December Recap

 I was doing soooo good at getting posts cranked out and, on the last one, I came to a dead halt. I lost momentum. But, this did get done, just in it's own time. Like most things. I have other posts for December to celebrate Jayden turning 4, the Christmas school concert, the piano recital Payton was in and our Christmas at home recap. 

So, the month of December. I am just going to jump right into it: 

The church nativity. Payton wants a picture here every year.

Our tree. Last year after Christmas, Monte found a majorly discounted tree and we bought with reward cards. So a very new to us, brand new tree. We have never had one before as we went over a decade with a garage sale tree I got my first year of college at a garage sale. That tree went to a nice family that will continue using for hopefully years to come. In the meantime, we loved our new tree and it's super tall since we have high ceilings in our living room. 

A few years ago, we got matching shirts and they still fit. I am guessing one of us will outgrow for Christmas next year and I will cry when that time comes. But, we loved matching together and spending an afternoon Christmas shopping and hitting up Starbucks. We go so rarely we spend waaay to long irritating regulars while we figure out the menu and what we want. It's just the best time.

We have a ymca membership and went to spend some time playing in their game room a few times in December. We are very familiar with our Y as they offer lots of paid group classes we use (like football and cheer and yearly father/daughter dance) and lots of free events (gingerbread house making, free swimming parties, seeing santa, etc.) but this is our first time to hold a membership with them and utilize the building whenever we feel up to it!

No month is complete without some school scenes. Jayden worked on a preschool scene here. We read a book about Molly of Denali needing to create a snow maze as a fundraiser to earn money for her school's roof (snow ruined it). After, Jayden created his own snow maze scene and recapped the story.

On the way home from school drop off one day we saw pheasants! Right next to our house! This is huge as we hadn't seen them for about a year and were nervous they were no longer living here. We have seen them a lot since and believe it's a group of 5-6. 

With the kids in school, Jayden and I spend so much time together reading, baking, visiting parks, and playing Candyland (Jayden's current favorite game). Most of all, we just love smiling and laughing together.

Doing dishes

making english muffins

                                                          Watching the snow come down.

We love having everyone at home though and love having visitors on the weekends!

Grandma and Grandpa came one weekend:

Instead of creating gingerbread houses at the y (I really wanted to do this but was outvoted by my own children) we opted to make them at home while grandma and grandpa were here. I loved their creativity:

Then we celebrated sweet Jayden and his 4th birthday. I already posted about that but here are a few more pictures:

One of Jayden's gifts was  Christmas tree and Jayden opened that to paint right away:

With Christmas school break rapidly approaching, I threw together some simple gifts for teachers this year:

Christmas potpourri (which our house loved and used over and over again for weeks so I will probably make annually now) with an ornament, batch bomb, and a few Christmas treats. Sweet simple and the kids helped assemble it all.

I also made a trip on my own to my hometown one weekend in December to celebrate the life of my grandfather. It was so good to see everyone and spend some time at my grandparent's house (which will never be the same now that they are no longer there) and just find closure that comes eventually with grief. 

A goodie basket that went home with me (all goodies made by my mother in law)

My mom, my grandmother and me. We got to visit her in the nursing home and it was such a good visit.

Then, I made the trip back (it was such a short and sweet trip in my hometown) and rushed to get everyone ready for Payton's piano recital:

Then we went bowling after to celebrate!

Ah, then we found ourselves in the bliss of Christmas break. Such a treasured time with my family especially after a really crazy busy 3 weeks starting December. It was so nice out that we played outside A LOT and even ate a few meals outside. Of course the nice weather didn't hold but we enjoyed it while we had it.

Payton got a lip gloss making kit and daddy helped her make:

Above she is holding her prized lip gloss. She made one for each family member and we all wear them proudly!

We also got a new game and learned to play it, parcheesi (or pachisi):

Payton also worked hard on learning to paint nails herself:

The library sent us home with activities so we made fun little snowflakes one morning:

The boys (mainly Riley) really wanted to make pretzels. So, we spent an afternoon doing just that:

Then, for new years eve we celebrated with homemade punch and homemade rolls:

We really live it up through homemade goodies and lots of down time at home! We had a blessed Christmas and not a single one of us was ready to say goodbye to our break. But, the ending came. We spent most of this week with everyone back to routine and working our way through January 2022. I can't believe it's 2022! The tree and Christmas ornaments all got put away but I have a feeling we will be saying hello to December 2022 far before I am ready for it.

Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! May God bless you greatly in 2022!