Fa la la la la la la la la!

There was much celebrating, partying, and fa la la la la-ing throughout December. It was busy and tiring month. But it was such a good reminder (pardon extreme cheesiness here) to be thankful for so many of the new friendships around us. After a career change, child, change in church, and move in the last 3 years, I’m thankful to see who has come into our lives after so much transition. And I’m still forever thankful for the friendships that have been with us for years (and know that they will be for many more). Isn’t there some “friends are silver and gold” song to sing right now?

Even though most of the Christmas parties we went to were ones with juice boxes and chicken nuggets, Wade & I were able to enjoy some kid-free celebrations as well.

This is our rather large “small” group that we get together with on Wednesday nights. It was a nice dinner and fun gift exchange. My NKOTB T-shirt came back home with me, so I guess I’ve got next year’s gift ready. We’ve enjoyed getting to know all of these families throughout the past year or so and always look forward to our Wednesday nights together.

Then we are fortunate to have another small group that we get together with. Several different crossed paths and a couple of kids the same age as Tate drew us together, and we thoroughly enjoy any time we have with them. We dropped off the kids at one house for their own Christmas pajama party together (Weston & Taylor usually even out the boy-girl ratio, and they were missed that night).

And then the adults headed out for a delicious dinner together. I think we were there for almost 3 hours before we realized that at some point, we need to go pick up the kids. Delicious food, great conversation, and many laughs. And yes, 3 of the 4 girls pictured are pregnant!

We celebrated the season with some fun cousin time and attempts at a Christmas card picture for the Mimi & Grandpa. These three are pretty hilarious together!

And I went to my first cookie exchange. I was very adventurous and excited about trying to duplicate Bakeralla’s white chocolate red velvet cake balls. They started off pretty.

But after almost 3 hours…3 hours!!!...I conceded to the cake balls. As I dipped each of them in the white chocolate they started falling apart. I almost cried. But alas, the show must go on. So I was THAT person that brought the Costco cookies to the homemade cookie exchange party. Not sure if I’ll be invited back next year??? J

This party was a fun one as well. My brave and amazingly-patient friend, Julia, hosted a Happy Birthday Jesus party for about 25+ kids. I have a whole new level of respect for her after this as I really was blown away by her calmness as her home was taken over by the fun chaos.

Several of the kiddos dressed up (woops forgot about that) as shepherds, Marys, Josephs, and angels. As you can see from the picture of the nativity scene reenactment, Tate chose to act as the paparazzi.

The whole thing was super sweet and a great reminder of the season.

Tate’s preschool Christmas party was another fun one. Watching nine preschoolers try to do a book exchange was hilarious in itself. The book Tate ended up with, Starry Safari, has become a big favorite around here.

And a special treat was getting to decorate gingerbread houses with his friend, Jackson, who he’s “known” since Day 1 of his little life. They both did a great job and were pretty proud of their creations. For the next several weeks, Tate would ask to play with his gingerbread house. Surprisingly it wasn’t just to eat the candy and sprinkles, but he would also get a car or Little People toy and have his own little make-believe fun.

And the last one was a fun time with some of his little guy friends where they got to decorate cookies and play non-stop with cars and trains. A perfect day in Tate’s world! J