December
We started out the month of December pretty busy. The first Saturday we had Mike’s work party where he got a great picture of him and most of the “IT guys” and Santa. The girls got one too.
Right after the party, we hitched up the float that the youth pastor helped me build for the local Christmas parade! We had fun representing our church again. It even held off raining the WHOLE time we were outside…a Christmas miracle!
The next day we had to do a little performance at a local funeral home. They were providing a Christmas memorial service and wanted some kids to sing, so they asked our church. We had about 8 kids there and they did a wonderful job, including a sweet solo from Tegan. Kelby didn’t get to participate in any performances this year.
On the next Saturday, we went down toward Seattle for a Lohman family gathering. That is Mike’s mom’s side of the family. Afterward we went to Bellvue Square, a HUGE mall even closer to Seattle. It was fun to walk through the shops and see the millions of people. It was a little adventure that the girls were now old enough to enjoy, but still young enough to be bored of quickly. We all stopped at Starbucks and the favorite store of the visit for me was “The Container Store”!
We ended the venture with a late dinner at Olive Garden. So fun because we hardly ever eat out as family!
The month of December also included some of our traditional activities, like volunteering with Girl Scouts, baking cookies, and our Christmas tea party.
We also included a little goofiness too!
On December 16th we had our little church Christmas pageant. It turned out so cute! I was pleasantly surprised, because musical productions are not my gifting. Tegan was Mary and Anika was an angel.
That same day in the evening, our church hosted a Kid’s Christmas Party and Parent’s Night Out. We watched the kids and entertained them while parents got to finish shopping. That was an event I planned, and while it is in my “giftings” to do such an event, it was a little stressful for me. It went over SO great though, so I was high on joy afterward.
On the Friday before Christmas, I had the ladies of the family over for a tea party. Then I ended up getting to keep my niece and go shopping with her. My girls were still in school, so we got to have a day all to ourselves. It was great!
On Christmas Eve, we got up and went up the mountain for sledding! First the girls got to open one present…head phones...for listening to music on the drive up.
This is a cool pic Mike got!
Then there was the rest of Christmas Eve fun. Gramma and Grampa Wright came over to give the girl’s their gifts…pjs! We went to our church service that evening and later watched “The Nativity” while eating a dinner of appetizers…tradition!
We started out our Christmas morning with all the gifts under the tree from Mike and I. Among other things, Kelby got the guitar she wanted and Tegan got lots of books. Anika got a some Lego Friends that she really liked. We love our traditional Christmas breakfast!
After breakfast we Skyped with Gramma and Grampaclaus in Arizona to open more presents!
Then we got all ready to got to the Wrights. We opened more presents, ate yummy food, and played a couple games while we were there.
It was a great Christmas season! I had one day off to relax on the 26th, and then it was time to get ready for Anika’s birthday….but I’ll leave that for another post. Oh how I love the beginning of fresh new year! I’m so looking forward to it and the slow down that it brings! If only we could get some snow…
