December...

We finished up with planning Young Women in Excellence just in time to start planning the ward Christmas breakfast.  Young Women were in charge of decorating so that was fun.  We put the girls to work one evening early in December making snowflakes and coffee filter Christmas trees.  I love these girls...

I took the kids to the Festival of Trees on my own this year.  My mom was/is still struggling to get around for long periods of walking.  We went after school got out on Friday--which was a mistake.  It was so busy.  Next year I'm taking Bean out of school...I don't think the kids cared though; they still seemed to have fun!

My cousin's wife decorated this tree for my late cousin (her brother-in-law.)  It was fantastic.

We stayed up really late, decorating the church gymnasium for breakfast the next morning.  S was working so I hauled the kids along with me.  They actually did pretty well!

The next morning we arrived early to get pictures with Santa (they really do like Santa, I promise.)

The decorations turned out beautifully.  I sure love these people--they have become like family to me.

Initially the kids were supposed to put on a live Nativity but plans changed and the Nativity was cancelled.  They had worked so hard on it that we let them put on the show for us afterwards in the primary room.  Bean was the star (literally) and Boy was the sheep (seen laying sheep-like on the floor in the following photo.)

That night we left our lists for Santa in our shoes on the doorstep.  Santa quickly completed all of his shopping on Amazon just thirty minutes after the kids were in bed.  Santa hates last-minute shopping...

The next morning Bean and Boy received gold coins in their shoes.  Bean is like me--she likes to enjoy just a little at a time to make it last longer.  Boy's chocolate was all gone before we got to church.

The following Thursday was Bean's dance recital.  And boy did she dance!  Remember when I used to devote blog posts entirely to her dance progress?  She wanted to be on the competing team this year but I suggested instead that we put her in an older jazz/tumbling class to see if she still liked it and could keep up.  I can't stop the girl from dancing around our house.  Just this week she's been practicing toe touches.  Over.  And over.  And over...

Anyway.

Bean was the most energetic and enthused performer and we were so proud of her!

That evening I also managed to bake four gingerbread houses.  (Again my mom just wasn't up to it this year.  But I can't let tradition die!)

The next day we rushed over to grandma's after school and--quite literally--threw our houses together.  It was a lot of fun to see what the kids came up with!  (Also PS I really missed our year-round schedule this past December.  It was nice to have time off during such a busy month to do things like Festival of Trees and gingerbread houses...)

I took the kids to the library the following day and the amateur ham radio club was there with a line directly to the North Pole so the kids were able to talk to Santa.  I grew up with a dad involved in ham radio so it was kind of fun to reminisce.  The kids liked talking to Santa, too!

One thing we loved about December this year was that it actually felt like December.  The kids had plenty of snow days to play outside.  And they loved every minute of it.

I loved bringing them back in, wrapping them up in blankets, and letting them binge-watch Sofia the First.  On occasion I'd even make them hot chocolate.

I received an Ugly Christmas Sweater Kit for my white elephant gift at this year's work Christmas party.  Boy was more interested in decorating the cardboard the sweater was wrapped around in the box.  (And he did a terrific job.)  But Bean took the task to heart and created the most beautiful sweater ever.

Santa may have gotten all of his shopping done early, but the elves were too busy to wrap everything and were once again overwhelmed...

I took Bean and Boy to our library to visit with Santa again this year.  (And I just noticed Bean is wearing the exact same outfit as the other visit.)  By this visit Bean and Boy had warmed up to Santa.  I was getting worried looks from Santa when Bean kept telling him that she wanted a bow and arrow for Christmas.

One of my favorite parts from this season was getting to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert again this year.  We've lucked out with tickets (and good seats) the past two years.  And, with just S and I going this time, I enjoyed even more than last year.  Nothing gets me in the Christmas spirit more than MoTab Christmas music!

The next night, the Saturday before Christmas, was the H family Christmas party.  When I first started going to this party, S and I were still dating and we could fit everyone comfortably inside his grandparents' home.  It's amazing how much this family has grown in 15 years!

The H family party was really my last real commitment before Christmas.  So I shouldn't have been at all surprised when I woke up Sunday morning not feeling good.  Over the next 48 hours I went from being sick to being really sick.  I had it all--sore throat, chills, fever, and I threw up all during the night.  It was awful.  I was grateful that I was done with the things I needed to be but bummed at the prospect of being sick over Christmas.  Thankfully, I was able to get in to see a doctor pretty quickly.  He assumed (and I as well) that it was strep throat, but the rapid strep test came back negative.  His next guess was that, given the fact that I take immunosuppressants for my MS, and that I had been under enormous stress over the last three months, I was probably just catching a cold that led to an opportunistic bacterial infection.  Thankfully bacteria means antibiotics and antibiotics tend to work pretty fast on me so within 72 hours I was feeling much, much better.

The only thing I really had planned for that week was wrapping presents and making julekage (my mom's Norwegian Christmas bread that she makes every year--again she couldn't make it this year and again I'll be darned if I'm going to have finnan haddie Christmas morning without julekage.)  I eeked out enough energy to get the wrapping done a few days prior.  I didn't think the bread would happen though.  But I woke up Christmas Eve and decided to go for it.  And I'm so glad I did.  It turned out great and it tasted delicious.