December and Christmas

 Merry Christmas from the Borens!

This was our first Christmas at home with just our little family.  It was so simple and peaceful.  We truly enjoyed it.
Nathan directed our Christmas Eve production of the Nativity.  He built the set and designed the props and costumes.  He even had us rehearse in the days leading up to the performance.  Aunt Mel would be proud.

 This month has been...hmmm...words fail me...
Let me just say, I am SO glad we decided ahead of time to have a simple Christmas and to get as much as we could ready before Thanksgiving.
Clara had her 5th birthday shortly after we returned from our Thanksgiving transmission adventure in Arizona. 
 Clara requested pumpkin pie instead of birthday cake.  (With 4 birthdays sandwiched around Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, we usually lose our appetites for birthday cake sometime around November 1st.)

 My birthday was six days after Clara's.  My "cake" was a tub of ice cream.  I did not have the energy to make anything.  In the past week, we had driven back to Flagstaff to get the van, David spent the next 4 days out of town, and I was just coming down with the respiratory infection that would be my friend for the next 3 weeks.  Blahhhhh.
 Also, I am expecting baby #4 in June, so I have been rather sick and tired anyway.  (I am 16 weeks along, feeling much better now, and very excited!)

 On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, we took a short hike up to Battlecreek Falls.  The waterfall was half frozen and beautiful.  There is no snow in the valley, so we have to go to the mountains to see snow.

 By the time Christmas came, I had my voice back and could sing Christmas songs again, for which thing I am thankful.  It has also been wonderful having David home more over Christmas break.