The 25 days of December both crawl and run. Anticipation is everywhere and everyone is buzzing around magically making our lil lives into a Christmas wonderland. Stress is high but excitement is higher!
Before school break, I packed the kids some festive sack lunches for school.
Green grapes, red pomegranates, and holiday goldfish.
Other ideas: greens with radishes or tomatoes red and green tortilla chips raspberries and kiwi Wheat Thin holiday crackers white snowball cheese puffs
My Grandma made us her legendary tacos for dinner one December night!
I had a lot of little elves helping me during the season!
Sweet Roll prepping...
Getting to work with:
Stocking stuffers...
Packages ready to drop in the mailbox...
My Grandma is a gift-wrapping expert.
Growing up, she was always the best gift-wrapper I knew!
I put her to work with my packages. ;)
wrapping for days...
Sweet snitching...
Homemade roll baking...
Christmas song practicing...
A couple minutes here and there for tea time sitting...
Tree trimming...
All the guys working on lights
Kotah would do this!
Almost done!
Puppy time!
He even left the tree alone all season long. :)
Well, almost...
The days of December quickly closed in
closer to the 25th.
Gifts ready!
On Christmas Eve we received some super fun packages via FedEx from my cousins.
The boys were SO excited! The holiday spirit was big!
December traditions always include baking lots of cookies. The boys have all agreed through the years that one of their favorite things about the holidays are the COOKIES. I make certain to ask each boy for special requests!
Sugar cookies are a tradition that we can't do without. ;)
The boys decorated the sugar cookies this year!
Sugar, Sugars!
We also made a longtime favorite, maple frosties, not pictured.
Kotah's favorites are chocolate crinkles.
He made them this year on his own and did a super job!
My Grandma jumped into our cookie baking fun too.
She makes yummy cookies and she made Almond Cream Cheese cookies with the boys.
Pretty, Christmasy, and delicious!
ALMOND CREAM CHEESE COOKIES
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 (3 ounce) packages cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups crisp rice cereal, slightly crushed
candied cherry
Directions
Cream together butter, cream cheese, sugar, and almond extract until light.
Mix together dry ingredients and add to butter mixture.
Chill 1-2 hours.
Shape into balls.
Roll in cereal and place on ungreased baking sheet.
Top each with a cherry.
Bake for 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cool on racks
Each Christmas, I like to try a new recipe or two.
From a broken tree stand and crooked tree, to family relationship mishaps, to flour spills all over the floor, to being unprepared for guests, to long hospital stays that rocked our world, this holiday season has been unlike any other. It started off in chaos and continued that way during all of our December days. Christmas is usually "the most wonderful time of the year" for this girl! However, this year pulled me along, eyes wide shut, and out of control.
Things like this little note
Cameron wrote to Chris
warm my heart in a really big way
and bring me back to center.
I am Christmas' biggest fan. I often feel like I stand alone as a big-time lover of the holidays. BUT...for the first time in my LIFE, Christmas knocked me down! Usually, Christmas is (get ready, I am going to say that one word)... perfect! Every detail of our holiday makes me happy. This year, every thing that can go wrong, is certainly going wrong. I know there is supposed to be some giant lesson, but there isn't, ha! I just want my old Christmases back, those ones that I love like crazy.
But I do have this: Titus made me an advent calendar with his own words of wisdom on each card. He is our little lover of inspirational thoughts. In the midst of this disaster-holiday year, I flip over this note from Titus today: STRESS IS PAIN. How does he even come up with this stuff?! Of course it made me smile wide, then it instantly brought soothing peace over my uptight spirit. I paused for a moment and really let his words gel. He is right. Stress IS pain. And I thought about something else. My stress causes pain for others too. So, I am going to try to let Titus' words guide these last few days before the 25th, by just letting go and opening my arms to this chaos. It's our life, and I'll take this imperfect year too. I don't need to love it, but I won't fight it.
Titus' adorable advent calendar he made me, complete with quotes via Titus.
I am going to attempt sharing some holiday blog posts before the 25th arrives! It is becoming habitual for me to be slow and behind on blog posts. But I love to document, so I'll do it....sooner or later! ;)
Our December started off with a lot of time at the hospital. Chris was hospitalized, more on that later! Instead of jumping in with bustle, we spent a lot of quiet time in a hospital room reflecting and waiting.
The boys and I picked out a big 14 ft tree at the boy scout lot this year!
Running in the brrr dark.
Now I'm starting to feel better! ;)
Making a list, checking it twice!
Chris and I on a pottery date night,
making Christmas mugs for the boys.
My Grandma came to stay with us from Arizona for the month of December. I have been anticipating this family time and only wish things were more organized while she was here. We love having an extra voice in our home though.
I made her a K Cup holiday countdown as a surprise.
She is a coffee addict! One K cup a day until Christmas...
A night out of Christmas caroling with Grandma
falalalalalalala
This was on Titus' holiday wishlist.
He organized the night with what songs to sing, etc.
Time for THE Christmas party at our dear friends' home sweet home!
For the party, I made pancetta on pears with honey, goat cheese, and cracked pepper.
Girlfriends
Take one...
Take two...
School Christmas parties...
and teacher gifts.
One of my most LOVED things about Christmas is the School Christmas Program. Kids really do bring joy to the world. My heart swells with peace every time I watch these precious kids on stage.
A highlight of our holiday festivities this year was a LIMO CHRISTMAS LIGHT TOUR we did with friends. It was a beautiful dark night, driving the streets of our town, viewing colors of magic on every corner.
Ready to limo this holiday night away!
The kiddos
Limo life!
After the limo tour, we continued on to a full 5 course dinner at Il Bistro,
which was amazingly delicious and a beautiful experience!