December extras

December was full of a lot of Christmas activities. At the beginning of December we finished decorating for Christmas.

The kids enjoyed playing with the nativity, often laying at the bottom of the tree and making up scenes. 

Riser got to spent a little time with Aunt Katie while I was in a parent teacher conference.

Riser and I got to go to Bonnie's field trip to the library.

Eric and I went to a holiday party with friends.

We took the kids to Christmas Town.

Riser continues to love his cars.

Eric and Bonnie went to see the choir concert at church.

Riser and I watched our annual golf cart parade, while Bonnie and Eric participated again. 

Santa arrived at the end of the parade on the fire and rescue boat. 

Bonnie enjoyed helping me bake lots of cookies. 

Even Riser got in on helping!

We celebrated a sweet friend's birthday.

We went to our church's Advent Adventure where the kids got to decorate cookies, make ornaments, do a cupcake walk, learn more about the story of Christmas, and other fun activities. 

I went to an ornament exchange party with friends.

We dropped the ball and totally forgot to plan a visit to Santa this year. Fortunately one day on our way to the library we saw Santa out at our local open air market so we made a B-line and got to see him and Mrs. Claus.

Bonnie fully enjoyed the mistletoe this year, often standing under it asking one of us to kiss her, or telling us to kiss each other.

We went to decorate the annual gingerbread house at Katie's. It turned out so cute, the kids are getting more creative each year! My favorite part was the hand made cars out of tootsie rolls.

We also did our gift exchange which is always so fun! The kids love watching each other open their gifts.

We went to a birthday party for another friend, and it was fun watching them play a Bluey version of pin the tail on the donkey.

Riser didn't even get it on the board.

And of course, the kids have been enjoying all the new toys they got for Christmas. 

It was a wonderful month. We are excited to be settling back into a routine and welcome a new year!

Christmas at Mom and Dave's

 Christmas afternoon we drove up to mom and Dave's and got there just in time for dinner. We had a wonderful prime rib dinner, that I forgot to get a picture of. But it was so good!

Bonnie was excited to wear the matching Christmas dresses her grandfather got her and Kirsten. 

She got to play with Grammy's dollhouse which is the dollhouse of all dollhouses. Truly incredible and so many little furniture/pet/decoration pieces to play with.

She got to play with Grammy's dollhouse which is the dollhouse of all dollhouses. Truly incredible and so many little furniture/pet/decoration pieces to play with.

The next morning we had our little Christmas celebration and exchanged gifts. It was a wonderful morning!

Afterward we took a little walk around the property, which we have loved so much.

This house has served our growing family so well over the last 7 years!

We helped get a few more things loaded into the moving truck.

The kids got some good one-on-one Grandma time.

We played Christmas bingo, one of our favorite newest traditions.

Bonnie couldn't get enough snuggles with Maggie.

We did a puzzle that we never would have been able to finish without Eric!

It was a really wonderful last visit up to the Round Hill house. We will miss it, but we are so so very excited to have Mom and Dave closer to us. It's the people that matter, not the place - and we are looking forward to making new memories with these people that we love so much!