December is all ways a busy month. I am usually way stressed out with all the things that need to get done. Surprisingly I was cool and calm the whole month. I'm not sure why. Nothing was different than previous years. The kids were excited to get the tree up and the decorations out all over the house. So the first few days of December were spent decorating the house. The following week my sister and I have a tradition we have done for over 5 years now. We each make a few goodies and get together and put plates together for our visiting teaching families, home teaching families, and neighbors. Then we drop them off to our families in the next day or 2.
Our ward Christmas party was on Saturday December 11. We met in the evening, but the theme was Christmas morning. We had breakfast for dinner and we wore our PJ's (Well some adults were party poopers and didn't wear theirs but I was so in mine). This was so not like our traditional ward Christmas party, but ya know what I loved the fact that they mixed things up a bit. It was fun and casual. We sang songs and then of course the big man himself made an appearance.
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| Hayden and Kennedy |
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| Connor flipping his ribbon |
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| Talmage |
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| Payton |
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Talmage
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Payton and Talmage were the only ones who wanted to sit on Santa's lap this year.
The following week (Dec 13-17) I was able to spend my days buying and wrapping presents.
Hayden's class party was on December 17th.
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| Hayden at his PreK class party |
Hayden didn't have school the following week, but the other kids had to go on Mon., Tues, and Wed. So those 3 days I went to 3 class parties. My parents went to Connors school for a breakfast since I was in charge of the games at Kennedy's class party that was going on at the same time.
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| Kennedy, Hayden, Talmage, and Connor watching a movie |
On Christmas Eve morning we had Jon's parents over for breakfast. Then Grandma Hansen helped Hayden and Talmage decorate a ginger bread house while I supervised Kennedy and Payton.
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| Hayden and Talmage by their gingerbread house |
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| Kennedy and Payton by their ginger bread house |
Later, My parents, Morgan, and Taylor came over for Christmas Eve dinner. I love our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. We always have a roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, a jello salad and some sort of veggie dish. Roast beef is my all time favorite meat. So this just maybe my top favorite meal. Then we hung out and played some games. The Tady's were out of town with his side of the family and the Edward's were doing their own thing. So it was just our 2 families but we had a fun time. Of course we made time to talk about Jesus Christ and his birth.
Christmas morning we just let them wake up on their own. I believe it was around 7 am. Which is later than a school day so I was happy. After the first kid woke up, we started waking up the others.
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Christmas morning
Connor didn't want to come downstairs |
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| Connor with his stocking treats |
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| Talmage Zu Zu pet |
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| Hayden |
My parents, Morgan, and Taylor came over again and we had a big breakfast. I love my moms cinnamon rolls. Then we talked about what presents we all got and played a game before it was time to go bowling. My kids love this tradition. It had just started to snow before we left for bowling. So we ended up having a white Christmas. It has been over 100 years since the last time Atlanta has had a white Christmas. I hope it is another 100 years before there is another.
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| Kennedy ready to bowl |
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| Payton under the leg shot |
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| Morgan |
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| Kennedy and Morgan |
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| Talmage |
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| Connor |
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| Kennedy, Jon, Taylor, Talmage, and Payton |
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| Our house the following morning |
Christmas was a bit on the smaller size for us than in previous years with Jon's brother and his family out in Oregon and with 2 of my sisters and their families with other plans. They were missed and I hope they had a great time.
