The Holly and the Jolly (December 2016)

December always seems to be one of the busiest months of the year, with this year being no exception.  After a nice relaxing Thanksgiving with family, it was time to jump into the frenzy of festivities.  First up?  Why, decorating for Christmas, of course!

Our "Aly on the shelf " made her usual appearance . . . in the most unusual places.

We had a great time decorating the tree.  We are getting so many ornaments that I think I'm going to need a 2nd tree soon. (wink, wink).  The little girls also had a great time decorating their own personal tree for their room with perlers and mini ornaments.  Super cute.

A HUGE event in our lives took place on December 1st when ALY GOT HER DRIVER'S PERMIT!!!!  As you can see, the reactions among the girls were mixed. ;P  (Love Lise's double buckled, bike helmet look.)  I was a little unprepared for this - I did not realize that in Florida kids get their permit at 15 to practice for a whole year.  Luckily, Aly has done fairly well.  I took her to the local college campus a couple of times to practice getting a feel for the car before we were ready to go out on the main roads.   There's been a few mishaps, but nothing too major.  She loves driving to church and around town every chance she gets.   We have yet to go on a freeway . . .

Anyway, moving on to slightly less nerve racking things.  Early in December we had the Battalion Christmas party.  Chris' soldiers/staff did a fantastic job pulling it together.  It was a brunch and the real Santa even showed up! ;P  (I made Chris take a picture with me and Santa. hehehe)  Very grateful for all the work these guys put in for our country and our safety on a daily basis and for their families who support them tirelessly.

The first Saturday in December was a double header.  7th Group had it's annual "Jingle Bell Jog."  It's a 5K/10K (Chris ran the 10K - of course!) that supports wounded soldiers and the "families of the fallen."  Lots of fun for a great cause.  Here Chris is with his Chaplain.  Even though Chris is one of the oldest in his Battalion, he beat most of his guys.  NICE! 

Once his race was over, Chris "raced" down to watch Analise and me perform in the Niceville Christmas parade.  

The theme for the parade was "Christmas around the World".  We had a large group of our young women learn a Scandinavian dance and a Hawaiian dance to perform as we walked the route.

It was so much fun!  I know Lise had a great time, and I felt like I was back in cheer again.  Loved getting on those dancing shoes - and my feet didn't even hurt too bad afterwards. ;)

But we weren't done with dancing yet.  Kylie had her ballet recital, and it was just adorable.  Love those pointed toes!

I think the two girls next to Kylie are in 2nd grade, but the height difference is not abnormal.  Kylie is one of the shortest kiddos in all of first grade!

Kylie also had a fun field trip in December to Hungry Howie's.  The parents' of one of the girls in Kylie's class own the pizza place and so they offered to let the kids come over for a tour and making of their own pizza.  What could be better than that?!

Kylie really branched out by putting pepperoni on her pizza. 

Then of course there were the holiday parties - for both Kylie and Kate.  Cookie decorating was a definite favorite on both accounts.

Another highlight was watching Lise's Holiday play for Drama Kids.  The kids performed scenes from famous Christmas movies like "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas".  They did a great job and it was very entertaining.  My ultimate favorite part though, was when Lise got to play Flick from "A Christmas Story" and get her tongue stuck to a flagpole. I triple-dog dare you!!! Hahahaha. HILARIOUS!

Of course we also had to go see the lights at the Community Center.  The good thing about going on a night other than the Christmas tree lighting is that you have the entire place to yourself.

Love, love, love this picture.  Kate made me take the picture while she was "flying on her reindeer". So here she is, midflight.  Gotta love it.  

Lotsa good photo ops. . . 

. . . Lise even got to pose as a giant stuffed animal at the base of a Christmas tree.  First Kate riding a flying reindeer and now this.   Dreams were coming true all over the place.

So yeah, it was a "Holly, Jolly" first two weeks of December.  I can't believe we packed in that much while the kids were still in school.  Could it get any more crazy/fun?  Well, next up - Christmas Break!

First, two bonus pictures that warm my heart. Above: I love how Kate was using her Luke Skywalker Lego guy to hold her dum dum sucker for her.  I always love seeing Kate's mind in action.  I guess Luke's good for more than just holding light sabers, eh? Below: This is how Chris, Kate and Kylie got ready for for family prayers one night after family movie night.  Love seeing how much the girls love their Daddy.

