Christmas 

Hi everyone,

Another Christmas has come and gone.  We had a great family time on Kate's farm in Iowa.  We arrived on the 15th December and arrived back in Crow Creek on the 30th December - ready to bring in the New Year.  We begin school again on the 5th January.

Kate's sister Maureen and her husband H.L. live in Sioux Falls. Kate's younger sister, Mary Ann lives on the farm with her husband Dave (who is Native American) and their children Patrick, Molly and Brian.  They have recently moved down from Sioux Falls and have built their home next to the original house.  Pat is married to Ken and she is an older sister (one of her son's is Shaun - see photo).  Mike, Kate's younger brother, has 3 adopted children (Kaitlin, Olivia and Kaleb) and lives at the farm with Kate's mum, Marg who is 84 years old.  She is really well now and enjoyed Christmas - especially having all the family around her.  Kate has 3 other brothers who live elsewhere and couldn't make it for Christmas.

The day before Christmas we put corn out for Santas reindeers and pointed out his red light in the sky (as a plane conveniently went over.)  When the kids went to bed Mike asked me sometime later to say in a deep voice "HO HO HO - Merry Christmas".  I think the kids reaction was - "tell Santa to drop the presents and get out of our living room!"

See above the attached photos - hope you had a happy Christmas also.

Regards,

Kate and Brian