Christmas Celebrations

As expected and anticipated, December was a delightfully and exhaustingly full month for our family.  In no particular order, we.... 

visited Noah's teacher's book signing-

and checked out all of the latest and greatest- 

I subbed in preschool once in December, and I received a thank you snack bag!

Adam had three robotics tournaments in December- another very time consuming commitment for our family, and he and Daddy both love it!

Adam's truest desires were made clear with this Christmas shirt-

I had a fantastic and successful piano recital at a nursing home!

Leah's seminary class produced a nativity movie. 

I found Frosty in the frozen foods aisle!

Christmas parties with friends- we won first place with these awesome costumes!

Not pictured leading up to Christmas was our service opportunities- shopping for and delivering personal hygiene kits for refugees, making 'welcome to America' cards, delivering treats and poinsettias to neighbors and friends, shopping for, shipping, and wrapping all the presents, preparing all of the musical numbers we were participating in on Christmas Day, packing up food for the school district with friends, the ward Christmas party....  there was just a lot going on all around!

We made gingerbread houses on the first night of Christmas break.  The weather dropped into the -30s and everything was cancelled.  It was a Christmas miracle and we happily began our long winter break early!

My biggest Christmas wish was to have time at home to watch our favorite Christmas movies (The Santa Clause, Home Alone 2, Elf, The Grinch and so many others!) in our pajamas with treats and piles of blankets and pups.  And once school was finally out, we set to work to make that happen. (Yep, I slept through most of the movies but that doesn't matter!)

We had a white Christmas break- Noah's wish came true!

The weather was brutal but the kids were insistent on getting out to play in the snow.  They might have suffered minor frostnip, but they all said it was worth it!

It was a mad dash to the finish line with projects, assignments, parties, and extracurriculars, and we definitely earned our relaxing Christmas break. Everyone was so ready to relax. 

Or play with the robot- 

Or read- 

Or do makeovers- 

It was a crazy December, but we wouldn't have had it any other way, especially because it was all in the name of celebrating the most wonderful time of the year- the birth of our Savior, and Christmas day was fast approaching!