December Wrap-up

1. December flew by in the blink of an eye. Why does it have to be so mean like that:) My chickadees. If I'm remembering correctly, I looked over and saw these three doing a train massage.

2. Bath time for these two boys includes a lot of splashing. They are such good little friends. Maxwell often tells me that Samuel is his "best buddy". Oh how I love them, even though they have both caused me to start graying already.

3. A touring ballet company from Oregon came to the college and performed the Nutcracker. Kathryn and I went on a girls date. It brought back a lot of memories from my childhood. We both loved it. Hopefully we can start a new Christmas tradition. We ended our date with some frozen yogurt.

  

4. We took our preschool co-op to the food bank in our town. We all collected food and then delivered it. The director also let us assemble some food boxes and gave us a tour of the facility. She was a retired kindergarten teacher and did such an amazing job with our busy preschoolers. It was such a wonderful thing for all of us be a part of. 

5. Santa visited story time at the library. I think it was also the same Santa who came to our ward party, but I can't seem to find those pictures anywhere.

6. A quick picture after church. I was lucky to get one good one with how tired and hungry these three where. Oh wait...that was me!

7. Headstands.

  

8. We were so lucky to have Great Grandma Jones visiting for Christmas. She stayed with Michael's parents for several days, and they all came over to our home on Christmas Eve. It has been years and years since she has visited his parents for Christmas. We loved having her in our home and celebrating together. We delivered a few treats to our neighbors, ate dinner and acted out the nativity. After the grandmas and grandpa left and the kids were tucked safely into bed, Michael and I went to work. And then, it started to snow and blow...

Christmas pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa Higbee, and a new robe from Michael.

9. On Christmas morning, we woke up to see snow on the ground which was purely magical, and then we noticed our fence...which was not so magical. It was already on it's last legs anyway.

The children were very excited for their gifts- 

new bikes and a car, binoculars, watches, train set, painting pony and head band set. 

Kathryn and Maxwell worked really hard one afternoon making and wrapping gifts for everyone in the family. It was so sweet to see their excitement as they passed out the gifts on Christmas morning.

We also did a sibling gift exchange and let them pick out a dollar store gift for each other.