December Wrap-Up

Dec 2:  Justin and I signed up for a hosting shift tonight at the Bellevue Nativity.  Our stake has put on this event for the past several years and has decided that they would be taking a break after this year.  We’ve attended most years and each year we get a traditional family nativity photo.

Dec 6:  A couple realtors in the area hosted a “12 Days of Giving” event this year.  Each day they placed several Tupperware containers out at a park and inside were little certificates redeemable for free stuff from local businesses.  Once I got word I couldn’t NOT participate.  Abigail was also hooked and since we didn’t want them to know that we were from the same household (not against the rules, just a bit embarrassing).  I had to meet the realtors around town to get my goodies, while Abigail was able to give them our address for them to simply drop off the prizes on our porch.  After a few days I decided to post on Facebook…

“Local friends! I'm feeling a bit embarrassed and overindulgent with my daily prize collecting through the "12 days of Giving Snoqualmie Ridge". I collected my loot thus far this afternoon and thought I'd post today to both show you my bounty and encourage you all to get out there and get some free stuff. I'd take even greater pleasure in "winning" if there was more competition.”

There’s coffee and a tumbler in the Starbucks bag, which I regifted to Drew’s teacher for Christmas.  In addition to everything pictured above I also won a $10 Safeway gift card and 2 free Steve’s donuts.  Merry Christmas to me!

Dec 6:  Jason and Katie are still taking piano lessons.  Katie hasn’t even been playing a year and is doing great.  She wasn’t necessarily excited to start because she’s heard her older siblings complaining about it for so many years, but she really enjoys it.  Jason on the other hand had “Quitting Piano” near the top of his Christmas wish list.  On this particular day I snuck in a little video of him practicing.

Since we’re on the subject of piano I’ll give a little update now that we’re deep into 2019.  Jason’s gotten pretty negative about taking lessons and practicing so we’ve reached an agreement that he can quit once he’s learned 4-5 hymns.  Even with an out it hasn’t motivated the kid to practice more.  It’s unfortunate cause he really is quite talented.

Dec 10:  Today I sold our Corelle baby dolls and all the adorable little accessories.  These were Abigail and Carly’s dolls that were passed down to Katie.  Katie hasn’t played with them in years so it was time to pass them along.  Reminds me that I need to get rid of all of our Barbies and Polly Pockets that are also just taking up space.  Little sad to see my kids getting too old for toys.

Dec 11:  Oh my goodness!  Ignore the fact that Drew is pantless in this video – actually don’t because it’s typical Drew.  But I must share his cute little voice trying to remember the words to the Latter-day Prophet song. 

Dec 12:  There’s a house on Moses that sets up a fantastic holiday lights display each year.  The kids love to watch the musical display.

Dec 14:  I love that most mornings Drew blows me a kiss when he leaves for school.  It melts my heart and I had to get it on video – a time. or two. 

The kids walk to school most mornings.  I only drive them if I’m heading to the gym.  But even if they walk from home he’ll still turn around a blow me a kiss.

Dec 15:  Our ward Christmas party was this morning and it was quite unconventional, but delicious and super fun.  A few Hispanic families were asked to put together a Spanish themed event and they went all out.  So much Mexican food, piñatas, Mexican clothing and songs – so fun!

Dec 16:  Wow, heavy on the videos this month, but again my kids are growing up too darn fast and I don’t want to forget these fun little moments.  Drew “flossing”…

Dec 19:  Tonight we attended a Christmas party at the Gibbs.  It was fun to catch up with Nead’s who moved to Gig Harbor last year as well as visiting with other friends from Snoqualmie.  The gift exchange is always fun.  Drew ended up with a fun Star Wars Santa hat and toy.

Jenn also had some really fun prizes for the Bingo winners. 

Dec 31:  Drew still LOVES going through the carwash.  There was a mega carwash in Utah near my Mom’s house that we spotted as we drove into town.  Drew finally got his wish, after asking us every day we were there, if we could go through it.  I took a little video of that experience, but I won’t share – our sunroof started to leak midway and Justin, in an attempt to close it, opened it and I wasn’t too understanding.  After we returned home from the long drive with bugs splattered all over the car and Utah salt all over the car we went through the car wash again.  So it’s a long clip, but the kids love to watch these videos so I post it for them J

One of my most favorite things about the holidays is receiving Christmas cards.  At the start of the season I mentioned to one of the kids how happy they make me and I said I should send a prize to the person who sends us the first card.  When I received the McInelly’s card on November 24 I did just that and sent Camille a Starbucks gift card.  I think this may be the fewest cards we’ve received, but we don’t send out very many either.  I leave the cards up until Valentine’s Day and then I figure it’s time to move on.  Love my Christmas Card wall!

Our New Year's Eve was lame.  The girls were out with friends – pretty sure they attended a church dance that night.  The three youngest watched the ball drop in NYC and then I think they went to bed shortly afterward.  We must not have been feeling particularly festive.