Merry Christmas! Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!

Checking out the lights at “Santa’s Magical Kingdom”

First snow of the season! (barn near Spy Garden)

Sledding

Christmas village under the tree

Train station

Hiking

Candy Cane Nails

Rainy windshield

A little duck herding show at Purina Farms

Making gingerbread dough

Baking the pieces

And voila!

Making cookies for Santa

And check out this cool dried orange garland we made

Christmas Eve service was very beautiful, only causing me to tear up 7 or so times, ha!

Mary getting ready

Almost time

And the service featured my absolute favorite Christmas hymn,

Once in Royal David’s City

Once in royal David’s city,
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her Baby,
In a manger for His bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ, her little Child.

He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall:
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Saviour holy.

For He is our childhood’s pattern;
Day by day, like us, He grew;
He was little, weak, and helpless,
Tears and smiles, like us He knew;
And He cares when we are sad,
And he shares when we are glad.

And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own redeeming love;
For that Child so dear and gentle,
Is our Lord in heaven above:
And He leads His children on,
To the place where He is gone.

The kids did a great job

And the main event…

Woodland creatures sewing kit; she made this one all by herself without any assistance!

Pretty winter morning in the Missouri River Valley

Two turkeys