Ice Skating at Hickory Hollow Farm

The weather was perfect to have our own ice skating pond. We didn't realize it was a community pond. The Harnish family allow members of the local community to play hockey and skate on the pond. It is quite the operation. They have a generator for lights and piping around the rink to prevent loose pucks and we even found out that the local Amish farmers challenged the Mennonite hockey players to a duel on the Amish Pond. Jeff and I missed that. Peter did get out once, most other days were too cold, and windy. Jeff could have been a hockey legend at Hickory Hollow Farm, he could have been a ringer for the Mennonite team, but he cried like a baby that his feet hurt him.

First Day of Pre-School

Peter was a bit unhappy at his day care placement when we first arrived in Pennsylvania. Jeff and I felt he could benenfit from a more school like setting in a classroom with educational goals. We enrolled him at the Cecil County Maryland YMCA. It is 15 miles away from us, and subscribes to the Maryland State Department of Education's Early Childhood Curriculum. He knows five vocabulary words and has begun to print his name and he knows his address. He has gained so much confidence and has really found a creative side at the paint easel! Of course Peter could not attend school without a backpack. He has been asking for a school bag as long as I can remember.

New Year's Day

Karen and Glenn came for a visit. Since we moved to Pennsylvania we have seen much less of Karen! She lost so much weight. We had a nice visit, it was too cold to visit the stream, so their wall photo is taken outside of our front door. We ate well and had a mini tour of Oxford. Kahlua helped herself to Karen's Christmas gift, a box of chocolates from the local chocolatier, and some Herr's snacks.