The rest of the world may have just celebrated the Christmas holidays but in our house we don't just celebrate Jesus' birth but three of our birthdays in the same week- this year our daughter Jessica was still teaching on her birthday December 20th so we went over early and played games and watched her blow out the candles on Saturday the 18th.
On Wednesday December 22nd the whole family and some of the neighbours were here to watch Garry blow out all 54 candles on the giant black forest cake I made. (sorry no photos- we are having trouble recharging the camera in Canada)
The guys did the fast morning milking/feeding of the herd traditional for breakfast/present opening- which was delayed slightly when our daughter-in-law and the girls arrived at 9 am instead of the 8:30 we were aiming for breakfast time. Seth, Jonah and Luke (next in line at 19) slept in until 9 am since they were stuck helping him with the late night milking when some of the employees didn't show up- they finished around 1:30 am, and checked out their stockings then.
Breakfast was followed by the marathon four hours of present opening. The little girls ate more candy than they got (other people's stockings were raided by the preschoolers) and went home at 7 pm after the turkey dinner. Jonah is very excited- his brothers bought him an ebook reader to take back to Ukraine. Remote controlled helicopters were a big hit- the big boys should have gotten them too, as they flew them more than Seth and Jonah did.
Yesterday Garry and I were off to Steinbach early where we did 4 minutes following the announcements about our mission- with the powerpoint which operated just fine (although I forget to pick up my new flash drive afterwards) Afterwards Garry took me out for lunch and was surprised at the check- someone had paid our bill already (thanks!) Then we returned home for dinner and birthday cake (Luke made it and covered it with mini m&ms to the delight of Xaris and Havi) and I managed to get all 52 candles in one try.
No one had checked how much milk was shipped on Sunday morning, so Matt couldn't stand the suspense and went to check after dinner was over (with the early milking the morning before there is more milk the next day) and was excited to report a new record- just over 19,000 liters for one day (yes in Ukraine we are making about 260 liters a day.) Matt and family left after we watched the original Grinch on bluray so the girls could get to bed on time- the scheduled entertainment - the Eagles game is postponed until Tuesday because of snow- my parents say about 20 inches and it's blowing like crazy today- big drifts in New Jersey.
Garry's hoped for departure for Ukraine did not happen today---our passports and visa renewal are still at the embassy after the next day priority mail took.... not the planned mail on Friday there on Monday...but according to Canada Post tracking it was delivered on Wednesday the 15th at noon. It is 2 weeks (plus holidays and weekends) for processing so it is not coming back yet- it looks like Garry will certainly miss out on seeing in the New Year in Ukraine. The kids are planning a new tradition here......pizza cook-off.
Victor says all is well- except they are running out of brewers grain to feed the cows and can't get more until after the brewery reopening in January. Garry has him looking to buy some sunflower meal to help tide the the cows over the loss of their favorite protein source.
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