These Days: December

Oh wow! As always December is a crazy month, filled with lots of celebrations and fun.

Addison marched in her first parade with the Girl Scouts. She was so sweet we were at the end of the route waiting on her and she saved some candy for her little sis.

We made sugar cookie dough. I make my Christmas cookies in shifts because we never seem to have a whole afternoon available. So one evening we will make the dough, then one evening cut them out and the frosting usually happens on Christmas Eve.

An impromptu evening of looking at Rhema lights and dinner with the cousins. 

Girl Scout caroling at the nursing home

Riding the bus on a first grade field trip. Tim was the crazy bus driver.

Lilah's class Christmas party.

Sister even got to join in

Our first (I hope annual) cousin slumber party (minus Mason, he still needs mommy). Followed by a North Pole Breakfast.

Lilah wanted to wear clips to school. My suggestion of one was not taken. Haha. When I picked her up she still had all of them in her hair.

Helping mommy with trash day.

Addy's class party.

Polar express day at school

The cutting and baking of sugar cookies

Lilah wanted to take a class picture with all of her kids. This girl plays school all of the time.

My grandparents are starting to encounter the rough parts of getting older, so they missed Christmas. We took a morning and had a little visit. 

Christmas light looking at the neighborhood behind us. Hot cocoa and pjs and the girls got to take off their buckles when we got to the neighborhood. They had the best time. 

During our Christmas break this girl wanted lots of snuggles with her mommy. I soaked it up!

One of the highlights of our month was getting to hang out with our friends the Scotts. They are just one of those families that you can pick up exactly where you left off. No expectations, just so much fun when we are together. And our girls jumped right into playing with their girls right when we got there. One thing that struck me was there were absolutely no fights. They played so well together. The adults got plenty of chatting and catching up time. And I got to snuggle perfect little Ansley lots. Though a couple years go in between our visits, we have the best time when we are together. 

One of the final celebrations to December is our "Tri-Christmas". The Scotts used to be part of our Quad group. Then they had to move away to Houston. So we became a Tri. There are a few traditions we always have with this group. The pumpkin patch and Christmas ornament exchange. We usually have to move the ornament exchange around because of a sick kid or two. This year was no exception. We started before Christmas and had to move it to after. The kids still have tons of fun together and this year the adults watched OSU kill Colorado in the Alamo bowl!