Ah the Holidays

This has been a very busy December for us, but we have still found time to do some fun Christmas things. I am working hard to make some Christmas presents. Some have been successful, some have not, but I will keep trying. I have finished most of my Christmas shopping. Hallelujah! I even got in a little Christmas baking this week. I will need to do some more this coming week for Jenna and Kevin's school parties. I really enjoy baking, so I am looking forward to it. It's a lot easier now that my kids are a little older too.

I have continued to get up and run most mornings (even though it has been ridiculously cold here...I know, I know, nothing like the midwest, but cold nonetheless). I recently finished physical therapy for an IT Band problem. Because of that I am required to do some exercises for my IT Band each day, which I usually do right after my run. The other day Jared decided that he wanted to do them too.

Here he is doing some IT Band exercises.





We decorated our Christmas tree for Family Home Evening on Monday. The kids had a great time putting up the ornaments. There are large bare spots, but the kids love it, and I am not about to fix it. To me Christmas is more about the kids having fun and experiencing and joy and magic of Christmas, not about having perfect decorations that I would be constantly yelling at them not to touch. Some day I may have fancy things, but right now it's about them.

Here is the final product.



I also got our stockings "hung by the chimney with care" :)



Yesterday was our day of parties. Between us, we had three parties. Jenna and Kevin had a gingerbread house decorating party at our neighbor's house. They had a great time. Then we had a party at our church. Derek was only able to join us for about the last 15 minutes of it, because he had a final yesterday (lucky him). Last night Derek and I went to "An Ugly Christmas Sweater Party." That was really fun. It was a couples only party (I love those). Everyone was supposed to wear an ugly Christmas Sweater. Most of the people that went just made their own (added decorations to a sweater they already own), including us. I wish I had taken a picture. Oh well. They also had a White Elephant gift exchange, which was awesome. A couple of the funnier gifts (which we didn't get, thankfully) were an ear wax remover kit and bath tub refinisher. It was a blast. This week we have a couple more parties (Jenna and Kevin each have one at school) and Derek and I have our Anniversary, so it will be another busy, but fun week. I love it! :)

Here is Kevin and Jenna's gingerbread house (it is actually pound cake because the neighbors kids complained that they didn't like gingerbread ). :)





I don't know if that is a moat or a river, but I think it's awesome. They even put a bridge over it.