December Happenings

The days leading up to Christmas are always busy!  Between school parties and concerts, family parties, work parties, church parties, friend parties, and Christmas shopping, my head starts spinning.  But, of course, it was all fun.

Ashton and Brielle enjoyed their last day of Tavaci (the children's choir) a couple weeks ago.  With their Christmas concert behind them, they used the time for a gift exchange and a party.  Here they are with their gifts- so excited!

Lots of fun girl time this month with friends.  Aside from the ballet, one of the nights my good friends, Marney, hosted a girls night out/Christmas party at her house with a white elephant gift exchange which was fun.  A few days later a bunch of friends met up for lunch to celebrate Kerri and Allison's birthdays.

One of Todd's buddies from high school recently started up his own CrossFit gym in Missouri and he sent Todd and I free t-shirts with his logo on them.  We took a pic modeling them and sent them off to thank him.  I love mine!  He picked a cool color for the women's shirt.   As the pictures expose, I'm probably wearing it more days in a row than is sanitary...  it's just so comfy!

The other day, Lainey came down from the play room wearing this, and shouting,
"Ho ho ho!" 

 I guess Ashton's fire man suit sort of resembles Santa Claus.

Ashton had his preschool Christmas program on the 16th.  He had a speaking part and memorized it perfectly, however they still helped him in the actual program.  I'm not sure if they didn't realize he didn't need their help or if he got scared and DID need them, but he's been saying his lines all around the house and it's cute to see him memorize something fairly long.  This was his line:

"And suddenly, there was with the angel, a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest.  And on Earth, peace, good will toward men."

Last year they had a costume for Ashton to wear so I didn't dress him up AT ALL.  Oops!

Ashton with his buddy, James after the concert.

Over the days leading up to Christmas, I made some goodies to deliver to neighbors and friends.  I didn't want to wipe the stores out of ripe avocados all at once so I made a few batches of guacamole over a number of days, delivering them here and there, and frequently stopping by the store to buy more and repeat.  We delivered them with decorative bags of chips.  Avocados are ripe and cheap this time of year and I LOVE to make guacamole.  I also tried my first batch of ginger crinkles, but while they weren't horrible, they just weren't my favorite flavor for a cookie.  I kinda like the guacamole thing for our family.  We'll probably continue that for future Christmases.

Ashton teaching his bear to play, "Jolly 'Ol Saint Nicholas,"
the only song he knows and plays all the time.

Brielle's class Christmas party.

Brielle's school Christmas program.
She was cast as a reindeer in the play.

Santa came to pay a visit to the pre-schoolers after Brielle's program ended.

The kids put together several puzzles this past week.  Being cooped up indoors because it is bitter cold with no snow to play in, I tried hard to keep them busy.  They went on a lot of errands with me and stayed at the babysitter's several times too just for a change of scenery.  I've got a few crafts planned for the week to come too.  I just wish we had snow!  It's the first Christmas break we've had without any snow to play in.

 

Decorating ginger bread men.

Lainey does these goofy little victory dances all the time every single day.
I love catching them on camera!

 

Todd decorating a ginger bread house while they did their cookies.