This year's Christmas card. Oh, the printing fiasco at Staples to get the right shade of pink and not tan. Took them three different printing orders from two different sites, but that Ashley chick was on top of things and making sure it was gonna come out right. In the end, it still didn't. Ha! I told her it was good enough and blessed her little heart for trying so hard!
Gallatin Christmas Parade ... I watched from the warm car. It was cold, it was misty, and I was coughing and coming off my second fever.
Josh did his annual Santa gig at work for the self-contained special education students.
We hit up a Buccee's for the first time ever on the way home from Thanksgiving. It was a grand opening in Athens. I warned Emily that it was psychotic in there and to wait awhile. So she and her crew finally went this month and sent me this pic that made me grin so big. It was still psychotic though. Ha!
This year's Advent devotional we did together.
I got a headstart on a New Year's resolution of mine ... to finally master dutch braiding/cornrows.
Men's Discipleship Dinner at church. I attended the Women's Ornament Exchange the next night but no one got pics, I think. Go figure!
Return of our porch Santa!
Christmas Bunco!
My wound site from the surgery continues to heal up, though I feel it something weird still in the underneath layers.
Anna won this Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest at the youth group party, which was really rewarding for her because she about drove herself crazy crafting it just right.
Did a toy cleanout for Lasa upstairs and relocated them from a bin shelf into this drawer tower. So much tidier and easier to access.
It was sweet to hear from Angelique again this month. Lasa even recorded reading a book and sent that to her at her request.
Christmas lights on the porch, which we ended up loving more than we expected.
Anna did a good bit of babysitting this month.
Finnick and Bane/Beannie as ever.
Another day, another Escape Room with buds. This time was for Jonah's bday.
Josh had two full weeks off for Christmas, so he did more jobs around the house. Loads of garage and shed stuff to the dump. Big ole' burn piles for other clutter around the yard. And he decided it was finally time to pack up the Legos and store them in the attic til grandchildren. It was a lot of sorting for one last time, but the job got done and the whole wall upstairs is entirely cleared. It's amazing! End of an era!
Lots of piano playing got done. It's been a bit of a musical renaissance for Josh. He has even done a smidge of pickin' on the guitar.
Some holiday month hiking on the property.
Lots of games got played over the break - Ticket to Ride, Sorry, Skyjo, Taco vs. Burrito, and Phase 10.
I emptied and reorganized our under-the-stairs closet and I am in love with it. Also in love with that table a friend from church gave us. It fit perfect and helped big time with this job.
Josh decided to use some of his month off to relearn how to do Lasa's hair. It went well!
Current puzzle we got underway over the break. It's lovely. It's also HARD. The wonkiest shaped pieces I have ever worked with.
Felt so accomplished getting all presents bought and wrapped and ready to be put out by December 4th-ish.
We also snagged some homeschool prom tickets this month at a discount for early purchasing. Which got us in the mood to snag some decent attire at a great price too. Amazon for the win! Noah's first ever suit. And Anna's first ever formal-ish dress.
We had some exciting below zero temps swing through before Christmas. Things also got exciting when our power went out that same morning. HA! It ended up being the transformer on our hill that blew. God bless those electric workers that came out and got us back in order in just a few hours' time. Ouch, the cold!!
Don't ask me why Josh never built a fire like he's planned to do all year. I don't get it. He says its because he is deflated that his plans for a wood stove couldn't pan out. But he did get out this handy little heater so we could heat the main space we all hang out it instead of paying to heat the whole house all day. We also moved the girls downstairs for four nights to save heating the upstairs at all.
Christmas Eve service. I had fallen back into my third fever in three weeks so I stayed home, of course.
Precious letter to Santa after being a pill all day. Go figure.
Santa goodies set out after we got the kids to bed. Lasa only snuck out to peek once, but we handily caught her before she got a glimpse. ;)
Family goodies under the tree. Anna's fave gifts this year included a heatless curling tool for her hair, a new journaling bible, and a Sodastream. Noah's fave gifts were his shower back scrub brush and the Ed Sheeran concert tix. Lasa's fave gifts included her remote-control spider, a microphone, the tetherball, and some pop tubes. And a makeup set. Josh loves his new music printing subscription and his rocking camp chair and his fit bit bands. I adore my long-awaited motion sensor vacuum doohicky and some new MukLuks slippers and socks.
Christmas morning service. We watched from home, but grinned to see a packed house on the livestream. Did not grin to hear there was no heat working there that morning. Y'all, it was a COLD Christmas for Nashville. We had rolling power outtages at home and all over town to compensate.
And then, the snow! Yes, we had a smidge from the -5 degree day. But it fell for real and so lovely the day after Christmas. Just enough for sledding and snowballs and snow angels but not enough to keep us snowed in for days. Perfection!
Lasa adores her new tetherball. It really takes me back to my own childhood! This is the perfect type of ball for playing on our hill since it can't roll away. Ha!
The week after Christmas we hit up the lights at Gaylord Opryland Hotel as is our tradition every year. It was so crowded! This made us think maybe we will skip it next year...
A family photo Anna worked her artsy skills on...
Josh and Anna squeezed in one last campout for the year on December 30 since we were back up to 60 degrees. Oh, TN. Lasa, Noah, and I joined for the campfire hot dogs at least! It rained all night on them, by the way. Eek.
Read a couple good books this month.
The Kubota got a good service to finish up the year.
Anna and Lasa adored getting Anna's new swing hung in her room. Now Lasa disappears for hours at a time.
Lasa enjoyed the warmed-back-up temps by taking the returned Kubota for a spin. And flying a kite!
We love our wall of Christmas cards. I warned I may leave them up til Valentines Day. Ha!
My current obsession this November and December - a backgammon app.
And finally, some New Year's Eve.
