Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This year we cut down our Christmas tree at a local farm and I loved the beautiful setting and experience

We had a wonderful Christmas Day and we are still celebrating Christmas. I love going to Mass and singing Christmas carols weeks after Christmas Day.

I cooked the turkey and the girls helped me with the Christmas meal and it turned out well.

The younger girls helped Michael with making beeswax candles for some of our Christmas presents. They look and smell wonderful.

And...a Christmas present for me was a red cardinal on the porch on Christmas morning. :)

Our 22nd Wedding Anniversary

We got our first snow on Dec. 10th (our anniversary) and thankfully, it didn't change our plans of going up to Pennsylvania to an Amish area. It was a nice day there and I met and interacted with many kind Amish people.

We did our usual shopping and invested in a big quantity of raw honey (yum!). I don't like to take photos up there since the Amish don't want pictures taken of them but I got a few of our surroundings. Michael also enjoyed a trip to an Amish hardware store where we bought a lantern in case of a power outage. I really enjoyed our time up there and love being close enough to go and visit the Amish.

Mikey's Birthday

Mikey turned 5 on November the 27th. He's still talking about his party and how Logan (his friend from school) was there. I tried to make the party healthy by making fruit snacks and a gluten free cake, etc. It wasn't perfect but there was a lot less sugar than we have at our regular parties!
I've begun to implement the GAPS diet with him and other than the obvious withdrawals, he's doing well with it. I'm happy that he is progressing well and playing with the other kids.
Happy Birthday to my boy!! XXXOOO