2016 Christmas Break

Christmas break for us was full of activities. Some of them were our family's traditions, like making and decorating gingerbread cookies or going to a candle light service on Christmas Eve, and some were brand new, like making popcorn and cranberry garlands for the first time. 

We made a huge batch of homemade gingerbread cookies. Kids loved choosing the shapes and cutting them out of the rolled dough. Later, we spend about an hour decorating the cookies. 

Popping popcorn is one of the kids'  favorite things to do. This time they did not devour the bowlful of corn, but strung it on a thread with cranberries. We came up with different patterns and made a rather large number of strings.

Later, we took the popcorn garlands outside and hung them on the trees for the birds and squirrels to enjoy.

Warm Christmas day was ideal to test some new toys the kids got for Christmas. Andrew learning to operate his new drone.

Warm day brought out our ponds 'monster' turtle. This individual is bigger than my dinner plate.