December 14th and 15th

Sunday we were blessed to spend a wonderful day with many different friends. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to pack the camera! We shared lunch with a young man who's working here temporarily. He's from Manitoba and it's exciting to see his love for the Lord and His Word. The kids really enjoy having someone new and he really likes being around the kids since he's away from his family.

We were invited to a Christmas Party in the afternoon and we had an amazing time! The kids loved playing with about 30 other kids and listening to the Rast family play their violins, harps, guitar, mandolin and piano. They also sang a couple songs and thankfully all the kids managed to sit fairly well for almost an hour. That would make a total of over 4 hours sitting, since we had drive time and 2 services at church:). Anyway, we were blessed to visit with lots of families that we hadn't seen in a long time and also had the opportunity to meet some new ones! There was even a family from Australia. The wife grew up here and they're in the area for Christmas. We also enjoyed some great food. Garrison told me at one point that he was too full:). None of the children were ready to leave when we started packing up, but they all slept soundly last night! Samuel did amazingly well throughout the day. He had a couple very short naps, but was awake for the whole party. He was quite cheerful and only managed to open the china cabinet door twice. Thankfully I was right next to him and nothing was touched. Such a cheeky little fella!

Today I had planned to be a little more relaxed and just catch up after the weekend. We started with snowman pancakes and managed to get through most of the school assignments. We all worked together and finished the bulk of the laundry. Garrison loaded and started the washer for the first time. Usually he switches the load or hauls clothes up and down, but he wanted to do this job and managed quite well!



We started reading Addie's Dakota winter, which honestly seems to resemble Saskatchewan winters. We read through the Billy and Blaze books last week and I was surprised that they were so short. We borrowed them from the library and I'm thankful we didn't buy them. Garrison had them all read in less than an hour!

We also cleaned and reorganized a bit downstairs. The kids have a Lego area now and I think it will speed up the boys room cleaning. Legos, clothes and books were their 3 biggest messes, so we tried to eliminate one. We'll see how it goes.

It was a busy day and it had its ups and downs, but overall I'm really thankful for the time we were able to spend together and how the kids pulled together to get so much done. Maybe we'll have our easier day tomorrow...