Our December

Below are some of the Christmas decorations at and around our house.  The big white ceramic tree was my Grandma Grant's Christmas tree in her apartment.  I remember her putting it out every year on a small coffee table.  Her apartment was small, humble, but the things she had were meaningful to her and she took good care of these things.  The value is not found in the "thing" but in the memory that is attached to the "things" for me.  The ceramic Santa and Mrs. Claus were decorations that my Dad put out in our house every year.  (They were a gift from his Mom to him.)  He would stand them on top of a wooden shelf that he made to hold picture albums in our living room, next to the fireplace.  In the center he would place a big green ceramic Christmas tree and on either side of that tree he put Santa and the Mrs.  I remember staring at these decorations as a little girl and how happy that they made me.  Christmas was always a busy time of year for our family.  My parents were both school teachers and were busy with their students and classroom and school holiday activities.  As we got a little older the schedules became filled with our activities and Christmas programs as well.  Certain decorations, songs, and even smells can take me back in an instant to my parent's house or my grandparents homes and the wonderful memories that surround those places and people during the Christmas season.

Below, an old glass Christmas Angel given to me by an old friend, who use to care for my siblings and I in our church nursery.  A sweet soul who became a wonderful family friend.  She never forgot my birthday and always remembered me at Christmas and lots of times in between.  And, the vintage hand painted spoons...hand painted by one of my Aunt's sisters.  A compassionate lady with a big heart.  A retired nurse, a good friend to many, and one of the most talented eyes for creating and decorating I have ever seen!

Below, a hand painted sign done by Sarah, as a gift for me last year.

Phoebe's ornament for our tree this year was a Sloth, to help remember her Sloth birthday visit this year.

Silas's ornament this year was a Daddy and Son Raccoon fishing together.  This is to remember this past year and all the fun fishing times he had with Daddy and Popee.

Sarah's ornament this year was a little group of Penguins to help remember her and Popee's swim together with the Penguins.

Remote school continued for 6th-12th graders in our school district.  We were blessed to have two of Sarah's best friends join us a few days a week.  The girls really enjoyed each other's company as they worked online from our house together.

When they had time in between classes, at lunchtime, or after school was out they could be found altogether outside shooting baskets or bouncing on the trampoline. 

One day during FACS they got to make chocolate chip cookies together.  They lined up their computers, their ingredients, and got to work...laughing and baking cookies.

Two of them had art together.  Two of them had Math together.  Two of them had PE together, and they all had Science together.  It was fun to listen to them all talking, teasing, helping, and supporting one another.

Eric took Sarah on an Ice Cream Date one Saturday afternoon.  They went to DQ for Blizzards.

Sarah spent a fun evening and night with her friends in December...looking at Christmas lights, shopping, playing games, watching movies, and attending church together the next morning.

We got a box of Christmas Sugar Cookies in the mail from Eric's cousin Venus and her son, Nate.  The kids look forward to this fun family Christmas tradition that Venus has helped us create each year.  And, they are getting much better at decorating the cookies (neatly) with the icing and sprinkles. Ha!

One weekend in December I looked out on our back patio and saw about fifteen turkeys!  A couple of them kept going up into our Crabapple trees to eat the Crabapples.  No Partridge in a Pear Tree for us...just Turkeys

The kids participated in their school "Reindeer Days" in the couple weeks leading up to Winter Break.  They had hat days, Grinch days, crazy sock day, mismatch day, pajama days, and various other Holiday themed days to dress fun and festive.

Above and below, some of Phoebe's classmates and Phoebe.

Above and below, Silas's classmates, teacher and himself.

Silas, below, with some of the cards he decorated for a local nursing home.

Phoebe helped me make a double batch of No-Bake cookies.

We hosted our second annual "Friends Christmas" this year.  We had a taco bar, and several yummy desserts to eat.  I also made Wassail for everyone to try.

Below, our kids, Phoebe, Felicity, Silas, Abigail, Shawna, and Sarah.

This year we drew names for our gift exchange.  When it was time to open the presents we opened youngest to oldest.  It was a lot of fun to see who had who's name and what gift was picked for each person.

Phoebe had Felicity.  Traci had Silas.

Eric had Shawna.  Shawna had Phoebe.  Steve had Abigail.  Mandy had Sarah.

Silas had David.  I had Mandy.

David had Eric.  Felicity had me.

Abigail had Traci.  And, Sarah had Steve.

Next we divided into three teams for some fast, furious, and FUN Minute-To-Win-It games!

We got A LOT of laughs!  Who wouldn't laugh, seriously?  These three guys are not only great dads and friends, but a ton of fun and not afraid to try anything.

We all tried our drawing skills...

And, a few more Minute-To-Win-It games...

Below, The "Christmas Crushers" - Stacee, Phoebe, Abigail, and Eric.

Below, the "Four Snowmen" - Shawna, Mandy, Silas, and David.

Below, the "Pack of Moose" aka The Moose Pack - Steve, Sarah, Traci, and Felicity.

It was a very fun night spent with GREAT FRIENDS!

We had our annual Christmas movie night.  There are so many great Christmas movies that we all enjoy watching together that we usually don't have time to watch all of them.  We usually watch a few here and there throughout December, but take one night to watch 3-4 in  row.

My Mom turned 72 on December 24th.  Happy Birthday, Mom!  We hope you enjoyed all your surprise gifts.  The cake looked delicious and the flowers were beautiful.

Our church did not have a Christmas Eve church service this year, so we got to go to David and Mandy's service. I look forward to Christmas Eve service every year.  The music, the decorations, the candlelight, and the message are all so beautiful and joyful to me.

We enjoyed a nice Christmas morning at our house.

Later that day we participated in a family facetime call with Popee, Nanee, Lindsee, EP, Will, and Matt.  We all wore our matching Christmas pj's that Lindsee and EP bought for us.

On the 27th we loaded up and drove to Springfield, Missouri for a little Christmas get-away.  We stayed at the Angler's Lodge owned by Bass Pro Shop, located right across the street from the Wonders of Life Aquarium and Museum.  It was a nice hotel with an indoor pool.  From our room we could easily see the Bass Pro Shop, Aquarium, and Museum beautifully lit up for Christmas across the street.

The next day we had tickets to the Aquarium and Museum.  It was AMAZING!  We spent over four hours looking around at all there was to see and read.

Silas could not believe his eyes when this giant Grouper fish swam by him in the Aquarium!

After looking all around the Aquarium and Museum, we looked around the huge Bass Pro Shop and ate dinner at Hemmingway's, the restaurant inside the Bass Pro Shop.  Even with a limited menu now, due to Covid, everything we ordered at Hemmingway's was top-notch!

The next day we headed to Branson.  We had tickets to see the production "NOAH" at the Sights and Sounds Theater later that afternoon.

"NOAH" was amazing!  From the live animals and the actors, to the entire set...AMAZING! If you have not seen it our whole family gave it two thumbs up and would highly recommend seeing any and every production at the Sights and Sounds Theater in Branson, Missouri.