Life here at the Skiff Ranch has been busy all December.
Programs and Concerts.
Planning and cooking.
Shopping and Wrapping.
David started us off with the Middle School Band and Choir concert.
We had church programs and then one for Kindergarten and the 4th and 5th grade.
This is probably my favorite photo of the season.
On Christmas Eve, we always celebrate with Greg’s family. We had enough room at the table for everyone, so we used Grandma Mangis’ china and Holly Hobby Christmas glasses.
As tradition, we all get new Pajama’s for Christmas. The boys just got new PJ Pants.
Christmas morning, RC was up at 5:30 AM!! ah. But we got going and enjoyed the day anyway!! We’ve been catching up ever since!!
Even Ellie had gifts under the tree.
RC really wanted Pickle flavored candy canes and Santa delivered. Plus some bacon ones. We found out, they taste nasty!
David ordered me some Clark Griswold Moose glasses. Awesome!!
Grandma found the boys footie pajamas.
We also got a bowling alley for the hallway. It sounded bigger, but it’s perfect, not in the way.
I got spoiled again – with some fun things. These are the prettiest – some new soup bowls from Fiesta ware. We broke them in yesterday!!
Hope you had a great week. We are counting down the minutes until my brother, SIL and niece get here for the weekend, plus another celebration with Greg’s family on New Year’s Eve.
Our Little Elf on the Shelf arrived over the weekend and has been keeping busy.
When he arrived, he downloaded some fun Elf on the Shelf apps from the iTunes store.
McKinley had eaten some marshmallows and left the bowl out – so Sam used it as a Bubble Bath.
Yesterday, he got into the blue food coloring and colored the milk blue.
Today, we found him cruising around with Barbie in her red convertible!
Thanks to the wonder of Pinterest I set up a Hot Cocoa bar in the kitchen. And it’s been a hit!!
The kids love that they can make their own cups and so does mom! 
I also wanted to share my recipe for Hot Cocoa mix with you.
I use a large bag of powdered sugar, a container of powdered creamer, a box of dry milk mix and usually only one large Nestle container. Our local store only had these smaller ones, so I used two.
This is where it might get a lil weird for ya. I dump everything into two garbage bags. I put one inside the other just for good measure. Then I dump in all the ingredients.
Then when it’s all added, I shake it.
♪Country Girl, shake it for me girl ♫
Shake it. Shake it real good.
After your dance party, it’s time to add it to your container. I find it easiest to trim off one corner and add it slowly to your container. This makes the least amount of mess.
This is where I set up the Hot Cocoa bar and so far McKinley is enjoying getting her own cocoa.
Warm and Yummy!!
I need to get better about posting here. I need to get better at taking more photos.
I just thought I’d share our weekend. We got winter weather and lots of snow.
It was cold and it was dark, but the kids went out to do a little playing in the snow.
Before mom made them shovel the deck, they made snow angels on it.
We stuck close to home for the most part. Saturday, the high school team playing a in the Semi Finals football game. In the blizzard. In the bitter temps. And won. I listened on the radio. BRRRRR
Yesterday, we celebrated my Grandpa’s 90th birthday. He just keeps on going too. No stopping him and I love that!!
This is my Grandpa, my aunt and McKinley – who had to follow him, because he just might cut into that cake!! lol….
We also got our pellet stove hooked up this weekend. Good thing – it’s COLD people!! McKinley loves to sit by it to warm up. Last night she was sitting there with a fake rat and fake crow (left over from Halloween) singing a song about them.
We made homemade pizza last night. It’s the first time I’ve made my own dough and it worked out well. It was yummy actually. I made two pizzas and McK decorated one along side me.
I also did a little sewing. I whipped out this blanket for my cousin’s son’s birthday. It’s a football shaped blanket I found on Pinterest. I shared the photo on Facebook and got an order! LOL… yikes!! I also sewed a new tank top for McKinley’s dolls, and now she has an order in for some jeans.
We are animal people.
My dream pet would be a pot bellied pig.
One that I could train to live in the house.
And then I wake up and see that I have three kids, and remember I like a clean house.
And a pig would be just that. A pig.
So we got a dog.
We already had a cat. And we enjoy the cat.
Some of friends told us they wanted to get rid of their dog. They live in town and didn’t have time for her anymore. They knew she would love country life. So they brought her to us on Wednesday.
And they were right, Ellie loves the country life. She loves to go out and just run.
Fall is one of my favorite seasons. I especially love decorating for is.
I added some fall colors to my tool caddy.
I got this window pane from my parents glass shop.. they have a bunch of them. Score!!
Hope you are enjoying the changing of the seasons.
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