December flew by, as usual. With a lot of extra writing work for me and a shortened Christmas season, I didn't get photos of everything I hoped to. But, here are a few highlights.
The first Monday of December, our town gather's for the Main Street lighting and electrical parade. It is homey and short and we love it.
The Festival of Trees is one of our very favorites, and this year Pierce LOVED it...asked to go back multiple times during the season. He especially loved any tree with cars or motorcycles...teaching his cousins how to "our team" anything and everything.
One of my boys got a hold of my camera and wanted to take some photos of me. I thought these were good ones so I could remember how busy my writing schedule was during December...it almost put me under, but I hit all my deadlines and had plenty of time to enjoy the last half of December.
We took the boys to The Forgotten Carols this year for the very first time. They loved it and we loved being back listening to some of our favorites from so long ago. Such a great night with these awesome 3!
A little snow means a great time to get the boys back up on the slopes. It was Pierce's first time and he was awesome!! Looks like we have another little ski bunny in the family. Jace thinks it is pretty fun and James and Parker could do it all day every day. They both told me I could just drop them off and come get them at the end of the day. Both are perfectly fine riding with strangers and falling down and getting back up. It is awesome. Mike is a great teacher. I am working on getting myself onto the slopes!
This year, I wanted one thing for Christmas, to be able to keep my house looking cute and festive. I didn't want to spend a lot (who does at Christmas time?) but with a little money, reinventing old decorations and a little creativity, I ended up LOVING it! It didn't hurt to get my mom's old tree that is still beautiful to me and looked just perfect in our little room!
It was so much fun to have grandma come watch Parker sing in his choir concert...he did an awesome job!
We did a lot of giving this year from Angel Trees to Sub for Santa's to 12 Days of Christmas to refugees. It was a great time to share what we have with others who don't. Taking these kiddos shopping for anything, is also something I consider a sacrifice on my part ;).
Our fun primary president during our Christmas singing time!
Gingerbread houses are a messy must for this crew, so we didn't want to disappoint them!
One day in December it snowed and snowed and snowed, over a foot and everyone was thrilled! We spent hours shoveling and the whole neighborhood headed over to the KJH hill to enjoy the winter wonderland. These boys could have played in it forever!
Regular life still included morning games and books with Pierce and days with friends while the boys enjoyed school.
Another article of mine was published on Deseret News, and held the most popular spot for days and days. Pretty exciting to hear all the positive feedback and excitement from friends, relatives, and strangers. I had been working hard on my writing, so having this was a nice little boost!
I was also honored to have 2 of my article make the top ten most read family articles of 2016! If they had published the other one before the "most popular" post aired, I would have had 3 in the top ten! So exciting.
I received some numbers from Deseret News recently, and they made me smile. I have worked hard at writing and conveying something I hope is important to someone, and to see that it has been to so many is just wonderful for me!
My Taking the Fun out of Life Article had 598,157 page views
My Blessings of Being Raised By a Low Maintenance Mother had 138,342 page views
My No Elves, No Leprechauns article had 129,118 page views
My 16 things I want My Boys to Know Before the First Day of School had 20,549 page views
I am so grateful to have a gift from the Lord and the courage He has given me to share it. It has been hard, scary and disappointing at times, but I have had enough encouragement and reminders from others and from Him that this is the path I am supposed to be taking.
We had our annual Christmas dinner at the Roof. It is one of our favorite traditions...a beautiful setting and a time to unwind during the holidays. Love being a part of my family!
We sang at the rest home as our regular tradition. I love that we get the chance each year to bring a little cheer. It is a small facility and they love having us there. You can really feel the Christmas spirit, like we are doing something good together...something that Jesus would like us to do to honor His birth. The most beautiful part of the night was at the very end, Pierce went around and hugged each elderly person there, tightly around their waist or neck. They all just held onto him, patting his back and telling him what a good boy he was. It was such a sweet thing to witness. I couldn't help but feel like the Lord was pleased with us that night...that we had loved a stranger and brought hope and joy to those in the twilight of their lives.
Our Christmas Card this year! I loved the way it turned out! Still one of my favorite traditions! This year Pierce said, "Why are so many people sending us their family pictures?" I loved it!
These crazies were careening around the crowded, slow rink and playing hockey without a puck. Never a dull moment with these 3.
It was crazy cold!!
You have never seen such happy eaters. They loved every minute of their first Benihana experience! Such cute, cute boys.
The other "must" on our list was to have our annual Marshmallow Snowball fight. It was a good time, but we are wondering if we might need to mix things up, as Utah peeps don't seem to be as excited about a December family activity. We will mull things over this year...
I only make my kids look especially handsome twice a year...Christmas Sunday and Easter Sunday...so I have to document it. They are just so darling, even if Pierce refused to wear his white shirt because the sleeves were a touch too short. He kills us with how particular his is !!!!
We are not sure how many more years we will be celebrating Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Olsen, so it is always fun to be able to see them one more time and celebrate such a long life of loving their children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren!
No comments:
Post a Comment