December happenings, so far

Kara's mother gave me an Amish friendship bread starter and Kara happened to be here the day I made it all into bread. She likes to help by pouring things in.

Another day, Kara, her sister, Alia, and some other friends, Sam and Lily, were here being babysat. Beth was reading a Woof book to Kara, Sam, and Alia.

On December 6, Emily and I babysat our neighbor's granddaughters, Reece and Riley. We took them with us to the Johnstown museum, The Parish House, for cookies and tea at the Christmas Open House. Here they are swinging on the porch swing with Emily.

Reece is trying to decide which cookie she wants! It was a hard decision!

Linda Young is serving the tea and cider.

Here are some of the miniature Christmas trees that were decorating the Parish House and were being raffled off that day. Many people had decorated them for the occasion. The ornaments on the 3rd tree from the right were all made out of paper and it was called The Recession Tree. It got the most votes.

Here are some of the trees in the living room. People put their names in the bags beside the ones they liked the best. Then if their name was drawn out, they got that tree. We didn't buy any chances, but we enjoyed looking at the trees.


This past Saturday, we went to Parker, CO to Alan and Betty Durkee's house for their Annual Christmas Party. The following are pictures from that.

In the foreground is Michael Durkee and Emily. In the back is Alan and Betty Durkee and me, having a yummy snack!

Almost everywhere we saw was decorated for Christmas. It was beautiful.

This is Beth feeding Kirk Barnett his bottle.

I was trying to get another burp out of Kirk! He is a sweetie!

This is Kirk's mother, Cara, daddy, Ben, and brother, Luke Barnett. I don't know if it was Luke's first time for candy canes, but he sure loved them!

Betty Durkee, laughing, during the Bible Outburst Game we were playing. She, Teresa Jeffries, Beth, Rowen, and I were the winning team.


This is part of the opposing team. Cleta Jeffries was keeping score. Ben Barnett, his brother-in-law, Doug Jeffries, and Michael, along with Jeffrey and Jason, who are not pictured, tried their best, but lost by a few points. Lorin Jeffries was watching and lending support to the guys' team.

Rowen having a cup of coffee. The tapestry above him was part of Betty's Christmas this year. It is a Thomas Kincade piece which lights up with tiny pinpricks of light. Beautiful!

Some of those Albertson kids snacking! The cookies, covered pretzels, and fudge was on that counter! Michael tried to keep an eye on them, but they still ate too much! :)

We had a great time and enjoyed the fellowship!