What's been going on since November...A LOT!

Luke turned 5 last month! Carrie made him a race car cake and was he ever excited! Everyone came over for supper and dessert and then he opened his presents which were mostly cars or informational books. The other grandkids had a great time as well eating their cones and watching him open gifts.

Thanksgiving was a special day. It began with having a couple of friends over for a special breakfast. The kids took a hike in the woods near our house in the early afternoon while the turkey was cooking. Dinner began about 5 pm and all the kids were here. We moved couches out of our family room and tables and chairs in and we had a lovely spread. We read George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation just after dinner. The older girls served everyone all the different courses and we all ate together.

After dinner, all signed our Thanksgiving tablecloth stating something they were thankful for during the past year, and we also completed our annual Time Capsules recounting blessing of the past year and goals for the upcoming one. The evening was completed with pies of all sorts.

The day after Thanksgiving, we made our yearly trek to the tree field. Rick and Dusty and Tim and Kari were there as well. It was a cold, windy day, but that made it seem more like Christmas! We all agreed on the "perfect" tree and sure enough when we set it up that evening it fit perfectly! We had yummy leftovers for lunch and spent the day doing the inside Christmas decorating. The next day, Saturday, everyone joined forces to do the outside decorating. This year, I think Matt said they put up about 7000 lights on the house, deck, trees, etc. We LOVE lights. It reminds us that Jesus is the light of the world. Anyone coming to the Boyers house at night in December can tell which one it is long before they arrive!! As they decorate, they play Christmas music and sing all day long.

That evening we set up and decorated the tree. Tim and Kari's family were over and Adam was fascinated with ornaments of past years that had pictures of his daddy when he was little. He and Cass guessed who each one was! They helped hang the ornaments on the lower branches and we continued to decorate after they went home to bed.

During December, we had Anne and her daddy, Nate, one night by Anne's request for Grandad to make doughnuts and hot chocolate. Nate had been telling her about his childhood memories of Christmas and she decided that one sounded real good!! It was a fun evening.
Anne also took her first horse back ride this month on Grandad's horse. She loved it and decided she now wants Grandad to buy a black and white pinto named Checkers. I'm afraid that won't be a dream coming true any time too soon!

The first Friday night of December was the annual Holiday Carols presentation put on by Kari and Emily. It is a fun evening of quality Christmas music performed by lots of singers. They invite the whole community and of course the message of Jesus comes through each year. They did an excellent job and I kept hearing folks just wishing it would last longer.

Last Friday night we had our annual Christmas party and bonfire. It was a cold night. We sang Christmas carols around the fire and our former pastor shared a few words about Christmas. We had lots of food and great fellowship.

We've done a lot of entertaining this month. We love having people over and Christmas is such a special season that we enjoy sharing it with others as well. Next week we'll be baking nativity Christmas cookies for our neighbors and bringing them a gospel witness.

We pray that your Christmas season has been full of sweet memories and fun times as a family.

God bless each of you and a Merry Christmas from the Boyer family!!

~Marilyn Boyer