Delightful days of December

Even though Kenneth was dealing with a lot of stress with the end of his semester, work pressures, health issues, we still had some pretty good times in early December. I love this time of year!! I love the weeks leading up to Christmas even more than I like the day itself. I love the music, the smells, the chocolate, the decorations, the family time. . .did I mention the chocolate!!!! But, really, I enjoy this time of year- especially with the children. It is magical.

We had a wonderful day when we picked out our Christmas tree- I guess technically that was still the end of November. We first went to Home Depot to find a tree, but they were too expensive. They were, however, having a building workshop for the kids. Since we were there, we thought it would be fun for the girls to participate. They loved it!! They built a picture frame with Dad. Next we he did a little bit of Christmas shopping and headed to the grocery store where we bought some food and our Christmas tree! While we were picking out our tree, the kids were pretending the shopping cart was the sleigh. They were taking turns being the Reindeer and Santa. The highlight of the day was when the Fire Engine just happened to pull up right next to us in the parking lot when we were tying the tree to the van. The fire fighters were out doing their shopping and came right up to us, gave the kids stickers and hats and let us take pictures with the fire engine. Grant was going crazy!! He loves trucks- fire trucks, especially!




The day we decorated the tree, Emma and Arianna decided to wear Halloween costumes. So, we have pictures of these silly girls decorating the tree in their costumes!

One of the favorite activities the kids enjoyed this December was dancing around the living room to the Christmas music.





Just after Thanksgiving, we gave Arianna the Little People Nativity as her surprise for filling up her sticker chart. (The same chart Emma had to fill up to earn her bike.) She was overjoyed! She has had so much fun playing with our different Nativity sets together. Funny little girl.

Arianna matching up the nativity sets. Bad lighting, sorry.

Some other fun times:

Emma reading to Grant. Look how grown up my little man is!!!!

Our first time Miniature golfing with the girls. They lost interest at about the 8th hole. Arianna kept asking why she couldn't play on the elephant. (They didn't like the fact that all the decorations were just that- decorations.) Grant hung out in the stroller the whole time. It was actually quite chilly for this area that night.

Daddy teaching Arianna to putt.

Painting caterpillars. They LOVE to paint!