The 12 (Years) of Christmas

I was looking back at our Christmas cards for the last 12 years we've lived on the farm - which is also the same amount of time we've had children.  So for the 12 days of Christmas ... here we are!  

In 2007 we quit our jobs, moved from Connecticut to Michigan, bought the farm, and had twins!  Kind of a big year.

Then came 2008! I said in our Christmas letter that we put in an irrigation system, knocked down a silo, and had a great year for crops, which is what's showing in the picture - a towering cliff of corn!

Kris is very critical of this past-pile because we do it all differently now.  : )

Those santas got bigger! They were two. The fact that they were both looking even near the camera was a win.

This was our second full year on the farm. We gave a lot of tours to our friends, because we all had kids this age!

And then we were five. Max was born in 2010. This is also when I started Truth or Dairy!

On the fifth day of Christmas...

In 2011 we built our new calf barn. Not that raising calves in a 100-year-old barn wasn't fun, but it wasn't as convenient as you might think. : )

I also wrote my first book, Every Other Twin Book is Wrong, because I was afraid I would forget all the things about babies as my kids got older. I totally did.

This picture was not taken in December!

Kris spent a lot of 2012 planning for our herd expansion, which included building a free stall barn and manure lagoon.  I still love the word lagoon - so exotic!

On the seventh day of Christmas...we added 200 cows to our herd, built a barn and modified another 
one, and went to milk meetings around the country.

Our friend Andrew Jenkins (Canfield Jenkins House of Photography) took this picture in our yard. I was the only person in this picture who wanted this taken. The other four had questions like 'Why are we doing this when we have a million pictures?' Because I just want a nice one. 'Why can't I wear this sweater that looks just like yours?' Because you would hate me for it later.

In 2014, I won the Anderson Olympics. A lot of other seemingly important things went on, like installing a manure pump and becoming a Face of Farming & Ranching, but that was the first and probably last time!

Obviously I just picked a picture from the summer...at a spot where we spend a lot of time, and where everyone was wearing exactly what they wanted.

We all tried to represent what we liked doing best - farming, climbing trees, Legos, games, and running.

I love that we were able to feature the classic glove in our Christmas celebration.

I listed all of our likes and dislikes. Max's dislikes were: "Wearing clothes, going to bed."

Three years later - Max is still never cold.

We indoctrinated our children, and it even shows in our 2017 Christmas card. They were all super excited for this one.

We went back to Andrew Jenkins, and this time it was wonderful.  Everyone was game.  We actually have real smiles too, because my brother Gage was standing behind Andrew making us laugh!

And ta da ... 2019! 

This year, we had the weirdest, wettest year ever on the farm. Not only was it the worst weather for crop farming in 12 years, it was the wettest ever.  We all knew it, and the National Climate Report confirmed it.   (We're standing in one of our corn fields.)

Luckily, it all turned out okay, and it's been lovely and warm this week. You can never depend on the weather on the farm, but I can depend on our wonderful team members, family, and Kris.

Merry Christmas from Truth or Dairy, and thanks for following along. Santa will love his milk and cookies tonight...and here's to a drier 2020!

Thank you, as always, for reading.  I so appreciate you coming along in our farm journey.  Next year my resolution is to do more videos.  To subscribe to our YouTube channel, go to: youtube.com/timelytv