a busy, busy year...

I don't believe I have ever experienced a busier year than this has been! In the future I will probably count years from 2011 right to 2013, because it doesn't seem like there ever was a 2012! I'm not sure why it has seemed to fly by so much faster than other years but everyone I talk to agrees that it has.

Not that it has been a bad year. It has been very good in some ways. Our meat chicken project was a huge success and I have absolutely loved having our own home-grown, healthy chicken to cook and make bone broths with. We've had some fantastic times with family near and far, and my 60th birthday bash trip away by myself was heavenly.

Now for the bad parts; our garden! Terrible! Hardly grew a thing! (We've heard the same thing from many, many people.) I have been getting all my new seed catalogs in the mail and am sincerely hoping for a better year ahead.

I have high hope that this next year will bring many good things. We will do meat chickens again, now armed with better insight in what we need to do to make things easier. I have some new plans for garden spaces that I am hoping will up our yields on our produce. I'm also learning more all the time about how best to store each crop we raise.
Gary has had an offer for a wonderful new part time position that will bring much satisfaction to his life, as well as extra finances that we need. Sara is taking up fishing and hunting, including bow hunting! A friend of hers just bought her a new bow, and her Christmas list this year consisted of an axe, a hunting knife, and a fillet board and knife for doing fish! What a woman I have spawned!!! I'm so proud I can hardly stand it!
I have a quilt to do this next year. That will be my winter project. Josie turns three this next year and will receive her first GrammaSusie quilt, fashioned just for her. I got some great ideas from Abbie for color schemes and design while we were out there visiting for Thanksgiving. We (Tim, Abbie and us) have decided we should make that visit a yearly tradition. I'm excited about that. Abbie and I both love to cook and enjoy making all the wonderful traditional foods.
Also on the agenda is deciding what to make Jesse and Eric for a wedding gift. They will be getting married in September and I plan to make their wedding a bit of a getaway for Gary and I at the same time. There are some nice state parks out there.
So, lots of exciting things to look forward to for our family.

Right now I am embroiled in getting ready for Christmas. Most of our gifts are handmade. I'm fashioning a lot of field bags as well as other items. Purchased gifts are entirely practical and useful, but fun too. When Christmas is past I will post photos of my handcrafted items.

I hope your Christmas is bright and wonder-filled. Enjoy the miracle, love on your family, and make time to sit in front of the Christmas tree with a glass or mug of something redolent with tradition.