Oh, December, December, How Tired You Made Me

December made me kinda crazy.  It was busy: Ian was sick and then I was sick, there was a visitor, a sealing, a trip to TX, Christmas concerts, goodie making, caroling, teacher gifts, potty training and all the regular stuff mixed together. You'll see.  You might even wish that I had split it up into multiple posts!

First, there was Christmas decorating. The kids were super excited to get the tree up.  They also found the New Year's stuff we had stored in the Christmas bin.

Noah did the honors with the star. It seems to always be a bit of a trick actually getting it on. 

 

 The boys made themselves "tails" with the greenery I use to wrap the banister.

 We had some dear friends who were able to go the the temple to be sealed as a family the first weekend in December.  Several families put a lot of effort and love into making it the special occasion is was meant to be. 

 I was in charge of the food, which was a much bigger job than I had anticipated. But it was all delicious, if I do say so myself!

The sealing was touching and precious.  Families are so important and making covenants that can make them last forever is an amazing blessing.

To make the day even better and more and less stressful was the fact that due to cheap tickets it was decided to fly up Elise to take their wedding/family pictures.  I had to pick her up bright and early in Chicago. We had a wonderful breakfast and got caught up on our news.  We went to the sealing and then, with a friend, got some lunch and then went to the chapel where the reception was to be and started in on the food.  Thank goodness for Elise's and Carrie's hands-I really needed extra sets!

We got home late and went to bed for a well deserved, if very short, rest. Then, bright and early (again only earlier) we got up to get her to the airport for her 7:00 am flight. By the time I got home I was about dead on my feet.  I was so tired I was afraid to drive to church and endanger my children.  I ended up sleeping all morning!

We made plans to make our goodie plates and do some caroling the following Wednesday.  I spent the whole day in the kitchen.  It was fun to draw on favorites from my own family, some friends and from Chris.

We were so proud of ourselves for getting 5 stops done in one hour.  The others were delivered the following evening. We really enjoyed it, except apparently for Noah, who thought it was "boring."

When we were done for the evening making the peppermint flavored, candy cane shaped sugar cookies, I had a heart in my fridge.  At least, it looked that way to me and it scared me every time I opened the door and saw it.

I don't know if it is just here or if I just don't know what I don't know about other places, but Christmas concerts are a big thing here.  Every school, all the grades, have a concert. Noah's was first. He is in the back row, in the brown sweater with a yellow stripe. 

Ian had a Playschool concert.

 

Sage really enjoyed getting to ring a bell along with the school kids!

Ian also had a 4K concert.

 

 We had our turn doing date night babysitting. Sage wanted to hold the baby and then they all wanted to cuddle under the baby's blanket. 

That was the night right before I had to drive down to Chicago to catch my own early flight down to TX for a quick weekend with the girls.  I was super excited to go until I got sick a day or so before.  By the time I arrived in TX my ears were completely plugged making me deaf and I felt like I was talking in a bucket.

I tried everything I could to make it all drain.  I prayed and asked for a blessing from my father. When I woke up after the first night one ear was unplugged.  I took medicine and kept praying and went to bed.  I woke up very early for my flight home the next morning and my second ear had unplugged.  I flew home with relative ease and then proceeded to spend the next week and a half with partially plugged ears and nothing to do but wait it out!

But I get ahead of myself.  I had a lovely couple of days with with my sisters and mom. They are kind and thoughtful and I love them.  We had breakfast and then went shopping at all the thrift stores.  (If you haven't heard me rave about the thrift stores down there in TX you might have to consider yourself lucky! But really, I haven't found any like them anywhere else!)

 

 I mean really, where else could you find a couch like this for $13?  And no, I didn't leave off a 0!  Sadly, this was the only picture I took the whole weekend! Oh, no wait!  I took two others! This one of Dan and Elise all ready for their "ugly Christmas sweater" party.

 

While they were at their party we went to dinner and then drove around and looked at Christmas lights.  The coolest, by far, was this tree out in the middle of a horse field that have had every single branch wrapped in lights. The picture is horrible but it was amazing.

 

Sunday was Sunday and after church we hung out, played a game and ate yummy roast for dinner. We talked about life and religion and worries and faith.  We cried a little and laughed some too.  Seems to always be the way with us when we are together. And it is one of my most favorite things.

Also mixed in there somewhere was the teacher's gifts for Christmas.  I really appreciate the teachers that my children have.  They have all been wonderful and worked so hard to make the school experience a good one.  I think they totally deserve a Christmas gift. 

But I still hate having to do it. Maybe because I have such a hard time getting it done in a timely manner.

This year I was so proud of myself for coming up with an idea that I didn't think was too generic. Homemade air fresheners, done in red and green....pretty cute, huh?  Well, they didn't turn out.  Grrr.

 

So, new idea.  In TX I had this delicious caramel buttermilk sauce.  Perfect.  I did get it done and was mostly timely about it.

 

 Some where in there, not too long before Christmas, we finally got some snow.  Not a lot, but enough for a white Christmas.  Sage was very happy about it and wanted to play in it right away.

The Saturday before Christmas was the ward Christmas party.  The Bishopric was planning it. This hasn't been done in years and I am very proud to report that Chris didn't ask me to do anything! But when we arrived I had to step in and help make some things happen. Apparently planning didn't include organizing and execution the night of.

The primary kids capped our evening of giving (we did a service project for a local shelter) by playing out the Nativity. Ian was Joseph.  (The back, right.)

Noah was a wise man. (Standing on the right.)

And the whole cast.  (And yes, that is about our whole active primary.

The Sunday before Christmas, I finally thought the time was right for Sage's Christmas dress.  I loved it! It was beautiful (and who can resist that sweet girl wearing it!) but what made it just perfect was the $2.50 price tag at a resale. (And yes, the picture is awful but we were in too much hurry to try and do better.)

And that pretty much bring us to Christmas!  Stay tuned, that post is next!