Sorry it has taken so long to finish my Christmas update. It’s been so cold here in the last week that we were without internet for a few days.

Back to December: We arrived at my parent’s new home in Florence after a rainy drive to the coast on Saturday night. We stayed up late getting a tour of their 1960’s home, hearing about their plans for changes, and catching up with Matt and Stina, my brother and his wife, and their travels.

Next day was our “Christmas Eve” so we did some Christmas baking for the next morning’s traditional Halvorson Christmas breakfast. We also opened one gift early: ticket to ride a board game for the group to play while we were there and enjoyed a couples-team game.

Later in the evening we went downtown Florence to walk around the shops but everything was closed because of the rain and holiday hours. Luke and I took everyone out to dinner at the waterfront Depot then we came back and talked until we decided it was time for Santa to come fill stockings.

The next morning we followed Halvorson Christmas patterns. We opened stockings and then Stina read out-loud an illustrated children’s Christmas story. We then had our sour cream coffee cake and blueberry buckle with scrambled eggs, smoky links, and bacon. Last of all we opened presents.

After enjoying our “Christmas” Morning we decided to take turns joining my parents in their canoe on the Woahink Lake. It was a cool morning but clear and we enjoyed the quiet ride. We decided to then get some coffee at Dutch Bros and walk around the downtown shops that were closed the day before. Later we returned downtown to have our Christmas dinner at Bridgewater Fish House.

We came back to the house after a nice dinner out and watched one of our stocking gifts: Guardians of the Galaxy on a laptop while enjoying ice cream.

Next morning we packed up and went out to lunch before we all hit the road again: my parents and Matt and Stina headed to California and Luke and I back to the Greene house.