December: Part 1
December was a wonderful month of festivities, lights, family, friends, and celebrations. It is probably my very favorite month of the year. After all of our craziness it was especially welcome. Tyler was feeling great and life was getting back to normal and we were so ready to celebrate.
We started the month off in a wonderful way. This is now one of my very favorite Christmas traditions...Light the World. I love it so much!! For the second year my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, invites church members and their friends to "Light the World." This initiative focuses on celebrating and sharing the light of Jesus Christ through 25 days of service. Nothing brings the Christmas spirit quicker than a month of loving and serving others. This year in particular our family was eager to reach out and share and love and serve those around us. The church has a calendar with daily themes and ideas but our family likes to do it our own way. Last year Tyler and I and the older kids did it on our own and talked about the different things that we did at dinner or at family home evening. But this year having been the recipients of so much service we wanted to give it our all. At FHE the last week of November we challenged our whole family to participate and to keep track of what we did each day and then we would share it with one another on Christmas morning. Everyone eagerly agreed and it was so fun to watch the kids in action through out the month. Even little Bryn was doing all kinds of service at school, home, in our neighborhood, and with our ward. I love it!! It was especially helpful to have had our Christmas shopping done so that we could really focus on serving others and have the time and energy to do it.
The first weekend in December I had a big Christmas show. I was a vendor at Pickin' Christmas in Post Falls, Idaho. This was a new show for me. I ended up doing it without my mom and Stacey. I absolutely loved it. Reilly and Kameron pitched in and helped me with set-up and tear down and Tyler helped me man the booth. We all had a great time!!
This show turned out to be so much fun!! I had quite a few friends who were also vendors at the show and it was great to hang out and spend time with all of them. Plus, it was a super successful show for me! That is always nice!
Tyler and I took the opportunity for date nights each night after the show. We needed them! The night after set-up we headed to the newly opened Popeyes!! We were so excited. These are big in the South and we had them in Houston and also in Kansas City. It was hilarious how excited we were about fast food but we really were!! It was delicious. Ha ha!
Saturday night after the show we went to our favorite sushi restaurant in Coeur d' Alene to celebrate our success! We had a blast! It was so great to be having fun once again instead of being in the midst of so much worry and fear. Tyler was really feeling back to normal and it was so nice to celebrate that amazing blessing as well.
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| Our favorites!! |
Monday night after the show, Tyler and Kameron had tickets to the Foo Fighters Concert. This was a birthday gift for Kameron that Tyler purchased months ago. They are both huge Foo Fighter fans and had been counting down the days until the concert. After Tyler's hospitalization we didn't know if Tyler would be up for going. I was worried about the whole environment with the loud music, lights, and people. I thought for sure that it would be rough on him. But he refused to stay home and went to the concert. He did great and those two had a fantastic time!!
It was extra special because it was also Kameron's very first *real* concert and Tyler was so excited to be the one to take him. They rocked out and didn't get home until nearly 2 am. Tyler ended up over doing it a bit and went in to work a little late the next day but he said that it was absolutely worth it. He also said that it was the best concert that he had ever been to and that is saying something because he is a man who loves his concerts!!
We decorated for Christmas:
I was so happy to be decorating for Christmas and casting out the gloom of November. We put up our trees right after Thanksgiving and it felt so great to have some light and festivity coming our way.
We also finally did something that we had been meaning to do for YEARS!! We went on the Journey to the North Pole Cruise on Lake Coeur d' Alene. Tyler and I took Bryn on a little Parent(s)/Daughter Date. We had the BEST time!! We absolutely loved it. I wish that we would have gone years ago with all of the other kids.
Brynnie waiting for our cruise.
We chose to go up on the deck and to be outside. It was so much better than just looking out of the window. We loved it so much even though it was really cold!! Good thing Tyler kept us well supplied with lots of hot chocolate. It was a beautiful clear night for cruising.
Bryn is a believer and she was oohhing and ahhhing over everything and squealing with delight!! She was so excited. It really was such a magical night! It was so fun to share this with her.
The boat cruised around to all of the lights and then went across the lake to see Santa. Bryn was BEYOND excited when Santa read off the names of all of the children on his GOOD LIST and Bryn's name was the very first name he read!! She was jumping up and down with joy!! It was so darling. It was so much fun to hang out with her!!
