Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone! We had a wonderful day and I'll share plenty of pictures later. Enjoy the holiday! Eat lots of goodies (like persimmon pudding with gold sauce, heaven on a spoon!)

Country Christmas

Our little town hosts a country Christmas celebration the beginning of December. It is a great time that includes lighting of the hospice fundraiser Christmas tree, Santa, a bonfire, specials at area shops, and even a hay ride. Nate was out of town so the boys and I headed in and met my parents for the evening of fun.

After the tree lighting we ran to the local VFW to order burgers for dinner, and then to the town hall to visit Santa. Isaiah loved him. He never said a word, just stared with his big brown eyes. After the Santa visit it was back to the VFW to eat dinner with Papa and Papa Bud, and Grampa Elder. From there we decided to bundle back up and check out the hay ride. Kohen was SO excited when we got the the wagon and there was his buddy from this summer's farmers market with her family (Kohen regards her so highly he named his bunny after her!) Hugs and cuddling up close on the bench together brought smiles to all of us. It was a beautiful, cold night to listen to the bells on harnesses as we were pulled down main street and around for a short tour. It was wonderful. After a quick warmup and hugs goodbye by the bonfire, each of the boys chose an ice candle from the assortment flickering, and we headed home. A great small town experience with family and friends.

Sausage

The finished product.

One of our favorite things to make with venison is sausage. We did not make any last deer season, but had enough in the freezer to last us until this summer. So even though Nate did not have time to hunt this year, we cleaned all of the venison from last year out of the freezers, and got ready to grind. The discovery was made that the grinder works much better when it does not contain toy matchbox cars! Once the pieces were removed and the grinder cleaned, we tried again. Nate uses a combination of venison and pork. We also experimented with some lamb sausage this year. This was the first year that the boys observed and participated in the process. Their enthusiasm grew as the sausage was stuffed in the casing. Kohen went from the reserved one, washing his hands every two minutes, to coiling the casing as it came out of the stuffer. Nate then smoked the links for some excellent flavor. I have a tough time eaten store bought sausage now. It has much more gristle, and less flavor. We use the sausage for grilling, and also a mean sausage and peppers with pasta.

Kohen the coiler.

Isaiah the observer. (Yes the pumpkins in the background give away that these pictures were taken over a month ago, I'm playing catch up on posts before the end of the year.)

Unfortunately this picture should come first in the series. This was Kohen's hands-off, you can't make me touch raw meat, pose.

Birthdays

Since I've been so lax in posts, I'm going to combine the boys's birthdays into one post. Isaiah's celebration was a tractor/duck party, and Kohen had a Diego/bowling party.

My big five year old.

Kohen and two of his seven bowling buddies.

My bit of a two year old.

Kelly and Isaiah, party time.