Christmas

 Abigail got this little baby Jesus and manger from nursery the week before Christmas. I thought it was a cute idea. 

Ok, here is our Christmas Day. It started out nice and quite and serene...

 And then two little kids ran out of their bedroom and added a little more energy to the mood.

 Opening stockings.

 Opening presents (the rug was also a present... we don't generally have a rug like that in our living room)

 Abigail got a pink princess dress, a tiara, and a wand (on the ground) that she has worn it every single day since Christmas. She wasn't too interested in modeling for us though.

 Here is the aftermath of Christmas morning at our house. The red bucket with a white lid is the gift I gave Derek. It is a honey bucket. 55 lbs of raw local honey. I'm excited to eat it! His gift to me is in the middle of the car carpet. I'll explain at the end of the post.

 At Grammy and Grampy's house after church.

 Abigail and I performed the songs we had practiced during the month. Plus "I am a Child of God" because that is her favorite song and she wanted to keep performing.

 We also performed with Grammy on the recorder and me at the piano.

 And of course we sang "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" with Grammy on the guitar.

 Below is the gift Derek gave me. No matter what I do, I will never be able to outgift him. First of all, he bought me the best rocket stove on the market. It's actually made right here in our hometown. It is 100% stainless steel, weighs 17 lbs, and is awesome. That was a big surprise. But then up in Midway I opened a gift and found this! For months, he and his dad had been building me a chest to keep my rocket stove in and a supply of wood. I didn't know what it was at first. I thought it was a piece of furniture for inside the house because it looked so nice. I feel bad keeping it in the garage. Anyway. It is wonderful and it is so nice to know that if there is an emergency I will actually be able to cook my food storage. Derek is already talking about constructing an oven so I can bake bread without electricity. I understand to some (most) people we may seem a little odd, but come what may, I will NEVER starve. I simply refuse.

 It's even carpeted inside!

 The rocket stove is so heat efficient that you can cook an entire meal with only twigs and dry leaves. Although we have little wood sticks, which are typical for this kind of stove, we could really burn just about anything and have plenty of heat to cook food.

That's all. Merry Christmas.