Christmas

Christmas came a day early at our house. We called Santa and asked him to come the night of the 23rd so we could visit family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Santa ate snickerdoodles and chocolate milk Sunday night while he filled the stockings and placed some gifts on the couch since there wasn't a lot of room under the tree.

Watching the kids open their gifts was fun, especially Christopher, who showed a look of utter amazement as he opened each gift.


While at grandma Christensen's, we decorated graham cracker houses. Rachel was so proud of her house. She decorated it all by herself while Ruth was busy with her two-story mansion. Emily obviously couldn't wait to dig into her yummy house. We had to convince her to wait until we took some pictures first.
Ruth tried her hand at some yummy Christmas goodies this year. They included: caramels, fudge, peanut clusters, and peppermints. They were all very tasty and we were lucky to have enough to share with most of our family!

Ruth also made her first pecan pie to contribute to our family Christmas dinner! It' was sooo good! One of her favorites for sure! Of course she had lots of help from the girls! they all love to bake together.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Not long ago I picked up The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe for the first time. I have heard of it since elementary school but never before touched it. I've always had an aversion to following the crowd and the crowd seemed to love this book. It is one the first in The Chronicles of Narnia series.

The author, C.S. Lewis, has been quoted here and there by Church leaders, which finally piqued curiosity about the nature of his works. The Lion... happened to be readily available, although I have no idea where it came from. It's possible I stole it from my parents.


So I read the book and was thoroughly delighted with the story, the Christian overtones and allegory. For Christmas we bought Rachel (the family, myself?) a softbound copy of The Chronicles of Narnia. I have now read The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy. I'm still entranced by these stories, mostly with two things:

1. Aslan's (the Lion) interactions with the characters and the similarities between him and Christ.
2. The comparison of myself to protagonist and antagonist in each story, which shows how excellent a writer Lewis is.

I'm trying to entice Rachel to start reading the book. I got her to read Fantastic Mr. Fox one day. It took her three hours but she enjoyed it. Unfortunatedly The Chronicles is a little beyond her right now. I'm sure she will be ready for it in a couple years.