December Happenings

December flew by as we tried to smash all sorts of festive activities in!

The kids were super excited at the first sight of snow.  They didn't care that there wasn't much.  They got dressed all by themselves and next thing I know I found them out in the yard like this.  Pretty smart 3 and 5 year old!

 We got all decorated for Christmas and I woke up at 5am to find this little stole away sleeping by the fire.  Normally, I'd wake the kids and make them go back to their rooms, but this scene just warmed my heart.  A three year old overly excited for the Christmas season.

 Vic loves going to every Christmas Expo possible so we went to 2 or 3.

 We had a great view of Christmas in the night time sky. They were way nicer than I thought they were going to be.

 We didn't find a family to adopt this year so we made a big donation to Toys 4 Tots instead.

 This year to keep the kids from peeking, I didn't fill the next day's countdown bag until the night before and hung a few extras on the tree every day.

 I was in charge of Whitney's class Christmas party so we had Vic take the kids on an adventure around the school and play "conductor says" while me and some other moms scrambled to make the classroom look like the North Pole.

 They got back and got treats while they watched the polar express.

 Then we broke into stations and played Christmas themed games.

 Whitney also had a really cute Christmas play for all the parents and grandparents.  Whitney was pretty proud to have had parents, grandparents, & and uncle.

 She had a long part and she memorized it pretty quickly.  She even acted out her line. She was pretty darn cute!

 It snowed and snowed all December and January!  I really loved it the first month.  We haven't had a winter like this in 10-15 years!

 Vic's sister Cindy and her family came for a fun visit.

 The park in our neighborhood made a really fun ice skating pond this year so that was really fun to play on. 

 Making tunnels in this crazy deep snow!

 The kids loved painting at the Grape Van Gough.  They are all getting so talented!

 Friends over for crafting time. Whitney wants to craft nonstop during the holidays!

 We have a cute park in town that you can pay to drive through and see lights.

 We had told Whitney she was on the naughty list this year because she kept getting in trouble over and over and seemed to have no remorse.  She was getting really worried and luckily we ran into Santa Clause a few days before Christmas and he told her he'd bring her a present if she did the dishes so on Christmas Eve she was in a full panic about making sure she was helpful enough!

 Vic gets to look at this cute Christmas display out his window at work downtown so he wanted the kids to come down and see it.