Tis the Season

The month of December was full of it's usual festivities.  I finally found myself an awesome Christmas sweater this year.  The kids saw Santa at the Dental Clinic...Isla gave us the standard, terrified shot.  We even got a snow day here and there.  The kids (and Nathan) were in heaven.  Even Isla loved it.  Nate introduced the kids to the game of 'Foxes and Rabbits', that he used to play out in the snow as a kid.  They LOVED it.  We had to go play it every time we got any snow this year.  I will admit, it's pretty fun.  

I was asked to help plan the Stake Nativity event.  They have done it here a few times, and I wasn't in charge (thank goodness).  Just helped with the set up, which took a couple of days.  It turned out really amazing, though.  

Sydney drew this amazing picture for us for Christmas!  It is one of my favorite things that I have in our house.  It sits on top of a shelf in our living room.  The kids really love the movie, Chronicles of Narnia, and Nathan and I love the Christ parallels therein.  We all love to admire the picture of the kids riding Aslan.

December's Preschool was the letter E.  We talked about Elves, Experiments, and Elephants.

Isla decided she wanted to be a part of the baking fun this year.

Isla also decided that she wanted to sit up at the counter with the big kids (we have since moved the bar stools upstairs...too many 'finding Isla on top of the stove' experiences for this mom)

This was Sawyer's December Family Project

Teacher gifts and neighbor cookie plates...

We had a really scary experience the week before Christmas.  We were dropping off a friends' kids whom we had watched that day while they moved into their new house, and suddenly I heard the loudest crash of glass breaking, and then that horrifying sound of a kid screaming.  I had no idea what I was going to see when I turned the corner--but I feared the worst.  Sawyer had excitedly run into the glass door, thinking it was open.  That is a double paned window, and only the interior pane cracked.  He got a really good gash on his nose, but we decided to butterfly tape it rather than do stitches.  Luckily, it has healed pretty well, but we were worried.  So grateful nothing worse happened.  I even had Nate get out his Loupes to make sure there was no glass inside the cut.

This year I decided to try my hand at making pajama pants for the kids.  I love how they turned out!  Sawyer requested Ninjas, Violet got mermaids (I am obsessed with that mermaid fabric!), and Isla got whatever mommy thought was cute :)

 We started the Christmas Elves this year.  We had talked about them last year, and Sawyer was majorly upset at the prospect of having an Elf come observe his behavior.  So we held off.  He was still totally peeved about it when we started, but he warmed up to the elf after seeing all the funny things he did!

First time paying tithing for Sawyer.  So cute!

I helped put together a little going away party for Sawyer's student teacher.  I did a star theme to go along with the Oliver Jeffers book, How to Catch a Star.  The kids helped me make this tree for all the teachers as well. Turned out pretty cute.

This was Sawyer's end of soccer season party.  Somehow it ended up in the timeline with my Christmas pictures, even though Soccer ended in October.  Anyway, these were his coaches and they did a great job. 

I made this sign for the kids' room with my silhouette!  I love all of the possibilities!

Lunch at Macaroni Grill and this girl loved the bread!

 On December 6th, St. Nikolaus came to visit and filled the kids' boots with goodies.  I also found this super cool St. Nikolaus sweet bread at the bakery.  He actually looks a bit creepy, but we thought it was fun.

We met my dad's cousin, Tom Walker, at the Frankfurt Christmas market one weekend.  It was a super crowded market, but it was fun to see Tom and reconnect.  And of course, the kids loved the carousel.