We had our ward Christmas Party:
It was one of the best ones that we have ever had! It was lumber jack themed and it turned out so cute and fun! Believe me, I don't say that lightly. I hate ward activities but this one was really fantastic. Kudos to my cute friend, Annie, who was in charge of the party. She is the one by the primary kids with the microphone.
The kids sang my new favorite Christmas song If I Were a Shepherd. I love it!!
Ailey and her friends Cami and Emmelia.
Bryn and her activity day girls sang in Sacrament Meeting. They all wore their baptism dresses and sang the prettiest song called The Miracle. I'll post the video of their practice. It is really bad quality. I didn't take it. ;) But you can hear it. Bryn does the opening lines. Ailey's good friend Cami accompanied them on the piano.
These girls are such a cute little group of friends!
We went to see the lights at the Gaiser Conservatory at Manito Park:
I love this tradition and the lights and plants are so beautiful!
The kids got to decorate cookies and eat treats.
Thirteen is precious.
Bryn got to see Santa again!!
Gaiser Conservatory and a drive to see the Dancing Lights!
Ailey had her Winter Choir Concert. She loves choir and does such a great job!
Tyler was there too...unfortunately Kameron had other events going on that night. It was really hard to get everyone to all of the different places that we all needed to be at in December. It was crazy!!
Bryn had a fancy Christmas Party with her besties:
Bryn had her Christmas Piano Recital:
She played Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. She did awesome!!
We got a lot of mileage out of that baptism dress this month!! Ha ha!!
I had a fun Girls Night Out with friends. We celebrated my friend Mary's birthday with dinner down town and we went to see Pitch Perfect 3. We are always bad about taking pictures but we remembered to this time. Such a fun night with great friends!!
We did a ton of Christmas baking!! We started early and made a few things each week and then right before Christmas the girls and I did a huge baking day. My girls are all great bakers and it was so fun to work in the kitchen with them while jamming to Christmas music as we talked, laughed, baked, and made cookie plates to take to our friends and neighbors.
Tyler and the little girls made Chocolate Crinkle Cookies one of our family's favorites!!
Ailey and Bryn made Peppermint Cookies.
Reilly was cranking out the No Bakes which are our very favorite cookies!!
Tyler made Norwegian Krumkakes. So good!!
We also made Fudge, Divinity, multiple batches of Chex Mix, my Grandma Ellersick's chocolate pies and my pecan pies.
I found this old picture of me, Stacey, and Kelley. Not much has changed in 38 years. I'm still baking Christmas cookies and still slightly crazed while doing it.
Bryn and her Activity Day Girls did the Twelve Days of Christmas for a person who really needed it this year. They were so darling! They each had two days where they provided a secret surprise for this person. Bryn...and the other girls...had so much fun doing this!!
Bryn right before she ding dong ditched and left her gift on the door step.
My favorite picture of Ailey this month:
Taken from Reilly's snap chat. Hilarious.
Kameron had his high school Music Department Winter Concert:
It was awesome!!
In between all of this Tyler had an MRI which according to his neurosurgeon was a "no stone left unturned" procedure. It was a very long week and a half waiting for the results and Tyler's follow up visit with his doctor. The good news was that his brain looks great!! No issues or concerns. What an incredible blessing!!
I also had book club and Bryn had Parent/Teacher Conference. She is doing great and it was fun to visit with Mr. O. He had Reilly in 5th grade and he wanted to know all about how she was doing and what she was up to. I love our school!! We also crammed in lots of looking at Christmas lights, reading Christmas books, drinking eggnog, wrapping presents, and watching Christmas movies. It was so nice to have Reilly in town this year!! We really spread out our celebrating all month long.
The dates for Christmas Break this year were super lame!! I don't know what the school district was thinking. We got out on Friday and Christmas Eve was Sunday. There was no time to do so many of our favorite traditions!! Then we had a week off between Christmas and New Years and then an additional week in January. What?! Who wants a week off in January after all of the festivities are over?! So dumb.
On the last day of school Tyler and I checked the girls out early and took them out to lunch. Kameron didn't get to go because he had projects and tests up until the last minute...AND... a big essay for his AP English class that was due on December 31st that had to be emailed to his teacher!! WTH? So annoying.
FINALLY school was out and we were MORE than ready to celebrate!!
