This and That

Today has been a busy day. I have been cleaning and working on the camper as we have a friend and her daughter coming to stay at the homestead. Sabrina and her daughter Katrina are going to come and help with the milking, feeding, gardening, etc. Its going to be so nice to have help and be able to take some time away from the homestead without worrying about getting back to milk and feed. They are going to stay in our camper until we get our second building built where we are going to put an apartment in the upstairs. They will be here after Thanksgiving and I can't wait! I have been working on Christmas cards and swap packages. Got most of my soap orders in the mail too. We now have 20 baby chicks! My family Christmas weekend is the first weekend in December so I have been working on my gifts for that. I still have memory blankets to finish. Our family always do homemade or secondhand gifts. Its so much fun searching flea markets and thrift shops for gifts. We are also giving vintage picnic baskets with home canned goods and homemade jams and jellies that I made this summer. We will include eggs and homemade soaps in the basket too. I had several sellers on etsy contact me and ask if I would trade some of my soaps for items in their shops. Now I have handmade gifts from them to give and they got soaps from me for gifts. The family is so big that we all were spending way too much money on gifts for everyone so a few years ago we came up with this ideal and had so much fun with it we decided to do it every year. We always make a weekend of it with a hayride and caroling, Happy Birthday Jesus cake, stockings, gifts, big Christmas dinner and lots and lots talking, teasing, playing with all the kids and just being together. This year we are going to Megan's (my youngest daughter). They live in the old homeplace where my girls grew up. Its the same house that we lived in when the girls were very small playing a brand new sesame street board game in front of the fireplace. They kept arguing over the pieces of the game and I finally told them if they had one more argument I was throwing their brand new game in the fire. A few minutes later a argument started and not saying a word I walked over, picked up the game and tossed it in the fire. The girls mouths dropped open and they just sat there watching it burn. They never forgot what I did and all the grandkids have heard the story many times. This year I have the board game wrapped up to give Megan (I got one just like the first one off ebay and its been played so its second hand) with a note saying " If you don't behave this one will go in the fire too!". I think since we will be opening gifts in front of the same fireplace its just the perfect gift. Don't you think? LOL