Thanksgiving was a great day for a horse ride!

Hodge Thanksgiving was at Dennis' Aunt Holly and Uncle Doug's place near Gettysburg, PA. Kylie e-mailed ahead (with Mel's help) to see if she could schedule her first horseride with cousin Danielle's help. Here she is, like a pro already.Shaye took a turn next.
Both did great! What a nice horse they rode!

Christmas is a great day for a plane ride!

Grandpa Hubele took advantage of the clear Oregon day to give rides in "Old Glory" around the Independence - Salem area. All the kids did great. One young Hubele even took the controls for a little while in flight and did a great job keeping us upright (good genes)!

Mikayla Co-Pilots

Dennis and Brenden take up the rear

Grandpa Jim and Noah check out the instruments

Mary and Micah get ready for flight

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

...but the fire is so delightful.



As a result, we have lots of November and December birthdays in our family!



We got to celebrate some milestones this year. Dennis celebrated #30 in December.
Grace celebrated #4 in December.
And Shaye turned ONE YEAR OLD in November!


We loved celebrating everyone's big days with them, and not just for the cake! All were celebrated in style with family and friends.

Now we did it...

We put our blog address in the Christmas letter, which Mom Hubele received today. She immediately went to our blog. She found no updates in 60 days. Whoops. I meant to do this Wednesday night, then Thursday night. So here I am, rocking and rolling, Friday night. Blogging.

We've been somewhat busy, but honestly, we've been spending a lot of quality time on the couch with the dog (Yes, he's allowed on the couch now. Clearly I am a woman without power in this male-dominated household.) and the cat enjoying the Christmas tree.

Is this THE ONE?

The tree... the tree. I've already decided on the man.

So here it is, at home in our living room, decked out with our favorite ornaments. I've never found a topper in a store that I like, so I'm thinking that will be a craft project next week. Visions of Barbie Sugarplums dance in my head.