Christmas Prep

Ahh, Christmas, I do love Christmas! 

We put our tree up really early this year and I'm not mad about it! I love having the trees in my spaces at this time of year- family room, bedroom, and library all.

First up, I always give the kids new ornaments when we put the family room tree up. And I try to get them ornaments that capture the year in some way, or their lives and interests. Annabel was into Snoopy this year so that was an easy find- she got a Snoopy ornament. Daniel got an Xbox controller, because, shocker, he plays video games- this was a cute little ornament and just perfect for him. 

After the tree came the decorations and the kids helped a little with those, particularly in the family room and kitchen. They especially like my candy dishes, haha. And they like to set up our Mickey Christmas Carol figurines. Those are things I can usually count on their help for. I'm happy for their company any way I get it. 

Annabel and I also really got into baking this year. I finally made a spreadsheet of ingredients so I could count the amounts of butter and flour, etc. that I needed without going a little loopy. This helped immensely. I also highlighted recipes where butter needed softening or dough needed chilling, because these things need advance planning and extra time. This also really helped see at a glance how to plan our cookies out. And of course we get to enjoy the yummy results! One new cookie we enjoyed this year were red velvet thumbprints. Yum! Annabel also discovered how easy puppy chow was to make and that was a big hit.

We got a little snow in December, we did a Christmas puzzle, we saw Christmas lights, we snuggled with Christmas blankets, we watched Christmas movies. All the usual fun! 

Plus, Annabel got to go see the Frozen musical with her school's music department. Ben and I went (just us two, because Annabel was at Frozen) to the high school Winter Festival because I just love that concert so much. 

And one extra special thing us girls did (my mom included!) was watch a musical version of Little Women, streamed through a special link given by our library. This was so special and such a fun production! The songs were so sweet and it was just all so well done. We all loved it! Doing this together made it extra fun, too. I was so glad to have spotted this event and snagged a "ticket" so we could do this. I'd been curious for some time about this musical and I'm glad I finally got to "see it" even if streamed from a past production. 

Anyway, so much festivity all around and I love it all. Now that my kids are older, doing these things makes it feel more like Christmas to me.  

My mantel collection of trees- I LOVE it!

SOOOOO much candy! 

Cosmo helped decorate, too, as you can see.

My soft, glowy library tree!

Baking fun!

 White snow teaser...

 

I saw this little tree in our yard covered in snow and I had the incredible urge to run out and decorate it, it looked so cute out there like this. Alas, I have no decorations for it. 

 

Josie gave Daniel a silver Rainbow Loom bracelet a while back and he's worn it every day since, sweet kid that he is. Isn't that incredible? He amazes me. Then, Daniel had the idea to make a red one for Josie (her favorite color) for Christmas and I just LOVED this! I didn't remember how to make them, so he just Googled it and voila! Bracelet for Josie made! Christmas present from him, done. Could Daniel be any sweeter?! Love my boy so much.

 Little Women- my "ticket" picture! Such a nice evening for us!

 Red velvet thumbprint cookies- delicious!!

This was a really cool sunset- that BEAM of light! Amazing! I learned it's called a sun pillar, a rare sight, and caused by light reflecting off of ice crystals in the air. So cool. It was something else and I was delighted to see it. And actually, at the moment that I saw it, I really needed it. It was uplifting to me. 

Funny Christmas decoration in our neighborhood.

 Puzzle time!

Kitty snuggles on Christmas blankets!

Christmas at the Museum

I love a good trip to the Museum of Science & Industry every December to see the trees! It just really feels festive to me and adds to my feeling of Christmas. And we went with my sister's family (and my parents) this time, too! SO fun! So not only did I get to see my Christmas trees, I got to hang with Hannah and Graham. Toddler/preschooler energy for the win! 

It was such a good day! Wait till you see the baby chicks, too! SOO cute! 

 

NYSO Fall Concert

Annabel is continuing with our local youth symphony orchestra this year, to our delight. The concerts really are amazing. For this fall concert a few weeks ago in November, we even invited her 8th grade band director, Mrs. McCann (Erika, to me- she tells me I'm firmly in the friend category now, we even text on occasion! and she texts me pictures, too! I love it. We love her- she's just awesome!), because she'd mentioned she'd love to go and she's been such a champion of Annabel all these years. So this particular concert was extra fun, because we had Erika's company and Erika is just someone everyone likes to be around because of her bubbly smiley bouncy nature and energy level. I was happy to get her a ticket with ours and Annabel looked forward to having her there. And of course we had all the grandparents joining us as well, which we always enjoy, too, because they love and support Annabel tremendously. They, too, love these concerts. I maintain it's an excellent program and Annabel is so lucky to have this opportunity, and this group in her life, period. 

And- on this occasion, Annabel was extra excited to get flowers afterwards from Erika. We've never done this ourselves, but Erika did and that was really sweet. Annabel loved having them in her room for days following the concert. So nice of McCann!

Enjoy the pictures from this November concert! (They do start to look the same of course, concert after concert, but on I go with documenting and taking pictures anyway!)

And now some pictures with McCann and Annabel's friend Kaelyn!