A Wales Christmas

We celebrated the beginning of the Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving, with everyone there. We set up the tree, put on some beloved decorations that us girls made as kids, and then sat around as dad read "Stubby Pringle's Christmas". It's a story about an old cowhand who was on his way to the dance to win a girl when he gets sidetracked by a woman chopping wood for her family because her husband is terribly sick. He stops to help her and throughout that night ends up giving up all he had brought to give this little family a Christmas. Yeah, I know, doesn't sound like a story you would read to 3 little girls. We thought the same when dad read it the first time years ago, but each year it got better and is now a treasured story in all our hearts. Thanks dad, for making these wonderful memories for us.

Amy, Jackson, and Becky. We all had a "On the naughty list" shirt.

Matt, my dad, and my Grandma Handy, and in the far back is Kyle, my brother-in-law.

What's Christmas without cookies. So my mom, queen of cookies, leads the way, only this time with her grandchildren helping instead of her girls, who just happened to be there watching and taking care of any extra dough.

Ooops, I forgot to turn the picture. But no pan of Wales cookies would be complete without at least 1 casaulty. Apparently, mutilating gingerbread and snowmen are all part of the fun. Christopher had named them his clone troopers, all lined up. Who can help themselves, to see if he would notice... so bad.