The Week of Christmas

We had a fun few days leading up to Christmas. On the Saturday before, we spent the day cleaning out and organizing the kids' rooms and their toys. To celebrate their hard work, we had Santa pancakes and a movie night that evening. The kids begged us to watch Home Sweet Home Alone. It was actually better than I was expecting, ha!

Sunday afternoon, we took the kids ice skating as a festive, winter activity. It had been a couple of years since we had been and everyone had a good time with limited falls, ha!

Ice skating wiped out this sweet girl. She insisted she had to bring her ice skating doll along for the fun. 

On Monday after gymnastics Elisabeth invited her friend Avi over for the afternoon. Her mom took the girls to the library before dropping them off, and they checked out a craft book. They quickly found an activity and set to work for the afternoon. 

Avi is a few years older than Elisabeth, so with her help, they were able to do almost everything independently. We met Avi's brothers at the park later that afternoon for some (cold) entertainment. 

On Tuesday, we had a Christmas party with a couple of families that we met when the kids were in school. We were all homeroom moms when our kids were in school, and planned some homeschool parties last year and again this year. 

The kids played, snacked and watched a movie, and the we moms got a couple of hours of visiting in. 

These sweet girls were all in pre-k together and they're still great friends. 

We always have a great time when these kiddos are all together. 

The next morning we continued with Christmas traditions and baked and decorated cookies. 

As the kids have gotten older, cookie decorating has gotten easier. I remember when they were little and only had the attention span to decorate a couple of cookies. Then they'd run and leave me with dozens to finish. Now, it goes much more quickly, and it's more fun for me too. 

We delivered some cookies and a small gift to our neighbor friends that afternoon and ended up playing outside with them for the whole afternoon. Having this dear family as neighbors has been such a gift to us over the last year. 

A friend from our Sunday school class hosted a kids' Christmas movie night at her house, and our kids had a blast! They enjoyed playing more than watching the movie, but that's what kids' movie nights are, right?!

Matt was able to be off work on Thursday afternoon, and that morning we talked about letting the kids have their traditional Christmas morning on Christmas Eve because of some changes to our usual Christmas schedule. So, because of that we shifted a lot of our Christmas Eve traditions to Christmas Adam. 

One of our traditions is to give the gifts a new game as a family Christmas present and playing it on Christmas Eve. We did that on Thursday afternoon. We got them Dragonwood as their game for this year, and everyone enjoyed playing it. 

Thursday night after dinner and showers, we let the kids do their sibling gift exchange. I love their thoughtfulness and excitement when they give and receive their gifts. 

Nathan gave all his siblings recorders, and they were so happy! The kids also buy Matt and I gifts at Dollar Tree. I got fuzzy socks, gloves, a puzzle and candy. Matt got a giant sponge for car washing, a coffee cup and candy. 

 After the gift exchange we shared the big surprise of the night! 

Immediately, the kids rushed to brush their teeth, Elisabeth shoved melatonin in everyone's hands and they put themselves right to bed. Easiest bedtime ever, ha!

December Happenings

December is always a full, busy, magical month for us. We embrace the hectic and soak up the memories. 

I always look forward to Christmas season when the girls can wear their holiday dresses to church. They're always so happy and beautiful on Sunday mornings. 

The first week of December Katherine had a parent performance at her gymnastics class. She did a great job and wasn't the slightest bit nervous. She's been having a great year of gymnastics. She has sweet friends in her class and we all look forward to her classes each week. 

She's also always quick to strike a pose. 

The cookies and hot cocoa were her favorite part of the night. 

Our church's preschool and kids ministry hosted a pajama party for the kids the first week in December too. These crazy kids couldn't wait to play with their friends at church. 

While they played with their friends at church, Matt and I got to fellowship at our Sunday school Christmas party. It was such a great night. We ate delicious food, visited, and Ruthann always plans the best games. We had to cut the night a little short, because we all had to go pick up our kids, but we got plenty of laughter in before we had to leave. 

Our sweet friends from gymnastics dropped off some had me down clothes and toys, and Katherine couldn't wait to start playing with the baby dolls and accessories. She's entered a baby doll phase recently, and I love it!

Another Sunday, another Christmas dress. This dress was Elisabeth's and Katherine had a tiny one to match for her very first Christmas. She's growing up fast!

After all the fun Samuel and I had on our bowling date, the rest of the kids started begging to go bowling, so we had a family bowling date. 

The next day, this girl and I had a scheduled date. We saw Encanto and then went to a fun coffee shop for drinks and a treat. Elisabeth is a joy who adores special attention. She didn't stop smiling our entire date. I'm looking forward to many, many more coffee dates with her. 

We've been working our way through the Star Wars movies as we prepare for our Disney World trip. They're not quite able to hold Kate's attention, but she finds some creative seating for them. 

Samuel and Elisabeth have continued their gymnastics classes throughout December. Samuel's working hard on the rings!

Katherine had her winter cookie party at dance. I love watching her bright smile and joy when she's dancing.  She adores getting to perform for us. 

And again, the cookies are the best part of the day :)

Even though December is busy with extra activities, school slowed down some for use, and we were able to have some extra play dates. We spent the morning with Levi, Audrey and Brynn and it was a great one!

These girls disappeared into their mom's bathroom and we caught them giving each other makeovers. 

Elisabeth also got to have a winter cookie party at dance. She very recently switched to a new dance class after not enjoying the class she was originally enrolled in. She was a little rusty on the dance because she only had two weeks to practice. But she is enjoying her new class. It's more familiar, more age appropriate, and one of her good friends is in it with her. 

To celebrate the end of school before Christmas, our neighbors invited us over to decorate gingerbread houses. The construction was a little rough, but everyone still had a good time visiting and playing together and eating too much candy. 

December really is the most wonderful time of the year!