December happenings

December was a blur of "busyness" here. I'm trying to think back on what happened during that month and am coming up with a blank. It was just busy. Getting ready for Christmas, buying and wrapping gifts, mailing out cards, mailing boxes, boxes and more boxes, baking lots of goodies, Bible study, MOPS, church functions, etc. Thinking back on it I feel as if we never took the time out to just enjoy the season. The house was pretty with all the Christmas decorations, but I don't remember sitting down even one time to just enjoy it and that's a shame. Next year I would like to try to slow down a little bit and savor the season.

Good thing I took some pictures or I wouldn't remember anything we did :) Here is a look back at the first part of the month.

The 1st of December we started Elly's advent calendar. She LOVED this time of day. We did it in the evening when Sam got home from work so he could be part of it too. He usually didn't even get the front door closed before Elly came running to him yelling "Calendar time!!!" I love the unbridled excitement of a 2 year old :)

Now that Christmas is over and the calendar is put away she still asks me what I did with it. Trying to explain "next year" to a 2 1/2 year old doesn't work so well. I expect to be asked about it until next Christmas :)





Our church always lights the Advent candles throughout the Christmas season. The pastor picks a different family to read the devotional and light the candles on the Sundays leading up to Christmas. Sam and I were asked to do one of the weeks. Anyone who knows me knows that I would rather be anywhere than in front of a crowd, but I figured since it was all written out and all we needed to do was read it I could handle that. Still not an easy task for me, but we made it through. Sam snapped a picture of Elly and I before we headed out for church that morning.




December 6th is St. Nicholas day. Here in Germany, the children put a boot outside the door the night of the 5th and the next morning it is filled with candy. Sam remembers doing this as a child and wants to have that tradition with Elly. I dropped the ball this year though because I thought we set the boot out on the 6th (instead of the night before) and didn't realize my mistake until that evening when Sam got home. Since, at this age, Elly doesn't really know the difference, we still did it. I kept Elly occupied for a few minutes while Sam filled her boot and put it outside the front door. Then we told Elly to go check outside the door. She was so tickled to find HER boot outside filled with goodies. Next year I'll have to do better at remembering the correct day :/






I had several days of my annual Christmas baking. I LOVE to bake and have lots of fun with it at Christmas time. I took advantage of early mornings or Elly's nap time to get things done. When she's up it's just too hard to get much done. One of these years she'll be part of it, but for now it's easier and much more relaxing to do some of this on my own. She is a great taste tester though and thoroughly enjoyed "helping" me with that :)




Another Sunday on our way out the door. I just love this little girl and have so much fun dressing her up. She really likes it too. Alot of times after I get her dressed she runs in to look at the mirror. She gets the cutest little shy smile on her face as she admires herself. She doesn't like me to watch her because she gets embarrassed, but it's just too cute.




We've barely had any snow to speak of this year...just a dusting a day or two. One of the days when a little snow did actually stick we got dressed warm and headed out to the back yard. Elly had lots of fun playing in the snow until she got too cold and we headed inside.












Elly loves to paint. I wish I had the space to have an easel and paint out for her all the time. She has so much fun with it and loves it when I display them for Daddy to see when he gets home in the evening.