Joy

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Christmas with Family

The month of December was a busy one!  The Children’s Ministry at church participated in the Hot Springs Christmas Parade.  It was a Charlie Brown theme.  Joy was Lucy, Paige was Patty (Not peppermint) and Jack was one of many Woodstocks.  

  

The parade was really fun to watch, I was impressed.

We finally cut down our Christmas tree!

  Since we moved in we have been saying, “This will be our Christmas tree.”  (It was right on the site of my parent’s future home so it had go eventually anyway.)  

I have been looking forward to it for a long time.  

  I love the way it looks and I loved not spending $100 on one from Lowes. 

Let it be documented that Claire put the star on top this year, and next year it will be Joy’s turn.

Usually, we would have thrown our tree out by now, but it is still up and I am reluctant to take it down.

We enjoyed some local theatre in our living room this month.

And also kept up our peanut butter ball making tradition.

For Christmas, Josh’s parent drove all the way out from Phoenix to spend it with us!   We were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa after 9 months! 

They rented an AirBnb on Lake Hamilton so they would have space and be able to let their dogs roam. 

We, of course, had to take them to the usual Hot Springs tourist sites and enjoyed some unseasonably warm weather for the first part of their visit.

We walked/shopped downtown, 

visited the look out,

 stuck our hands in the Hot Springs, 

and ate at Grateful Head.  The weather was so nice we were able to sit outside and I was not cold!

For Christmas Eve they joined us for our church's Christmas Eve service and our tamale feast tradition afterward.

On Christmas, we of course opened presents, ate, and hung out.

They decorated Grandma's famous Christmas cookies.

Made stepping stones,

Played games in the yard. (It was 76 degrees!)

Played with the little dog babies.

They got to hear Josh preach the Sunday after Christmas and then the regular pastor the following Sunday.

The kids took turns having their special sleepovers at the AirBnb and shopping and eating out with Grandma and Grandpa (which is a huge treat) and then on New Year’s Eve, they all four spent the night.  

We went to Morrison's Homemade Fried Pies (my first time) and they were SO good!  I cannot wait to go back and get another!



The last few days of the visit we were blasted with arctic cold and a chance of snow.  We just had fog, and rain though for a few of days which hindered some of our plans. 

  But our creek is flowing again and the pond is quite full.

Let it be remembered that on New Year's Day 2022, it was warm enough to play in the creek.... well, by some people's standards.

It was a tearful goodbye as Grandma and Grandpa left,  they are still making their way home.  This next year, for either Thanksgiving or around Christmas, we will make the trek.  

As we get back into the swing of things and our normal routines, I can't help but think of what we were doing at the last new year.  How much can change in a year! 

For 2022 I have big plans, plans for sheep and goats, bunnies and farmer's markets, canning and trying new things in the garden.  I can't wait until spring!





 

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