Tis' the Season

This holiday season flew by again! Tay and I scheduled the week leading up to Christmas to be as organized as possible. The weather threw us a curve ball, causing us to cram all the errands into Tuesday, my only non-snowy day off. They claimed that a blizzard of the decade was on the way! We knocked out the errands and then planned a day of baking AND BEING SNOWED IN, on Thursday. That part was kind of exciting for us!

We woke up on Thursday and began baking sugar cookies, pecan balls and chocolate crinkle cookies. I made my traditional Coquita concoction, so the drunken raisins could soak a bit. Bubby woke up and helped make chocolate covered pretzels and pb crackers candies. The snow did fall, although definitely no record-breaker, and the doggos got to enjoy some playtime outside...Milo came back in with sparkles! They both turned out to be good taste-testers too! 

We got all the presents wrapped (Tay even wrapped all my tiny gifts in a special way!) and finally felt like I could breath a sigh of relief...bring on Christmas!

I was about to go to bed, when Tay came in, asking to open the gift that Allison and Andrew sent. Blake has just got home from work and she just couldn't wait until Christmas Eve! They are so sweet, they got the kids both a gift card, us a doggy snack phone attachment, to get the doggos to look at us for pics! lol! They also got us a cool board game to try out, and an electronic lighter/fire stick, which drove the kids and dogs ears crazy even though Billy and I couldn't hear it. 

December Memories

Taylor got to invite Daddy to the PSE "Donuts with Dad" event. They headed to school early one morning to have breakfast together. The also got to build a toothpick and marshmallow creation! It was a great morning!

 We got to attend the annual "Pancakes with Santa" event at PSE too! Daddy and the kids got served flapjacks thrown style! They had to catch em! I was helping with the door check-in for PTO but got to sneak in to see them. Tay got to see Santa too!

 We invited Maddi and her family to join us to help decorate St. Peters City Hall. It was a cute community event to get the kids involved with the city officials. Kids got to make an ornament and then an officer helped them hang it on the city tree.

Taylor and Evie had their end of year performance for DRAMA CLUB! They played Twiddle and Twee, and they did a great job with Mrs. Cassel! So proud of them!

We carved out some time for special winter moments, including smore's by the fire, gettingm to find Buddy around the house-in his many silly situations, and

Billy surprised Blake with tickets to go see the new STAR WARS movie on preview night! We tricked him good...he laid his clothes for the day on the end of my bed before he got in the shower, we replaced the shirt with a new STAR WARS shirt. When he went to put his clothes on, he noticed the shirt and was like, "hey, thats not the shirt I picked, where's my shirt?" We told him to look closely at the shirt, he noticed it was a STAR WARS shirt, but still didn't "get it"! We asked him if he liked it and when he said he did...we had to give it away and tell him! LOL! He rarely gets to go see the  movies while they're still at the theater, so this was a really awesome surprise! 

And just days before Christmas, we had a "cookie bake-off" & baking day! Billy and Blake teamed up against Tay and I to make special Christmas treats and take votes from Allison, Andrew, Aunt Sissy, Uncle Danny, and Aunt Susie. Boys made peanut butter krispy chocolate-covered balls, and us girls made pill bottle cookies and white chocolate corn flake balls...the competition was fierce...I think the boys won but who's counting?!

Packing away Christmas & Memories Too

Right around New Year's, we go ahead and pack away Christmas decor. It's usually pretty sad for me, it's all over, and ready to be packed away for another year. But does it have to be? Remembering that the one true Christmas gift, Jesus, is given to us for ALWAYS, not just one month of the year, helps me not get depressed. Plus, it's only a week til Blake's birthday so that gives me something to look forward to.

This year, I was very organized in how I packed things away. I literally went through every single item, asked myself if it was something we loved and had to keep, or if we could part with it. While we didn't get rid of a whole lot, it is all organized and packed away according to how it would make next year easier to put up. I gotta say, I am impressed that I took the time to do it this way and I'm sure I'll be thankful next year. I'm even leaving the Advent calendar out so I go pre-package it now, so there will be no struggle to fill it next year. Taylor loves it so much and I keep finding myself stressed by what scripture, activity, or candy to fill it with. I let her down by not filling it by each morning, but there's so much going on. Not gonna happen next year...there will be SOMETHING in each compartment by November if it kills me..lol! Less candy, more meaning is the goal!

I reorganized the kids Christmas ornament box too. I placed everything in a separate envelope or container by year. This makes me feel so much better, since I've saved them for all these years. Here is this years ornament and Christmas Memories:

2014 Christmas Memories packed away

Each year, we write a special "Christmas Memory" for each of the kids, and pack them away for the year, with their new ornament. Oh I so love this!

 

Hand Made Gifts

This year, the kids and I "made" many of the gifts.  We made their sister, Allison, a bracelet, necklace, and photo ornaments.

They also helped me pick out goodies for gift baskets, made gifts for friends, and  painted magnets for Aunt Sissy and Uncle Danny.

The very BEST thing the kids made, was a very special gift for Aunt Sissy....a gift that will give ALL YEAR!  They decorated a big jar, then filled it with 52 little memories, writings, poems, pictures, or whatever they thought would be special to Aunt Sissy...they folded them up and filled the jar so that Aunt Sissy could open one gift each and every week for the entire year!  Some of these notes were sweet, special memories, or just silly jokes...I hope she loves it as much as we loved creating it!

Welcome to Your New Home, Finny!!!

This summer, I bought a fish bowl at a yard sale for 25 cents.  I thought, "maybe we'll get a fish someday".  Well, here it is, 2 days before Christmas and we finally got our new addition to the family...a beautiful beta! 

We got the bowl ready the day before...the kids loved decorating it!

We made the trip to Petsmart a special event that was in our advent calendar.  We looked at bunches of little bettas, but picked the first one that we all saw anyways...he was "the one".  He wasn't scared of our finger when we touched the side of his bowl...yay! 

Blake got to carry him to the car, Taylor got to hold him on her lap for the ride home...(gotta keep it all even with TWO kiddos!!lol!)  We set him next to our bowl for a couple hours, then acclimated him to his new home!  He immediately swam around, even went into his new cave dwelling!  He seems to be right at home!

We spent a couple hours trying to come up with a name that we all liked...we narrowed it down to:  Blue Bell, Herbert, Finny, Oscar, Sushi, or Flipper!  We finally agreed on FINNY!  All day, we just kept looking at him!  We really love having a little fishy around! 

Taylor's chair is right there, ready for her viewing
pleasures!  She knows that she can't touch the
water or she'll make him sick.

Wasn't even gonna write about this morning, but decided I'd tell the whole truth...I woke up and headed for his bowl to see if he made it through the night...he looked like a goner.  I watched him for a while and it appeared that he may have passed and got stuck in one of the holes of his cave. ( I intentionally waited until "right" before Christmas, so that we could hopefully have a live fish in the bowl until at least Christmas morning..lol!)  I though, oh no...it didn't even make it to Christmas Eve....I was really bummed, like I could almost cry...not so much for the little fishy, but for all the work and effort and naming...I knew the kids already counted on him being part of the household...I called my sis to figure out what to do...go buy a new one, or just tell the truth and let them learn a sad lesson on Christmas Eve...as I was thinking what to do, I walked back to the tank and there was "Finny", looking up at me, fluttering his little fins, wanting his breakfast!  YAY...he was just sleeping!  I am such a dork!!!  We all got to feed him one tiny pellet of food...he's happy and so are we!