Christmas Time Is Here Again!

Its amazing how fast the years go by!  And we were stunned to think back and realize that this was our first visit to Virginia in almost a year!  With that in mind, we decided to make it a long one, almost two weeks, and coming to the end of that time we still haven't gotten a chance to do all of the things that we wanted to do!

Our first few days were pretty relaxed.  Nate had to work, so I just mostly puttered around the farm.  I am always surprised at the amount of activity of blue jays and sparrows, and there is something fulfilling about being the first one up and out, feeding the horses and visiting with the cows.  It puts our plans more into focus for the spring.  Once Dad was done with wine bottling and had some time extra time, we headed out to the local tree farm and picked out a cute but compact Christmas tree.  What followed was an evening of carols and ornaments, which helped to get us all in the Christmas spirit!

Then people started to arrive!  We spend some time at Little Hawk, I even got to watch some of the new fillies being ridden for the first time.  On Christmas a group of us headed out to the Virginia Art Museum in Richmond for a Chihuly exhibit, which was breathtaking!  We are now really excited to go to the Fredrick Meijer gardens in Grand Rapids to see more!  Also, Nate and Dad posed in the theme of one of the statues, much to our delight!

Speaking of Grand Rapids, Kate arrived later in the afternoon of Christmas day, followed shortly by Molly, and we all enjoyed a wonderful meal together.  We were thrilled to be joined by Tom's sister Dorothy, who has a beautiful voice and many of us joined in singing carols which she harmonized to!  Presents were exchanged and appreciated!

Now all are gathered at Holly Hills working in this year's Bell Christmas Letter.  Many of you receive this letter, but please let us know if you do not and would like to!

Love and Happy Holiday to you all!
-Justine and Nate