Have a holly jolly Christmas

 December 2021

It's getting harder to let the years pass. My baby is turning four next year, and while it's fun how many things we can do together as a family now, it's bittersweet. As he outgrows his clothes, I let him wear them a bit too long because I don't have another baby to happily pass them down to. That aside, December was calm and fun. We didn't go anywhere, and Andrew had to work a lot, but we made time for some very cozy and fun memories.

Michael and Alex are such buddies due to all the time they spend playing just the two of them, while Matthew and Adaline are at school. I think Alex is going to miss Michael so much in the fall. Recently Michael was trying to cut out some circles and ended up coming to me and asking me very specifically to cut out two circles of a specific size. Then he wanted help gluing them together. I was intrigued, so asked him to explain what he was making so that maybe I could help. It turns out they wanted to play Wild Kratts and they needed the discs and pocket for activating their creature power. We printed out pictures of different animals that he wanted and I think they ended up playing this for at least a week-until they started to lose the discs. I love his imagination and creativity.

December was momentous because it marked everyone but Alex being fully vaccinated. At the time, our county had a mandate that only fully vaccinated people could eat indoors at restaurants. The kids were highly motivated to get vaccinated for this reason, which was hilarious to me because we almost never go out to eat as a whole family and still haven't since they were vaccinated (Alex would have been left out anyway). 

These silhouette views while I'm running and the sun is coming up are some of my favorite 

Some years it takes me a while to feel like Christmas is coming, and this was one of those years. I celebrating Andrew's birthday and making Christmas-y treats helped me get there though. We also went to Andrew's work's Christmas party and had a surprisingly good time. Just as I was a little bored and ready to head home, they started playing my jams over at the dance floor. My birth certificate might say I'm 30, but I'm definitely still a teenager at heart. Later in the month, we went to a friend's Christmas party and ended up staying far too late and playing a hilariously ridiculous card game version of Oregon Trail and then having the same friends over for waffles and to play Pandemic the next day. I can't believe I didn't give that game a try sooner-it's so fun! And it was so nice to visit with friends that we haven't spent much time with in so long.

Hahaha we struggled with this

I can snuggle him forever because I don't have another, younger baby needing my attention. I am so glad he'll still fall asleep on my sometimes. 

Adaline and Matthew's school experience has been so interesting since Matthew started attending in the middle of a pandemic and then Adaline joined the following year as a 3rd grader and new student. We have no idea what is normal and there have been very few of the typical events. So it was extra exciting when there was a family night at the school for us to all attend. The kids made ornaments, had their faces painted, drank hot chocolate, and visited with their friends. It's slow progress with the various restrictions we've had in place, but I'm enjoying meeting their friends and some of the other parents. 

Adaline and Matthew also had class plays. They each did a great job with their speaking parts and singing loudly. It was cute to watch their little dance moves and hear them practicing the songs at home in the weeks leading up to it. They both tend to be shy in front of a crowd, so I was super proud of them both. 

Always a reading party

Now it's feeling like Christmas! One of the things we did this year, that I loved, was putting strips of paper with small activities in our advent calendar pockets. We brainstormed as a family and mostly had the kids choose which activities they wanted. We did little things like:

•  snowball fight with crumpled up paper
• reading Christmas books
• Christmas coloring pages
• drinking hot chocolate
• making paper snowflakes
• bike ride to look at Christmas decorations 
• candy cane hunt around the house and then making cookies with them
• making eggnog
• "polar express"- driving around with pj's and hot chocolate to look at Christmas lights
• sharing what Christmas means to each of us
• dance party around the Christmas tree
• Christmas tree "I spy" while driving 
• Secret santa someone (they loved this one but were also so nervous while they were trying to be sneaky and not get caught)
• bake and deliver treats for neighbors 
• sleepover by the tree
• watch a Christmas movie
• play games and listen to Christmas music

The ideas were so simple and mostly only took a few minutes, but the effect was huge. Our kids looked forward to pulling out the slip of paper each morning (even though they knew what they were) and all day they were excited for when we'd get to actually do the activity. 

Sleepover by the Christmas tree was definitely not one that I voted for, but the kids sure loved it. As soon as they were all asleep, Andrew and I carried them all to bed so that they could at least sleep in after staying up late.

On Christmas Eve, we had a fantastic night eating tacos with friends and neighbors. It's definitely a tradition we look forward to and thoroughly enjoy.

None of my kids believe in Santa- I don't think they ever really did-but that doesn't stop them from getting excited to put out treats for Santa and his reindeer. They were in an especially silly mood this year.

I feel like every Christmas Eve as we are laying out our kids' stocking gifts, I find myself thinking that there is so little there-often a book and some snacks, not even candy usually-and wondering if the kids will be disappointed in the morning. I can't help questioning if we should have gotten them a little more. Without fail, the kids are thrilled to see their new book, socks, an orange that's just for them, and whatever other small things they find. It blows me away how much gratitude they show for things that are new, yes, and non-essential, yes, but hardly as exciting as the toy aisles they longingly walk up and down. Seeing our kids get "stuck" reading their books before they even dig all the way through their stockings always reassures me that they don't need big or expensive gifts, they just need parents who love them and opportunities to make memories together. This year we got each of the kids a game as their one present from mom and dad, and it led to such a fun afternoon of playing all the new games together. My parents had also gotten us a new game and a fort building kit. It was such a fun day of setting everything else aside and just playing with our kids all day. This was absolutely one of my favorite Christmases that we've had in a while. I think it was also nice to have Andrew home all day since he had been working such long hours.

One of many, many games played for the day

Christmas dinner with my crew

One of Adaline's gifts was a date with mom to get her ears pierced. She started asking months ago, and I told her that she could whenever she showed me that she was responsible enough to take care of them by herself. We made a day of it together a couple days after Christmas, and she was so excited. I was shocked at how well she handled it considering that etiquette while getting a shot is abysmal. I guess when she is highly motivated, she can be incredibly brave! My only complaint? She now looks far too old! 

While Adaline and I were at the piercing salon, Andrew took the boys to Chick-Fil-A to use their gift cards that they got for Christmas. I guess they ended up across the parking lot looking at the cats in Pet Smart, because I got this picture while I was out:

The next day, we met up with our friends down south at a cool park none of us had been to. The day was cold and a little wet, but the kids all had fun running around together and having a picnic in the parking lot. Before heading home, we grabbed some donuts to enjoy while sitting in traffic. It's always great to get to see them.

I did not plan this ahead, ha. I opened the trunk to let the kids sit in the back and eat their lunch, but found a table and chairs. I figured it was serendipity, so we had a more formal parking lot picnic than I was anticipating.

My little superman washing dishes for me. Okay, fine, he just loves playing in the water.

Thanks for being a great year, 2021!