Here's a picture of our pretty new Massey.

Isn't she festive?

XOXO

I know I am not a poster-child for blogging (haha) but, I am finally done with my thesis and Christmas. I must say, I enjoyed Christmas much more than I enjoyed writing my thesis. Good news on the thesis, though. I proved my hypothesis with a Pearson coeffecient of .665. That means that the two things I was measuring have a very strong positive relationship. As my group members grew emotionally, they also grew spiritually. That made the writing of my thesis seem a bit more worthwhile.
I am writing today because I am very excited about one of my Christmas presents. Joe got me a cheesemaking kit. This is very cool because it came with a cheese press. Thus far my cheesemaking has been limited to soft cheeses, but now I will be able to branch out quite a bit. Now, all I have to do is find a milk supplier! I am looking into starting a co-op for raw milk in the south-eastern Rochester area. (Let me know if you or someone you know might be interested.)
(I am also excited about another present- my mom got me flannel sheets and let me tell you, I am so warm! I never want to get out of bed. My poor nursing baby, he has to cry pretty loud to get me out of bed in the middle of the night nowadays.)
We worked on simplifying Christmas this year. Brilyn got a tricycle and helmet from Santa. She also got individual packs of applesauce and juice boxes from Santa in her stocking, a VERY rare treat in our household. From her parents, she received the Felicity movie. And that's it. Cade got some puffy-treats to take to church. And that's it for him. I got Tim Horton's gift certificates, cocoa cups, and a wine bottle opener. That's it for me. Joe got Montreal Steak seasoning and a really cool watch. That's all.
I really enjoyed the amount of gifts given. Next year, we hope to simplify with our extended family as well. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.
Between stockings and under-the-tree gifts, we stopped for a breakfast of corned-venison and fried eggs. I had time to make some sour-dough bread and sausage roll as well. We had that around noon when Larry and Andrea came to visit. After gifts and phone calls to family, we went for a walk in the woods. Joe had Cade on his back, and I pulled Brilyn in the sled. We took some apples that we have stored in our cellar out to the winter wheat field as a gift for the deer.
One funny story from Christmas morning though. I got Joe a watch, and I thought he might have guessed that. So, I wrapped his watch in a deer hoist box to throw him off. When he opened it on Christmas morning, he thought I had given him a deer hoist (which he obviously had just bought, that's where I got the box). So he says, " Oh, nice, this is cool, why did you get me this....turn off the camera now." I luckily have all this on video. Maybe I will be able to figure out how to post it on here sometime, it is worth sharing. He did eventually open it and discover that it was a lovely watch that even keeps track of the moon phases. (I guess that is handy for hunting.)
One other fun idea we took advantage of this Christmas is that Brilyn left all her pacifiers out with the cookies so Santa could take them back to the Northpole for the baby reindeer. It has kept her spirits up so far during this grueling transition from paci-hood, I'll let you know how it ends up.
Finally, we are looking forward to making some mead over this vacation, so come on back to see how that goes.
XOXO
~Joce

I finished my thesis! I may even post someday! Merry Christmas!
~Joce