Before Christmas

I have so much to report that I've been putting off writing. December has so much going on it's a bit overwhelming to keep up with it all. I need to plow through this post however, because one of my New Year's goals is to keep up with my blogging. Documenting our life this way has become a little pleasure for everyone in our family (speaking of that - let me know who you've used and loved to make your blog into a book). So without further adieu, here is my loooong recap of the month...

The first weekend of December was the annual Ornament Luncheon with the ladies from the Nord family. We missed Nana Jo, but Papa Lew came this year and it was nice to have that handsome man join our crew. The ornament lunch is a tradition that has been going on since before I became a part of the family, so I've got a collection of 15 beautiful ornaments that I've received over the years from these wonderful ladies.

That week was also the first Christmas party for Matt's new real estate office in Centerville. It was a small potluck dinner at the home of one of the agents and it was great to meet a lot of the people that work in that office. We did white elephants and we were the only ones to show up with "funny" rather than serious gifts... luckily I was prepared for that to happen (you never know what kind of a group you're going to be with) so I did a combo gift. We gave gas station hot dogs, complete with lots of catsup and mustard for one gift (and gave some yummy chocolates on the side) and we also gave a bunch of old kids' music cassette tapes (and an itunes gift card on the side). After many years of white elephant parties, we're getting pretty darn good at it. ;)

The second weekend of December, Matt and Bradley went up to Salmon, Idaho for a hockey tournament. The town is tiny and has a lot of charm. The rink is outdoors, there is a frozen pond next to the rink to skate on between games, and at night there is a drop in game for all the adults - it's their favorite tournament to go to each year. It was snowing so badly during one of the games they kept losing the puck and the zamboni had to make ice halfway through each period. They loved it.

While the big boys were gone I got a babysitter for the youngest two and took Lauren on a Mommy date to see "Harry Potter." Remember, this is the girl who lives and breathes all things Harry. It was a good show but it was definitely worthy of its PG-13 rating. I'm still not sure if it was a good idea to break our usually solid "you have to be 13 to see PG 13 movies rule" because it was so dark and mature, but we did have a fabulous time together.

The next Monday night we had a pj/movie party at the Walker's home for FHE with the Nord side of the family. The two younger kids had no interest in watching the movie and spent the entire time jumping on the tramp and running around their indoor sport court (who could blame them). It was nice to spend some fun time laughing with the Nords after losing Nana Jo. This picture is Bradley getting smothered with smooches by his Nana... he sure does love her.

Lauren had a busy schedule the week before school let out for vacation: On Tuesday, all the 4th graders put on a dance performance for their parents (no cameras were allowed ?!). On Thursday, the entire 4th grade went skiing to Snow Basin. Lauren's a pretty great skier, but she hadn't been yet this year and since she's prone to being dramatic, I was crossing my fingers that everything would be ok - all seemed to go well. :)

The night Lauren got home from skiing, Bradley's hockey team had a Christmas party and we took the entire family to go public skating. I didn't get any pictures of the big kids because they were off on their own, but here's Will and Owen. Will did not like skating. Despite taking 3 sessions of skating lessons in the past couple of years, he was still petrified that he was going to fall and get hurt. Owen, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of the ice. He wasn't strong enough to skate on his own, or maybe he was just too excited and reckless to stand on his own, so Matt and I were holding onto him the entire time.

Matt and I went to La Caille on the third Friday for a Christmas dinner with Matt's marketing company, Jibe. (The third work party of the month but definitely the nicest. Way to go jibbity Jibe!) The food was good, not unbelievable like you'd expect. I think you're paying for the name and the ambiance; the restaurant is in a beautiful location and is pretty decked out for the holidays. It was fun to get dressed up, alas, no pics.

Other things that I didn't get pictures of:

A Christmas party at Biffy's home. Really it was for Greg's 40th birthday but he didn't want a party. We didn't see the kids all night except for when they came up to eat processed cheese puff balls. In fact, I think that's all they ate all night... super great parenting skills at work.

The Pierce family Christmas party with my dad and stepmom. Super fun, at my home, everybody was there!!

Seeing my mom on Christmas Eve. It's our Christmas Eve tradition to spend the day at her home. Amy's family was there this year and we had the pleasure of teaching Bradley and Lauren how to play Rummicub (my soft spoken mother schooled us ;).

I also didn't get a picture of the shingles that I got this holiday (although if you like gross things like I do you would have liked to have seen them). I am way too young for stuff like that.....uuughhh.

And last, but not least, my favorite memory of the month: Will came home from school talking with an english accent one day. He proceeded to say that he knew how people in England talked about the bathroom and asked me in his sing song accent, "Mom, do you need to go to the loo?" He kept asking this question of everyone the entire week until the whole family caught on. Now, I hear that phrase at least once a day from somebody - love it. :)