It was long on fun and memories, short on actual photos. Here’s the rundown of the fun:

Dec. 23: Nana and Boom arrive from Virginia! Embodying the word “trooper” they got my Dad suited up in body armor to stabilize his broken vertebrae (the girls now call him “Iron Man”) and made the 9+ hour drive north.

That evening, we went Christmas caroling Vermont-style. Our friends Cris and Courtney (parents to two of our girls’ best friends, Wyatt and Isabelle) have family that runs a local dairy farm, and every Christmas they hitch up a hay wagon to a tractor and drive around singing Christmas carols. They invited us to go with them this year, and it was a BLAST! We drove through single-digit temperatures and snow flurries to a local assisted living home, sang carols, and then rode the hay wagon back to the farm, where there were goodies and hot chocolate waiting for us. (We have no pictures of all this for the obvious reason that it was dark. Also because we were wrangling 3 little girls on a hay wagon).

Dec. 24: One last batch of Christmas fudge, complete with the best part — the pan licking.

Then dinner at a friend’s house and a candlelight service at church.

Dec. 25: Amazingly, the girls slept in until 7:45. And after a very mild and non-snowy start to the winter, we awoke to find that a light blanket of snow had fallen overnight, thus making our first Vermont Christmas officially white. Then…Stockings! Breakfast! Church again! Presents! Lunch! Naps! Dinner with our friends Damascus and Betty and their two sons! Phew!

We hope that you all had similarly special Christmases. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Gongs!