December in a nutshell

christmas morning,

and the aftermath!

we went from having no lights up for most of December, to beautiful lights two days before Christmas!

the awesome part is that Cory bought even more lights to put on the tree next year!

can't wait!

gingerbread houses at school- the grades 2 and 5 do them,

so next year will be Maggie's turn- finally!

and the concerts.

oh the concerts.

this of course was a picture at Jeds.

Jacks was the night before,

the girls school concert was the same time as Jeds-

I hit the afternoon dress rehearsal, and Cory got to see the evening show!

it was a crazy whirlwind of a month-

it passed by so quickly.

now- trying to clean, dejunk,

and get lots of sleep!

yay for Christmas vacation!

(sorry- I really need to figure out how to get the words next to the appropriate pictures.-

goal for next year, perhaps?!)

merry christmas!

hope yours is super sweet!

random kindness

last night for family home evening

I wanted to do some random acts of kindness with my kids.

so we headed to walmart-

with some quarters,

and taped them to the candy machines,

and wrote merry christmas on the tape.

i think my kids would be so happy to find that,

so hopefully we can make some other kids happy.

I thought we could put carts away for shoppers,

but it wasn't too busy when we were there-

most people coming out were just holding bags,

and there was a worker in the parking lot collecting carts, so we didn't do that.

but-

we did head to tim hortons, and bought some tim bits- we took one box to the fire station/ambulance place, but the doors were locked,

then right when we were wondering what to do,

an ambulance came and parked,

so the girls and I went and talked to the super sweet, (and cute) young EMT- he was so kind to us and grateful for the treats!

then we headed to the police station

that was also locked,

but we picked up the phone by the door,

and a nice police officer came and took our treats.

he was very kind to us too,

and seemed grateful.

it was a fun evening,

and hopefully we helped others find some joy!

it's hard

so very hard to get my thoughts from my head to my blog. (if only my mind could post automatically- wouldn't that be something!)

and pictures? well, that adds a whole new level of work.

seriously.?!

(it's not really hard, but obviously not a big priority for me, or else I would do it)

but there is so much that needs documented.

like our elf on the shelf-

I will introduce you soon. - he is a tricky little guy.

and Jacks attempts at getting his learners licence-

just guess how many times it took him!

he is at his first Church dance tonight!

how exciting.

wow- my second kid already at dances?

where did time go?

- or like hanging out at Shoppers Drug Mart with JB himself-

okay, just a cut out, but still fun, right?

(the ladies working there just said to go ahead and do it, tons of people do!)

I am always tempted to ask what they are going to do with him when they are done with him- maybe we could bring him home.

now that would be fun.

well, until the boys drew stuff on his face- mustache, devil horns- that would be inevitable!

maybe one day I will get up the courage to check into it!

I will never say never. (ha ha)

he came to town

the last saturday in November

was our city's annual Santa Claus parade.

it is such a fun tradition.

some of the shops and banks down town give out hot chocolate.

(some hot chocolate is better than others- but now we know where to go for the good stuff!)

candy is handed out-

lots and lots of candy canes, of course.

it isn't that great as far as parades go-

lots of cars and trucks with signs,

but hey,

it is cold here in the north!

Santa is always on the very last float,

of course!

it was a fun time.

(and Ben had a friend come along.)

and the kids just moaned when I made them stop by a window and take a picture with me.

but they humored me,

and I love them for it!

super saturday

yes,

it was weeks ago.

I have been awful about posting about it,

because- although I had my camera there,

I did not pull it out once,

so i have no pictures.

not one.

sad.

but I will tell you about it.

we did two wood crafts- one was the stacked wood with vinyl words- a girl in our ward cut them out,so it was very affordable!

then the wooden nativities. I do love them.

so simple and beautiful.

I have some more wood and paint, and am going to make up a few for presents to give away. I scoured Michaels for weeks, and had my sister scour other ones in the city to find enough heads for everyone!

yikes.

(I took this picture at a ladies house we were at for a RS meeting- she had her crafts still out, so I snapped a pic, so at least I have something to show!)

the one craft I did, that I love- was a string of lights, with strips of fabric tied on them.

it took all the day, and more work at home- but I love it. sadly I don't really have a place in my house to display it.- so for now it is wrapped on my tree- which I do like, but I did just do a small string of lights, so I am now thinking of doing more lights so that I can wrap it more than 2 times around my tree.

I had a hot chocolate bar set up- with three different kinds of hot chocolate-

regular,

candy cane,

and white (my favorite)

with whipped cream, candy canes, sprinkles, and cookies to go in it.- and marshmallows, and cherries, and caramel sauce- the works. so delish!

I wish I had taken a picture of the gym at the church. but I didn't. forgot all about my camera until the decorations were down.

I made paper chains with white paper, and fancy paper snowflakes,

and they were hanging all around.

super cheap, easy- I am all over that!

we also had a lightbulb ornament- painted like a reindeer (way too hard for me!)

gifts in a jar,

and cardboard 3D stars.

and a card making table

pretty simple,

but it was a nice day!