We had our ward Christmas party really early in December. They weren't planning on doing Santa at the party but there was a sweet woman with special needs who wrote a letter to Santa and had been so excited to give it to him. So at the last minute they were looking for someone who would be Santa. Richard normally would but he had lost his voice from being sick and could barely whisper so Ryan Martin stepped in. It was really cute to see how excited this woman got when she saw Santa and then she got nervous and it took her a few minutes to work up the courage to go over and read him the letter she wrote.
We also had our annual couples Christmas party where we eat yummy food, play a few games, and do a White Elephant gift exchange. We got a burrito blanket that came with taco socks and a super cute reindeer that has a removable heat pad in it's stomach.
The girls will randomly ask if we can do a spa day and I try to oblige when I can. We cut up cucumbers for our eyes and soaked our feet in the tub with epsom salt and then Kaylee and Brooklyn got their nails painted. Even though spa-type things are my most favorite activity, I do love spending time with the girls!
We made our usual Oreo "gingerbread" houses and this time I think there was more eating than decorating... McKenna usually gives up on hers and just makes a big pile of goodies :)
We have loved exploring uses for Brooklyn's paint markers, which have made projects so fun. Kaylee and I did a gingerbread house contest and I think both of them ended up looking very cool.
I talked the family into going to see Christmas lights with me, first at the Zoo. On the way home, we stopped off at the new Dublin park where they had a few lights set up and Kaylee, Brooklyn and I had fun taking pics and running around that area.
I also talked them into going to the super cool house that puts on a light show that we found a few years ago. Something just seemed off about this whole holiday season. We tried to do all of our traditions but nobody seemed to really want to do them and there was a whole lot of complaining and fighting... I think it was partly because we had nothing to look forward to- we knew we were going to be spending Christmas alone and nobody was very excited about that.
For Christmas, Kaylee got a cake decorating set and she wasted no time practicing with her new set. I thought she did an amazing job for her very first time decorating!
One super fun thing we did do over the break was another Murder Mystery over Zoom with my family. I was a worn out mom, Richard and Brooklyn were conspiracy theorists, and Kaylee was a teenager with a bad attitude. We all had a lot of fun playing our parts!
A not as fun thing we did over the break was to paint McKenna's room. I absolutely love the color of her accent wall and it feels like we kind of know what we're doing now and can get it done pretty quickly with minimal touchups. It has been so satisying to make this house our own!
On New Years Eve, Kaylee went to her first church dance! She was really excited about it and had a ton of fun. It was 80's themed and she went all out to be on theme. It's crazy to see how fast she's growing up!
Richard started a new tradition for New Years Eve that is one of the girl's favorite things. He goes to the store and buys a whole ton of things that we don't normally eat, usually a bunch of frozen appetizers, and then he makes a mystery menu so we don't know what we are ordering. He also buys one thing that is completely disgusting, just to see their reaction! We had some winners but a lot of this year's dinner was pretty disgusting- ha ha! But it is something that sticks out so much to our girls and they never seem to get tired of doing these mystery dinners!
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