Christmas Eve on the Farm

Christmas Eve was very busy as usual. Baking, finishing gifts ... We made special reindeer peanut butter gluten free cookies. In the morning Bruce and Juney did an awesome job of picking out all the green and red MnMs. They also "helped" break up the pretzels to make the antlers. BTW, if you haven't tried the Glutino brand GF pretzels they are awesome.


In the afternoon after Gillian and Kaiya arrived, we had the kids roll the cookies into balls for baking. They all helped. Kaiya and Bruce were amazing. Juney really wanted her "balls" to be pancakes so we had a few issues there but we eventually worked everything out.

Mom and I tried very hard to get a great picture of all three kids with their creations but, alas, Bruce has discovered fake smiles, Juney kept shoving cookies in her mouth, and Kaiya adores making funny faces. I finally settled on this picture because I thought Kaiya was just too funny.

After two years I finally finished Juniper's stocking. It better last forever. If you will notice the ornaments, the bluebird was knit by a dear friend of ours last year and I always think of Juney when I see bluebirds. The goddess ornament was given to me after a blessing from the woman who was our midwife for Bruce. I hope it brings joy and fertility to Juniper (cuz I want lots of grandkids). The jade elephant my dad bought in Thailand (I think) before I was born. I wore it for years and I always think of Bruce when I see elephants. The gold diaper pin was one her grandfather's when he was a baby. And finally, the little frog is a pin I've had for a long time and I always think of Taliesen when I think of frogs.


Now we begin the stocking opening process. Israel and Aly join poodle Charlie on the couch.

FYI, Bruce loves anything with rockets, spaceships, robots, or Star Wars ... hence the rocket night light.

The first thing Juney did when she opened her stocking was pull out the four foil covered chocolate Santas and unwrap all four of them. The she began to eat double fisted. This was how the entire day went and most of Christmas day was spent trying to prevent her from finding (she was very sneaky) sweets. She was very good about eating her meat at dinner though.

Gillian made me this amazing little bag. On each side are the handprints from one of my two kids.

So I tried sooo hard to get a nice picture of me and Bruce together. Alas, the funky smiles, closed eyes, and bizarre expressions were too much. I eventually gave up and just hid his mouth :)