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Week 21

The call came quite early on Saturday morning: A cow in labour! In my excitement, I almost ran out without the kids! We arrived up at the Farm and found that she wasn't progressing, because she was being bothered by two pesky piglets. We spent some time admiring the other new calfs and counting the pigs before some of the 'spectator farmers' tried their best to capture the unwelcome visitors in the maternity ward. Finally they caught one! After about an hour, we still weren't seeing anything and the temperature was plummeting. We decided to head home again and wait to hear the birth announcement by text message instead. Bummer.





Fortunately, we still had a Sledding Party to look forward to after lunch, to bribe the kids into the car with :)

Then on our way back from the Farm, we pulled into the sales lot down the road and picked out our first REAL Christmas tree. Balsam, to be exact. It was the beginning of a very Christmassy rest of the day...


The kids had a blast seeing the tree being brought inside, cutting it to size, screwing in the base and then...DECORATING IT!! J was in charge of the music, E helped the all important checking of the lights and Baby was on hand to 'test' the hang-ability of the baubles. It made me a little emotional to be honest - seeing them all fully cooperating with head decorator (Dad) and genuinely enjoying my all-time favourite time of the year. My heart was full and a little achy for a million reasons all at once.

After lunch, we set off for Sledding Party 2.0. By now the kids knew the drill - bundle up, find a sled, scream as loud as you can as you make your way down the snow covered hill! By 3:30pm it was starting to get dark and we came in for Hot Chocolate and freshly baked Spiced Pumpkin and Cashew muffins. Yum! A warm beverage never tasted better than after an hour in the freezing breeze begging your kids to keep their gloves and beanies on. Plus, we're always guaranteed a good nap afterwards.





Once back home for warm showers and more carolling...I have absolutely no regrets about putting the tree up so early in the month. Our tree lights burn from late afternoon and at any moment in the day, you may hear the children humming O Holy Night or Little Drummer Boy. So far each night we've "found" a (library) story book under the tree - it's an idea that I saw on Facebook one or two Christmases ago and am happy to finally be able to try it for ourselves! To be fair, the kids took a few nights to get used to the idea that 1: it wasn't a toy and 2: it wasn't about selfishly getting anything. We continue to try and teach them about the season of giving love and joy!





Comments

  1. MichelleDecember 7, 2018 at 4:30 PM

    Nothing as nice as Christmas with snow and early darkness for the lights! Enjoy!!! 🎄🎄🎄⛄⛄

    ReplyDelete

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