Weeks before Christmas

It's official...we have dropped the ball with our blog! We'll just have to persevere and see if we can make it right in the end. Please pardon the huge jump in time between the summer pictures posted in November and these December photos.
Some captions:
Alf with his face and hands (he insisted)painted like a tiger at the Shire Christmas Fete.
Josephine after licking the beater from a session of brownie baking.
Alf as the happiest shepherd in Bethlehem in his school play.
Gabriel discovering our Christmas tree (he's 9 months and some in most of these pics).
Alf and I making the first batch of peanut butter kiss cookies to give to teachers and friends.
Bertie calm again after battling to get the too wide tree base into the tree stand!