The Most Wonderful Time

It has been an awesome December so far.  I have said it 100 times already, but this has by far been the busiest I have ever been with work.  Going into December, I knew that things would only get 5,000 times busier, but I didn't let that stress me out.  There are a million activities I love to do with the girls and Jeremy, and even though it means I may only get 4 hours of sleep (or less) a night, I do it anyway.  I love it.  I'm pretty much a 5 yr old kid.

So far this Season we:

• Rode in the Rockwall Christmas Parade with Singers Company

•  2nd Annual Britt/Jordan Ginerbread House Night

 

• Sang with Singers Company at the nursing home.  Little bit I want to remember about the night: after the girls finished, most of the girls and parents left pretty quickly, but I had the girls go around and say Merry Christmas to all of the people that were there.  We have spent enough time in the nursing home with Jeremy's grandparents to know that most of those people hardly get any visitors.  The little old ladies there were so cute and just loved that the girls were speaking to them.  This particular lady motioned for Joey, so she went over and told her "Merry Christmas" and the lady asked if she could kiss her cheek.  Joey looked up at me kind of nervously, but I nodded and she got close and allowed her to kiss her cheek.  Then the lady told her Merry Christmas and kept asking again and again to give her a hug and kiss her.  One of the aides came over and said, "WHAT is she saying?!".  We told her what happened and she was so confused and excited.  She told us this 98 yr old lady was notorious for being the meanest lady in the nursing home.  She was never happy.  It just goes to show you what a little kindest and compassion can do for someone. 

 

• Went to the Ward Christmas party

•  Had the friends and family show for Singers Company

•  Went to Ice! at the Gaylord.

 

•  Went to Shelby's play at school.  She was "Ma" in Pecos Bill.  Technically not Christmas related.  But it was in December.

•  Joey's cute teacher hosted the whole class at her (parent's) house for cookie decorating and stories.

•  Jingle Bell Run at school.  All of the girls' friends loved Lucy.

 

• Class Parties

 

• Holiday in the Park at Six Flags.  The only picture I got was of Lucy while we waited for Jeremy and the girls on one of the rides.

• Christmas Sunday.  My favorite Sunday of the year.  I love all the music, and I thought I gave a pretty good lesson.

 

• Caroling with some of the ward members that live in our neighborhood.  Loved seeing the faces of the people we caroled.  

In between all of that there has been decorating the house, making cookies and treats, watching Christmas movies, driving around and looking at lights, buying gifts, writing letters to Santa and Buddy, finding Buddy each morning, and getting texts from Santa.  Up next is delivering goodies to members of the ward, Christmas Eve, and Christmas.  I am sure we can think of a few more activities as well to throw in there!

Thanksgiving 2015

What a crazy month November was!  Besides being the busiest I have ever been with work, we had a month full of family visits.  We started off with a visit to Bastrop to see Jeremy's grandmother in the nursing home.  We hadn't seen her in a while, so it was good to be able to spend some time with her, go to the store for her, etc.  The girls enjoyed getting to paint with her, and playing with the bunnies.  I think it made Mamaw's day when Lucy threw her arms around Mamaw's neck and said, "You're my best friend!".

Shelby took this one. ;)

The next visit was to Hattiesburg to see more of Jeremy's family.  We normally go there every year for Thanksgiving, but since I had a lot of family coming to TX, we decided to stay here.  The compromise was to go to Hattiesburg the weekend before.  Over 16 hours in the car for a little over a full day there.  Worth it though.  Everyone went to all kinds of trouble to fix Thanksgiving dinner for us while we were there so that we could all eat together.  And then they ended up eating pizza on Thanksgiving day!  We felt so bad!  So nice to have family that is so caring.  We also celebrated Christmas early with them, and the girls had so much fun playing with their cousins.

 

I love this!  Brock was like 2 when Jeremy and I started dating, and I have spent many, many hours playing with and chasing him.  Now it's his turn!

Thanksgiving week was so exhausting and fun.  With 9 kids in the family it is hard to all get together and be in the same place at the same time.  There were 6 of us and our families at Thanksgiving this year, as well as my aunt and uncle from CA, and 2 cousins and their spouses/families.  There were 41 of us on Thanksgiving Day!  That's a big crowd!  We are very thankful for family!

Let's play "Where's Jeremy?" :)

 

 

Joey and Liam holding hands while watching a movie.

Pretty much how we all felt after everyone left.