So Grateful (November 2016)

Love this tree that I got at "Time Out For Women".  It made for a great family home evening, filling out all the leaves with what we were grateful for.  I gained a lot insight about what was important to everyone based on what they came up with.  Along with family and a lot of gospel blessings, we were also  thankful for things like wifi, weekends, warm weather, and running (Aly), safety, movie night, work, and lots of girls (Chris), pictures, holidays, shoes, and blankets (Lise),  a healthy body, the earth, my sisters, and Jesus (Kylie),  school, food, a house (shelter), and a family (Kate), and Dates with Dad, Aly's laugh, Lise's baking, Kate's sharing, and Kylie's reading (Mom).  There really is so much to be grateful for!

Another thing we are grateful for is Aly!  She is now 15 years old - crazy!  She chose dinner at the Olive Garden and then a walk on the beach at night.  Lotsa fun and craziness.

The only thing Aly wanted for her birthday was a trip to visit her friends in Kentucky.  Since her birthday coincided with our Thanksgiving break, we put her on a plane for a 4 day reunion with her amigos.  She definitely made the most of it (living on virtually no sleep) and said it was the best birthday present ever.  

The pickup at the airport - lotsa smiles!

A youth dance hoedown - Kentucky style

There was a whole lot of picture taking going on, that's for sure.  I even heard the girls had to start deleting apps to create more memory space on their phones!

So grateful for good friends!

Another one of our greatest blessings (and one of our favorite traditions) is Thanksgiving with the Paine family.  Love our cousins!

Lise is looking Schnazzy on that porch swing.  Love how her shirt matches the pillows!

The girls each made their traditional ginger bread house.  It's funny because every year we think that the older girls are going to outgrow this, but they don't because "IT'S TRADITION!"  The tradition has evolved though, from a lot of adult help and candy just glopped on, to chimneys, windows, walkways, trees, sleds, mailboxes, and gingerbread and gummy bear "people",  (Okay, well maybe some people still just glop it on. ;P)

The thing I love about Tennessee in the Fall is that it's cold enough to feel like Autumn & actually wear sweaters (not like Florida!), but still warm enough to get outside and enjoy the crisp, fresh air.  This year we were even invited to have a fire with the Paine's back neighbor.  Their little girl is Kylie's age and the two of them like to play together when we come to visit.  Oh, how I love making s'mores around a fire!  

Carolyn always does such a good job with the ambiance and decor. It's beautiful. And the food's always scrumptious as well!

Chris can't get enough of the delicious turkey!

And of course you've gotta have a piece of that pumpkin pie!

In addition to the feast there was the usual fun/craziness  - like dog-piling on Dad.  There was also a lot of game playing, movie watching ("Gilmore Girls - A Year in the Life", and I LOVED watching "Clue" with the sound off while we each picked a character to be and made up our own plot - HILARIOUS!), etc. There may have been a ping pong tournament as well. ;)

And, OF COURSE there was bowling!  That tradition is never going to die!  I keep thinking every year that I'll improve - and then I don't.  I'm lucky to break 100.  I was super proud of Carolyn for bowling without bumpers this year - and rocking it!  Way to go Carolyn!

Actually, something new that we did this year was Black. Friday. Shopping.  Ah, there it is - my proof that we now have teenage girls in the mix. ;P  I am not a fan of the crowds and don't usually shop on Black Friday, but we went later in the day and it was super fun to go as a group.  Time will tell if this becomes a new tradition . . .

The other impromptu thing I tried to do was take our family pictures.  In all the chaos of moving and settling in, I hadn't found anyone to take our family photos for the year.  Thanksgiving morning I impulsively decided we were going to give it a go on the Paine's front porch.  The backdrop was great - it made me wish I had thought about this ahead of time and coordinated outfits!  We got some cute smiles and the pictures turned out fairly well.  Unfortunately, due to the holiday chaos, these pictures never made it up on the wall. (there's always some sort of chaos going on, right?)

Of all my many blessings, the smiles in these pictures are at the top of my list.  I am so grateful for each member of my family and the strengths they bring to our home.  I am also grateful that we have each other as we deal with challenges, moves, growing pains, and all the other fun stuff life throws at us - and that we can still laugh and be goofy in the process.  So grateful for temple blessings and forever families.

Happy Thanksgiving!