Home for the Holidays

 With all of that travel throughout the rest of the year, we decided to enjoy a quiet holiday here in Texas. The Brimleys came for Thanksgiving and brought their puppy Pippin.

And then we saw the Brimleys again the next weekend because Annie did a horse show, her first ever, in College Station. She got a second place ribbon in her first event and no place at all in her second event. Aaron and I cannot for the life of us figure out the point of horse shows. We've come to the conclusion that maybe they are like a piano recital for horses. Come show what you've learned. And we'll give out prizes, too, just for fun. But we can't figure out what criteria the judges are using. It seems pretty arbitrary if Annie placed high and then didn't place at all. We don't understand! Annie doesn't quite understand either. And we've spent plenty of time trying to convince her to not make horses the focus of her life. And she listens. But she also really likes horses. I am glad that she gets to go to the stables and do a job and feel needed and be able to hand out with other horse-loving girls. Aaron and I have been paying for her lessons, but we're now having her pay for one lesson a month. And she payed for the whole horse show. We've realized that she won't know how much she values horses if we are the ones footing the bill. So we're making her pay. It's good. 

Here are some pictures from Christmas. We had a co-op party and a Classical conversations party and a couples white elephant party. We also went to Holiday Inn at the Georgetown theater and had a Christmas recital. It was a busy month but also relaxed because the only school we did was math.

Christmas landed on a Sunday this year. I convinced the kids to wait until after church to open presents. The cinnamon rolls turned out so yummy this year. Aaron busted out some vanilla wafers on Christmas eve and was dipping them into the rice pudding. It made me uncomfortable! Tradition!

On Christmas after church, it was very hard to get a good family picture. Everyone had opinions about how it should go. I'm documenting our attempts. 

It was a happy Christmas. I love this family of mine! Scotty got lots of dominos for Christmas. Annie got lots of sewing/crafting/cosplay gear. Aaron transposed a song that was too low for me. And I cleaned out the garage and storage room for Aaron. 

Scotty lost not one but two teeth on Christmas day!