December Catch Up

I have been overwhelmed with the thought of creating a blog post to cover all the events and craziness of the past month and 1/2...  But I've got to start somewhere so here I am!

December was definitely a busy month, as it often is.  I had to tell myself many times to remember the purpose of the season and try to teach my kids of Christ's birth and the importance of giving, rather than only receiving.

Joy School was very helpful with the concept of giving, and each day we had school we practiced the Nativity.  Eventually we were able to present the Nativity program to a bunch of "Grandmas and Grandpas" at a senior center.  The children were so happy to do it, and even happier to get the applause and hugs at the end.  Evan's favorite part was, "When all the people clapped!"

My little Joseph and/or Shepherd :)  We didn't have enough kids for all the parts, so some had to play more than one!

The pictures I have here of the Nativity were of the Joy School family get-together we did on a Saturday so fathers and siblings could be there.  We had a nice dinner and short little program before we left to walk over to the "Clifton Candyland" Christmas event at the city grounds.

I think Mykelle was an innkeeper with her hat on and Cailee was the angel, and Evan should be Joseph but he's carrying a lamb?  We didn't really go all out for the props, but it was enough to make the kids happy!

Super Service Awards were given to all of the kids for doing nice things for their classmates, teachers, and siblings.  

The mothers each kept a record of different nice things the kids did to earn their awards and we read them to the families.
They included things like, "Evan helped clean up other children's toys, without being asked!"  

They were obviously very proud!

Clifton Candyland was a lot of fun, though it was very cold...  We walked the short block over-

All bundled up! 

Played some games-

Ring the candy cane 

Fishing with candy canes

Croquet?

Then we rode on "The Polar Express" which was a series of trains driving around the city complex

Just take my word for it, this was on the train. 

We met Santa- Mykelle asked for a "Mulan doll because I've never had one of those before!" and Evan asked for a "Twisty slide that goes shwoo-shwoo-shwoo!"

We also met the REAL Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman!  Mykelle likes to remind us of this event.  Though she was sad they didn't talk to her for some reason...

And the last activity we did at Candyland was make a craft- both kids chose a snowman. 

I do love how different Evan and Mykelle can be- this snowman is his, with lots of "Googley eyes." 

Mykelle's snowman has "Rainbow hair" and lots of buttons. 

During the first week of December the kids and I made my traditional sugar cookies for Christmas neighbor gifts.  We had to do everything pretty early since we had to leave for Utah on the 13th!  I love these sugar cookies... but I think I gain weight just looking at them!  

Evan's favorites were the candy canes with sprinkles- he would eat off every single sprinkle individually before he'd eat the cookie.   

Mykelle's favorite were the angels- because Grandma Roxie sent her a book called "Snow Angels" that she'd had read to her every night for the previous week.  

We did decorate our house for Christmas a few days after Thanksgiving.  I couldn't NOT put up the decorations, even though we were leaving so soon for Utah.  I'm glad we did, but it was a pain to finally take them all down when we came home!

We were given a tree again this year, by some dear family friends.  Isn't it the perfect size for our tiny apartment??

Jumping for joy!