While I’m not ready to say goodbye to 2011 just yet, I wanted to share our December recap. We had an extremely busy busy month filled with joy and many blessings.
We started the Christmas activities by going to the city’s Winter festival complete with snow, crafts, hay ride and more.
Adrienne shared Christmas joy in our church by singing with the adult choir for our church’s Christmas pop concert and also got to participate with Tyler in the kids Christmas program. Look for Tyler in the picture above, he’s hiding behind the mic stand.
We got to play in the snow up in Flagstaff which is always a treat. We don’t have to shovel snow and we can drive an hour and a half to enjoy it. It was actually a much better experience than last year where the kids only lasted about 5 minutes. This year I hit up the Goodwill stores all year round looking for snow gear and was able to cloth each child in snow suits and boots for cheap! We went to the hills past Wing Mountain where it wasn’t overly crowded, it was free to park and play and we lasted until night fall! The kids found a bump they went over on their discs which launched them about 5 feet in the air. I just observed that, I prefer the slower hills 🙂
We baked until we couldn’t bake anymore. Together we made Christmas cookies, Gingerbread men and chocolate goodies. Not only did we share with family, friends and neighbors, the kids put together stockings full of toiletries and baked goodies for the homeless. On Christmas Eve these were shared with those we saw on the way home. BTW, if you are looking for the key ingredients to a delectable royal icing I used Meringue powder by Wilton, corn syrup, sugar and a few few drops of water.
The Gingerbread house incident. It’s not something the elves wish to discuss but there was a catastrophe that happened to our Gingerbread house. It was more of a tornado that hit the poor town. This year I bought a Wilton cutter kit to make homemade gingerbread for the houses which proved to be a bit heavy. I may stick to the regular kits next year. At least the kids had fun arranging the disaster.
Ahhhh Christmas. This year I was truly blessed by passing on the Christmas dinner reigns to Brian. He made a delicious NY Strip roast with ham, potatoes casseroles and more all from his Cooking Light cookbook. This allowed me to be a little less stressed during Christmas. I was then able to get all of my baking done which included the first time ever, Pfeffernusse cookies and of course homemade pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkins.
Also making Christmas a blessing is we were able to also spend time with Brian’s boys on Christmas eve. Usually we don’t get to see them until after Christmas. We all went to my parent’s house and spent a lovely Christmas together.
Christmas music rocked our month and I was introduced to Glee. Well, I already knew of Glee but fell in love with their Christmas music and was able to download it on Spotify. Of course a guilty pleasure of mine is Wham’s Last Christmas and I’m not the only one. The number one Christmas song on Spotify is….. Last Christmas.
Mr. Elf added to our Christmas fun by sharing his shenanigans with our family. Every morning we found him in a new spot and the kids really enjoyed waking up and finding where he was. Obviously he told Santa the kids were very good because they received a lot of gifts. Top of the list were the Spy Net watch, Air Swimmers Shark, Headbandz game and more. I got some pretty cool gifts and one I’ll be sharing tomorrow 🙂 Also, Adrienne got Animal pajama pants and slippers which I assume she will live in the entire Christmas vacation. Best wrapping paper? Christmas Story paper which I found at the Goodwill Clearance center.
It’s the first year I haven’t done a formal Christmas card with photos but we did have fun taking some photos when we found the fake mustaches at our Dollar Tree store.
I’m truly blessed to have a job where I can work from home and make my own hours. I went and helped Tyler’s class make Gingerbread creations while they also had a pajama day where they watched Polar Express and had hot cocoa.
I truly appreciate those who decorate the outside of their homes for Christmas for all to share in. We spent a few nights this month driving around looking at all of the beautiful lights around our area. Our favorite items are the large blow ups, sparkly LED lights and those who also play music with their lights to create a show.
We’ve had a pretty blessed Christmas, I’m sad that it has come to an end. We won’t take down the decor and tree until the new year is here. I’ve never been one to abruptly say goodbye to Christmas.
What made your holiday special?
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