December was a hard month. Not bad. But hard. I was having a rough time, Emmett was really having a rough time, Erik had a ton of work and several big projects, and whiney whine whine, poor me, this that and the other. The month blasted by. I just couldn't commit to one of the darling activity a day advents floating around Pinterest that everyone and their mom was doing. I'm just not that cool, I guess. But we were still able to do a few Christmas-y things to make the season memorable and special. So here is that stuff, interspersed with everything else that did (or didn't) happen in December.
Sometimes this one is cute . . . sometimes . . . so it does us well to remember when.
These two are cute, too. Especially when one of them isn't screaming in pain, not eating, or not sleeping. I don't mean Erik.
We had spent way too many days in the house doing nothing. So one morning when I heard The Sweet Tooth Fairy would give a free cookie to the first 5 people into their shop who sang, "If all the raindrops were cupcakes and cakebites, oh what a rain that would be, I'd go outside with my mouth open wide, singing AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AAAAH" I packed the boys into the car and off we went. Sam willingly and eagerly did the singing. We got a cookie and the cute gal who was smitten by my boys gave them each a sucker, too. Soooo that's why O is eating a sucker in this picture. I don't usually just let them have candy. I also don't usually comb their hair. Obviously. And that was a lot of explanation for 2 pictures of my boys doting on their baby brother.
That same day, at lunch time, these two were holding hands. I have no idea why. Owen rarely let's Sam hold his hand, and it makes Sam kind of sad. So I thought this was really cute. Especially since O ate a lot of his lunch that way, reaching over himself with his right hand.
Also at lunch time, Owen was riding the elevator up and down. "Going up, beep, zoooom, going down, beep, zoooom," while he stood up and sat down. Weirdo. Sam had a box elder bug that he wanted to adopt as a pet. Double weirdo. He put it in the bin, gave it some grass and a twig, and named it Samuel, to which I interjected that that wasn't very original, so he said, "Ok, I'll name him Monster Truck." Sam didn't let that thing out of his sight all day. I had to do some serious convincing so Sam wouldn't take it to school with him. Later that night, Monster Truck met his demise. I'm thinking it had to do with the apple juice the boys tried to give him. I noticed before Sam, and was so close to finding another box elder and switching them out. We are just not pet people.
One night Erik was either working late or at a church meeting, I can't remember now. I wanted to sit my fat butt on the sofa, which I did, but the boys weren't super excited about that, so I got out the Christmas tree ornaments and let them have at it. They both got really into it. Owen was frustrated at first because he couldn't figure out how to hang any of them. But he realized he could put the hooks through a bell ornament. So that's what he did. I counted and he had hung 18 ornaments from that bell.
For FHE one night, we talked about building a strong foundation on the rock of our Redeemer. We sang the wise man and the foolish man, read Helaman 5:12, and then built a gingerbread house. It did not have a strong foundation. It lasted about 30 minutes before it collapsed. But the boys loved every second of it. Especially our sugar fiend, Owen J, who was more interested in putting the candy in his mouth than on the house.
On Samuel's last school day before winter break, he got to bring gifts for a present exchange. He picked out little yo-yos, and wrapped each one himself. He was very proud of his work, and so eager to give them to his friends. When he came home with lots of fun little gifts, I was very impressed with how willing he was to show and share with Owen.
We visited the Festival of Lights again in Spanish Fork. The boys loved it. Em slept through it. No pictures, but I think two years in a row officially makes it a tradition.
We did do one advent, these chocolate calendars. I just happened to come across them at the party store back in November and knew I HAD to get them. I remember doing these so many times as a kid. The first day it was this intense wave of nostalgia when I got a whiff of those waxy chocolates. So fun for me. And the boys had a lot of fun with it, too.
Sam also had a countdown paper chain he made at school, and he loved taking a new one off each day of December. And we had a really low-key mini advent paper chain with "activities" like find a picture of Jesus in your house, read a story from the Friend, be extra nice to someone in your family, tell someone a story about Jesus, stuff like that. Samuel told Emmett the story of Jesus being born . . . "It was in a stable in Bethlehem, the shepherds came and there was a new star, and theeeeeen THE KING GOT REALLY MAD AND THE SOLDIERS KILLED ALL THE BABIES AND PEOPLE SCREAMED AH AH AH, AND EVERYONE DIED!!!!!! And that's the end." Yeah, I do not recommend the Living Scriptures Nativity video. Horrible, awful, terrible, and a million other complaints. If you want to hear a good rant, ask me about it sometime. Anyway, I digress . . . There is our December, crazy, long, a bit tough, and yet pretty uneventful.
Coming up next on my poor neglected blog: Our quiet, simple, wonderful Christmas at home.
And it was such a delight to stand in the doorway and be an observer. Look at how into Erik is. Look at Owen’s hat that he won’t go a day without wearing. Look at Sam who insists on dressing himself. Look at how intense all of them are, and how seriously they are taking their fun. Look at how blessed I am to call all three of these guys mine! Love love love.
