Thank you to Shirley for the wonderful Knoephla tonight. It was way too filling and fabulous! Kent's mom lives approximately 400 meters from our house and we have a standing rule that if Shirley cooks and we are invited - whatever we are having can be eaten for left-overs. Not once have I been disappointed.

We tenderly refer to our little commune of family as Opdahlville. Kent's sister lives about 100 meters from his mom and his brother lives about that from us. His other brother is less than 5 miles away and his little brother is about 10 miles away. We are one little snug family unit and could be self-sufficient if I could talk Dawn into sharing those remedies and future eggs. I think Kent could easily be convinced to purchase a milk cow and other than a way to generate electricity - trust me they could figure it out - we could probably survive for quite awhile in our little village.

Sometimes when I hear how bad things are in the "REAL" world I am tempted to cash it all in and become a survivalist...but then I snap out of it and realize that I need okay maybe want to keep Wal-Mart and fashion a part of my life...Vanity always seems to rear it's ugly head at the most inopportune times. Plus I don't think I could make it to all my schools for work on time in my horse and buggy and as of yet I am not ready to quit my job to make soap and candles.

Carrie came out tonight to practice our duet for the Christmas program. We are going to rock and that is my most humble interpretation of our song! We really have a mini program all figured out - touching lyrics, a scriptural nod, children singing of the Virgin birth...are you feeling the spirit? We are...and if the Arbor Mist Winter Berry Merlot does it's trick I won't be so overcome with nerves that my voice cracks like a 12 year old prepubescent boy.

We had quite the warm up today - I think we may have gone above zero this morning. It is now -7 and we are in for it again this weekend. They are predicting 4-7 inches of snow with 40 to 50 mile an hour winds wait on looking back at the warning that is EXTREMELY COLD WINDCHILLS OF 40 TO 50 BELOW!!!!! Near blizzard conditions for Saturday afternoon. Guess Kent and I will be snugly in the house again. Maybe I can convince him to do some Christmas baking!

Our "tree" this year consists of hanging our Dixie Stampede ornaments on the barn window frames in the living room above our antique sewing machine where we will keep presents. So at least if we tried baking we might get the Christmas spirit...or maybe we are in the spirit just not buying in to the commercially promoted ideas that Christmas has to be about the tree.

Either way, Christmas at our house is nontraditional at best and full of LOVE...