really fast while she is standing near someone and then say, "I found you!"

A's and M's Birthdays

 Big sister A chose Chinese food for her birthday dinner -- Yes! I am so glad she likes Ethnic food.

 A big "Thank-you" to Grandparents for cards and presents.

 She received these Snap-Circuits from Gma S and Gpa J and a new scooter from Grandpop and Gma J.   A cake stand for all her baked creations was from us.

We had pizza and cheesecake on brother M's birthday. The cousins came over to celebrate with us. M received some more Hot Wheels toys and a scooter.  They have been riding them in our unfinished basement.

  The kids still have not seen any of the Star Wars movies yet, but we keep talking about it.  Brother M really wanted a lightsaber.