December Happenings

We've been having entirely too much fun lately. Actually, we've been working too much as well, so I guess there has been an even balance. The first weeks of December kept us busy with finishing up big assignments for school and studying for finals, making cookies for visit/home teaching families, attending band/choir concerts, Relief Society, ward, and school Christmas parties, gingerbread house construction and Christmas tree finding and decorating. Here are some highlights.

The decorated tree with new LED lights. The girls have since been busy redecorating the tree- taking ornaments off and putting them back on. Sally pulled so hard on an ornament last week that she brought the whole tree down on Sophie,  fortunately the tree isn't terribly heavy and Sophie is tough stuff. No breakable ornaments for a few more years still.

Sally's first time on stage with the Primary singing at the Ward Christmas Party. She'll be starting Sunbeams in January.

Shazer's a pro

Sally...not so much :)

Sally eagerly waiting for Santa

A far cry from the girl who held on to her dad with a death grip last year at the mere suggestion of sitting on Santa's lap.

Another polar opposite from last year- not the complacent baby anymore ;)

Shazer thought himself much too mature for sitting on Santa's lap- until he noticed that Santa was giving out bags of goodies. Alas, Shule could not be bought ;)

Gingerbread house construction (loving the pre-made gingerbread kit).

Sally loves helping me make gingerbread "boys". She actually was more of a help this year.

We had a great visit with John and Laura Heidenreich and their three kids and this is the only picture taken the whole evening. This is Shazer showing Reina (their oldest) some cool wii game (I think it was Zelda). Our kids all got along really well, Shazer actually attended Reina's eighth birthday party earlier in the day. We're looking forward to seeing them again in Tucson on New Year's Eve along with many other good friends who now live all over the country- I'll be sure to be more diligent with the picture taking then.

We visited family in Tucson over the weekend but had to come back on Monday because I had to go to class. We stayed with my parents but went to Linda's sacrament meeting on Sunday because she and Anne were in the Christmas program. Anne saved us great seats right in front of the harpist and when she played, all of our rowdy kids became transfixed. I'm crossing my fingers that one of our girls will be interested in playing the harp some day. Anne was teaching Relief Society and asked Jon to play Joseph Smith's First Prayer on his acoustic guitar and then his mom recruited him to sing in the stake's Christmas program that she was also in charge of that night.

I thought it was sweet how Sally posed with Anne the same way she had posed with the princesses at Disneyland. I think it says something about how she views her aunt :)

Sally and Sophie both loved Anne's tin whistles.

We've been enjoying a lot of quality family moments and are grateful for the next couple of weeks we'll have to spend with each other and not have to worry about work and/or school. We spent a super relaxing rainy day (it even hailed at one point) just hanging out at home with the kids while Jon and I read Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games to each other. It was a great book and I'll probably post a review of it soon. All the presents are bought and wrapped and we're looking forward to spending our Christmas at home with our little family for the first time in a very long time. I still haven't written the newsletter or mailed out the Christmas cards, though, I guess that's the next thing to do on the "to do" list. They're so late now anyways it just doesn't feel as much of a priority. We did get some pretty nice pictures taken by a family friend in November so I am excited about how the cards turned out this year. So, look for yours in the mail sometime after Christmas (maybe even after New Years) and if you're not on my usual mailing list but want to be- let me know :)