And here we are in December!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!  Well first I will tell you about the last few weeks of December.  We started our Christmas celebrations with our annual Christmas tree decorating.  We do this on the first Monday night after Thanksgiving every year.  I love the fact that our kids are learning our family traditions, and they keep us on track with them all.

The first full week of December was spent at the University Theater during tech week for our annual Nutcracker production.  This year Jenna was the only member of the family participating.  I really missed it, but being Mom to five little ones keeps me more than busy.  I knew something had to give this year, and Nutcracker was it.  This year I enjoyed sitting in the audience watching my little Jenna dance her heart out.

Here's our little Harlequin!

The following week we had attended our annual Ward Christmas Party and got a chance to sit in Santa's lap.

My favorite part was when Olivia asked for a swimming pool for Christmas!  

Next we had our gingerbread house decorating.  This year I found a kit for a gingerbread house village which meant that each of our kids had their own house to decorate by themselves.  This was quite amusing.  The house that got the prize was Olivia's.  In the middle of decorating houses, we had diaper changes and an impromptu bath leaving the oldest three to work independently.  When we returned we found this creation...

Olivia said the gummy bears were having a party on the roof!

And here's our village.

 And a first for us, we got to see a sundog.  It's like a rainbow only it happens when the sunlight is refracted through ice crystals in the air.  You can't see the full effect in these pictures because I didn't have a wide enough angle to capture the whole view, but these pics show the two halves.

And finally we have Christmas morning which can speak for itself in pictures...

Oh wait, I have to explain... Li'l Robby got an apple with a bite out of  it in his stocking as a hint of a that was under the tree for the family -- an Apple TV unit.

Homemade donuts!

Oh and here's the Apple TV unit.

 

Yes, it was a Merry Christmas!  And now, good night!