An early Christmas celebration

Today we had an early Christmas gathering of some local homeschooling friends.  We have often gathered together for fun and play, as with our 4 families, there is a friend for everyone.

We invited them all to our house this year, as I was not expecting to have a vehicle to drive anywhere... what a blessing it was to have the house full of kids!

 Shortly after they arrived, I read 2 books to them ~ "The Christmas Baby" by Marion Bane Bauer and Richard Cowdrey ~ such wonderful happy pictures and such delight over ALL babies born at this time of year.  I thought this book appropriate because the one family just had another grandson the other day and another grandbaby due in a few weeks.  A Big Thumbs Up!

 "A porcupine in a Pine Tree" the Canadian 12 days of Christmas by Helaine Becker and Werner Zimmermann.  Things like 8 Mounties Munching, Five Stanley Cups, Two Caribou... a delightful twist and such fun pictures!  A definite THUMBS UP to this book!

One friend had spent the night, so yes, I put her to work as well... she got the privilege of washing eggs, drying some dishes and making goodies!

They were having great fun laughing at their Rice K's snowmen.

Scary snowmen?  Creepy snowmen?  Funny snowmen?

The feast finally all laid out on the table

"Prickles" and dried apricots drizzled with dark and white chocolate.

Chocolate balls rolled in yummy sugar junk type things

Cheese cut into festive shapes

Mints

SNOW MEN!  Or owls...

Cheesy biscuits cut out like trees and stars

A festive puppy

A little fake tree and some gifts for friends

Mrs. S modeling her matching "Cariboo Fashion" of slippers, work socks and long johns!

 A lot of my pictures were blurry due to a wrong setting on the camera, but I am posting them anyway because you can still get a feel of the day from them.  Some of the faces were too good to pass up!

Miss J with 1 of her gifts ~ her own little mug for "tea"

POP!! Experiments and Rice K's squares !

A pretty doll for a pretty girl

Beautiful hand fashioned necklaces by Miss F for
all the girls ~ so funny how they all matched their outfits!

Boys were happy with their Rice K's Squares

... and with their dog biscuits too!

Art work on some of the wrappings.
Everything was done with thought to others.

Modeling necklaces

Giving a little help

Happy to give and receive gifts from friends.

A new hat and necklace for Miss K

3 Happy Mom's with crocheted dish rags from Miss R

Visiting and sharing treasures

Hat's on!

Matching bonnets made little Miss M very happy!

Giggles!

It's a lot of fun just watching the children opening presents and interacting.  It's even fun watching my Mom climb over the chair ~

 ... more fun watching these boys faces with their food and pop!  My oh my!

After sharing gifts with each other, we all ate some goodies and drank some of Miss Ruth's Hot Chocolate or Apple Cider or Punch or yes, coffee ~ Mom brought some specialty coffee.  I mixed mine with the hot chocolate and I'm all hyper now.  Ha ha.
One little girl thought we put dirt in "Miss Ruth's special recipe Hot Chocolate"... usually when girls say "special recipe" it's a mud pie I guess!
Then they went outside and found a hill to slide down in the far pasture... they entertained the horses and  my girls are ready for bed!
Thanks to our friends for coming and making our day special and kicking off our Christmas season remembering the spirit of giving and sharing and remembering the little Babe in a manger!