Winter Solstice!

 YEA!!

Yesterday was Winter Solstice

and that means the days will start

getting LONGER again!

Moving north made for much shorter

days in the wintertime!

And then with the time change falling back

the sun goes down waaaaay too early.

And then we are all just sitting around,

watching TV and wondering what to do

with ourselves.

Hahaha.

It will take several months for the days

to actually get longer again,

but at least we are heading in the 

right direction finally.

This morning Kyle and Rod headed out

to the farm to meet the electrician and

do a walk-through so he can get the

house wired and hook up some electricity!

That will certainly come in handy now

that Kyle is finished with the exterior

and they are starting work on the interior.

Rod has been working on getting the

plumbing figured out.

He's never plumbed a bathroom before,

it's a challenge, but he's getting it.

I'm planning to do my teacher reports

and then give the house a good clean.

I need to clean out the fridge and get

rid of all those little half servings of

stuff that get stuck in the back...

I tried a couple new recipes this week.

They were fails.

We didn't care for any of them...

So yesterday we went back to the old

stand-by favorites.

I made a big pot of loaded potato soup

after church and then put some 

country style ribs in the pressure cooker

for dinner.

They were both delicious!

Church was EXCELLENT.

We had 10 different people come up and

read a scripture about Christ's birth and 

say a few words or share a testimony

(Rod's part was about the star)

and then we all sang a hymn that

correlated with the scripture.

It was really well done and as always

I really enjoyed getting to sing all the

favorite hymns.

We even added the new Star Bright from

the new hymnbook. 

I'm not sure I love the new ones yet.

They feel like grown-up Primary songs.

We have been singing them pretty

regularly. For the first few, we had someone

present it as a special number in the

middle of the meeting and then sang it

together as the closing hymn.

That worked well.

Anyhow.

It was a good meeting.

And then we headed home and I made soup.

While it was cooking we took the dogs for

a nice long walk down our road and out

into the country.

The dogs were enthralled with the horses!

(There are 2 pastures with horses...)

it's been awhile since they've seen any up close.

But they didn't bark or try to chase them.

It was a lovely day.

Temps in the low 60s and almost no wind.

Had to reduce my layers and take off my hat!

(I was expecting it to be much cooler...)

This afternoon when the guys get home

we are heading into town to WalMart (yikes)

to get the stuff we need for the Christmas

fruit salad.

And then tomorrow Kyle and I are heading

to Menards in Salina (2 hours east) to pick

up his insulation and then to Wichita

another hour south, for my biometrics

appointment for my new green card.

Fun Christmas Eve activities.... lol.

Then home again to enjoy the evening

as a family and then it's Christmas!