December happenings

December has been a strange and wonderful month. The weather has been tepid, the house remodeling actually moving forward, and the inconvenience of displacement felt. All of the babies and us have all been sleeping in one small room. It's fun to see them sleep when we come in, but the actually sleeping part isn't happening as well as I'd hoped. We'll kick them out as soon as a room downstairs becomes liveable again.

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas which is made more and more magical as my children get older, and Christmas means lots of baking in this house.

Here's Mrs. Claus's little helper giving her the stink eye.

And here is that same helper making sure the chocolate is fresh before using. Quality control is important, very, very important.

The babies are looking good in their new Sunday duds that Aunt Sally sent their way:

And hats are worn on occasion to keep the chill off of bald heads.

Monroe city has a wonderful tradition of turning on the Christmas lights of the town and having Santa and his wife come to pay a visit the same night. We waited in line for our turn to chat with Santa and it was well worth the time. Later in the week Macey and Henry showed up on the front page of the Richfield Reaper with twinkling eyes on Santa-dear's lap. They were local celebrities for weeks and loved all of the attention that it brought their way.

After you tell Santy what you want, you get to have a cup of hot chocolate and a donut. It's a pretty awesome tradition.

The kids are super funny. What I love is how much they love each other. They play well together the majority of the time and truly like being together. This is Henry giving Kimball a ride around the kitchen on his blanket after baths but pre-jammies. It was hilarious, but I'll spare you the video!

We lucked out at the beginning of the month when our friends from BYU came our way again. They were making their way from St. George to WY and stopped over for a night. It was awesome to chat all night long and then hit up the hot springs just outside of Monroe in the morning. Too bad they couldn't have stayed longer though!

Winter hot spring steam from a distance. 

My bestie here in town gave us the neatest Christmas countdown this year. It is a candle with the number 1-25 written down it. We light the candle and when the number disappears we blow it out. There is a scripture to go along with every night too. It's been so much fun to do and the kids love lighting and blowing out a candle every night.

Macey came home from preschool this month with her first every homework assignment. Her and Dad tromped all over the house counting all kinds of things and recording the information. Henry was SO enthralled by the idea of homework that he worked on his own for at least an hour before bed. He kept showing me this picture and saying "Mom, I'm doing my homework." When it was time for bed he was really sad that he had to be done doing homework until morning. I hope this is a pattern for the future! 

The monkeys and I have also been into some general crafting. Here they are painting recycled treasures to make snowmen. Oh how glad I am that the kids like to craft... start them young enough and they'll learn to love whatever I do! It's a secret plan really.

We've decided to stay at our home for Christmas Ever and Christmas morning and I couldn't be more excited. I'm just itching to start some of my own little family traditions since the traditions of my and of Thomas' childhood are just memories now. I'm looking forward to Christmas this year the most I have in many-a-year, but I do have to say I've been missing my mother and family terribly this year. I love Utah, but why isn't it NEXT to Kentucky again? Let's shift around the US shall we!