Monday, December 18, 2006

Early Christmas Gatherings...







This past weekend we went to Ben's parents farm in Randolph, MN to have a "mini" and early Christmas gathering as we will be up in East Grand Forks from December 23rd-January 1st. Ben's dad's birthday is December 16th and his mom's birthday is January 4th so we celebrated that as well! Ben and I had plans to cook lunch on Saturday for everyone, but it ended up being me and Ben's sister Rebecca doing the cooking. Ben did make dessert. :) We had Taco Pie and Taco Dip for lunch (not very Christmasy, I know) and an Apple/Pumpkin creation for dessert. I found the recipes online and they were quick and easy, that's why I chose them. I'm not a very good cook. After lunch we opened some gifts. Ed and Paula got Peter a really great toy. It's a box-like toy with 5 sides of learning activities. You can see it in the pictures. Peter wasn't all that thrilled about unwrapping his gift because I don't think he understood what he was supposed to do. So Ben helped quite a bit (you can see his excitement!). Once it was all put together, Peter fell in love with it! Rebecca bought us all a pair of slippers. We took a picture of our feet, as you can see. Can you guess who's feet are who's? :) Yesterday evening, there was a Christmas party at Peter's daycare. Each of the kids exchanged a book for their gift. Peter got a touch and feel farm book. It's really great! His daycare provider, Kevin, helped him open it. Then Kevin and his wife Jean gave all of the kids a gift (which they shouldn't have done!). Peter got a House Shape Sorter. It's really cute and will be great for his development! I helped Peter open that and as you can see, the photo portrays my excitement! We had a great weekend and Peter is a very blessed little boy to have such wonderful and generous people in his life. We hope all of your Christmas preparations are going well. Ben is done with school and I work until Friday and then we'll have a busy, yet relaxing 10 days off! We are looking forward to our vacation up north. Come again soon as I'd like to post again before the end of the week. God Bless.