December comes in like a hurricane and it always takes me some time to catch up with the month after its already gone!
December was a full month and here’s some of our fun.
Hunter and Bennett stuffed and labeled our Christmas cards this year. Some years we hand letter and other years we’re short on time and they get a label!
We read Christmas books and listened to Christmas music by the light of the tree.
I’m not sure how this was even possible but we only went to the Christmas house one time before Christmas. This is usually a weekly activity in December but rain thwarted our plans to walk down with friends not once, but twice!
We had Steve’s sister for Christmas and he was so proud of his wrapping job complete with a squeaky dog toy tied to the top!
Steve’s mom hosted cousin game night – one for the elementary aged kids and one night for the junior high through married cousins. My kids always love this time with their cousins.
Briggs worked hard to write cards for his teachers.
We went to the school for cookies with Santa and the kids love their “funny face” pose.
Our neighborhood had their annual Christmas party in the front pasture of one of the houses. I’m always overwhelmed with love for all my neighbors at this event. It’s a lot of work and every one signs up to bring food – its a lot of coordination.
We participated in the nativity at the neighborhood party and it’s always my favorite 5 minutes of the night. The next best moment is right after the nativity when we do a candle lighting with 300+ people.
We hosted Christmas eve with our friends that we consider family. With 11 kids between our 2 families, a nice sit down meal can be a challenge but it turned out beautiful.
We played Christmas songs using chimes – my kids now want chimes! It was fun and they were way better than I could’ve imagined.
We acted out the nativity which is always entertaining!
Our friends said goodnight and it was just our family. We opened Christmas jammies and decorated cookies for Santa. There was laughing and excitement.
Steve read Twas the night before Christmas before we ushered everyone upstairs in hopes that they would eventually settle down and go to sleep!
And then it was quiet…
