At the beginning of December, Brooklyn had her preschool program. The girls had both stayed home sick from school and Richard worked from home so we all got to attend. She hadn't been at this preschool for very long so I knew she might not know all the words but what I didn't expect was for her to get up on top of the bleachers and not move or sing one word at all! Ha ha. I do think she was pretty scared of being on top of the bleachers because she had mentioned it a few times but at least we got to see the other kids do their cute songs and actions...
This year we bought a gingerbread kit that had 4 little houses in it so we each picked one (and Richard helped Brooklyn) and started off the Christmas season with a fun tradition.
Kaylee has been talking about her blurry vision for a little while but we thought we had to wait until the new year to get her an eye exam for our insurance. One night, she scratched her eye on the Christmas tree and the next day she said it was still blurry so I was worried about it. I asked Danny to take a look at her and when she mentioned her vision had been blurry, he gave her an eye exam for free. He was so sweet to help and now our little cutie has joined the glasses club! I think she has actually really liked having them.
I was feeling pretty Grinchy and we hadn't done as many Christmas activities as we usually do so I dragged the family out to the Conservatory one night to see the lights. There are few things that can make me happy like seeing lots of pretty Christmas lights! It was just the thing I needed and the girls had so much fun running around the new children's garden all decorated, we had to drag them home at the end of the night.
We also went a week later to the lights at Columbus Commons and to see the holiday train at the downtown library. Brooklyn has recently discovered the art of the selfie and insists we take selfies constantly. Cant' have too many pictures of this cute face!
Our friends invited us for dinner on Christmas Adam and we had a great time eating and playing games. Then we raced home to let the girls do our new tradition of sleeping under the Christmas tree. I was worried about letting Brooklyn try it and she was up until after 10:00 but had so much fun! I love this tradition we've started.
After lunch on Christmas Eve, we went to a nursing home and sang songs for the sister I minister to. The girls also played a few songs on handbells. A family in our ward lent them to us and the girls have gotten really good! I was mad I forgot to take a video of them playing. Our old neighbor, Aiko, also came with us and played her cello. Coming home from the nursing home, we all had such a good feeling and it was the happiest I had been all season. I would love to make a tradition of doing something similar every year! When we got home we made sugar cookies and invited the Solano's over to decorate them with us.
Another tradition we've tried to do is having the girls make homemade gifts for each other. So far, this has not gone over super well...but I love seeing what they come up with! We did it earlier in the day than we normally do because a family in our new ward invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner.
They do a middle eastern type dinner to try to eat what Jesus would have eaten and I was worried the girls wouldn't have anything to eat but luckily they had enough kid friendly food to get by. Then we had a mini talent show and the girls played the handbells again for our family's talent. Then she had a fun game for the kids where she had wrapped a bunch of dollar store toys and candy and a few dollar bills in a huge ball of streamers and they got to keep unwrapping until they got to a prize and then they would pass it on to the next kid. They all got 4 or 5 things and I thought it was a cute way to do it, instead of trying to wrap things in tape.
Christmas morning was great, of course, and we had much less contention and greediness than last year which I was very proud of our girls for! We got to talk to all the grandparents and I even got to see a video of my parents getting my present. Since they didn't want physical presents this year, I wrote them a poem parodied off "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and Scott read it aloud to them at the family Christmas party. It was a lot of fun to write and it seemed to mean a lot to them as well.
Two days after Christmas was a special day. Alex has been waiting for so long to be able to seal Tati to her and Danny and they finally got permission to go ahead. The spirit was so strong in the sealing and we were so glad we got to be there to celebrate this special day with them!
Kaylee and I had been working so hard to finish the Book of Mormon since Pres Nelson gave us the challenge in the October conference and we finished it with a few days to spare. We went on a special date to celebrate and I took her to a place where you paint a project and then come back to pick it up after they fire it up and then finished with ice cream. I could definitely tell Kaylee lost enthusiasm for it by the end but I was proud of her for sticking with it!
We had no plans for New Years Eve but didn't want to just sit around and do nothing. So we planned a whole night of fun activities and put each idea into a balloon. Then when we were ready for a new activity, they would pop a balloon and we would do what it said. We had lots of minute to win it games and a mixed up dessert menu and sparklers. It ended up being a really fun night!
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