December is a month that can chew you up and spit you out if you’re not careful. Lucky for us, we survived the chaos of the holidays, made it through a few snow storms, and rang in the New Year with cheer despite a stomach bug hitting our household. All-in-all, it was truly the most wonderful time of the year!
Dec 1: We kicked off December with Day 1 of Kate’s Christmas Countdown Advent Calendar and had fun with it all month long!
Dec 8: We embraced the cold and saw Disney’s latest movie Frozen. It was a super cute movie that we all enjoyed. I especially loved Olaf (the snowman who likes warm hugs) but Kate can’t stop talking about those princesses. I have a feeling the DVD will land in our shopping cart when it comes out.
Dec 12: I was so excited to have my 2nd live TV appearance for the Hometalk for the Holidays campaign! This time I appeared on WKOW’s Wake Up Wisconsin and demo’d how to gift wrap picture frames to look like presents. You can see a video clip of my appearance here: Gift-Wrapped Picture Frames.
Dec 18: Kate had her school Christmas program on this day. It started out a little rough with Kate feeling shy and not wanting to participate, but by the time it was her class’s turn she was ready to sing (at times with quite intensity as you can see in this video).
Dec 20: I was so proud of myself for being ON IT with our family Christmas cards this year. I designed and ordered them before December even hit…and then they sat on our kitchen counter for 3 weeks. This was my 11th hour push to get them in the mail and hopefully delivered to our friends and family before the big day!
Dec 21: G’s sister Lesley, her husband Ben and their 5 month old son, Eli arrived from Seattle on this day and we were so excited to see them! Kate had been telling everyone with ears that she’s going to “hold and feed Baby Eli” when he arrives, and 5 minutes after hello hugs they were at it!
Dec 22: A family drive through our city’s Holiday in Lights!
Dec 23: We open presents at our home on Christmas Eve morning, so Santa comes early for us. My sister Amanda had the cutest little activity for Kate on this night. She made up a bag with hay, grains, and glitter, and she and Kate sprinkled this “Magic Reindeer Food” in our front yard – so cute!
Dec 24: Christmas Eve, and “Christmas #1” for our little family of three! We started the day opening gifts in the morning, followed by a breakfast of sinfully delicious, “Just Like Cinnabon” homemade cinnamon rolls. Later in the day we packed our bags and went to G’s parents’ house to celebrate with Christmas Eve cocktails with G’s extended family. Such a wonderful day!
Dec 25: We woke up at G’s parents’ house on Christmas morning and enjoyed a 2nd gift opening – this time with Baby Eli getting in on all the fun! Overall it was a pretty lazy, lounging, and relaxing day (just the way we like it!) spent with G’s parents, Ben, Lesley and Eli, and my sister Brittny who later arrived and joined us for dinner.
Dec 28: Kate, G and I got out of the house and enjoyed a family night of pizza, popcorn, and bowling. Kate’s a huge fan of pizza, an even bigger fan of popcorn, and an even BIGGER fan of bowling, but I think her favorite part of the night was hearing Katy Perry’s song “Firework” over the jukebox!
Dec 31: Kate had been battling a stomach bug on and off for the past few days so we decided to cancel our traditional New Year’s Eve plans with friends to stay home. The three of us enjoyed an evening of cuddling on the couch – the perfect way to ring in the new year!
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