December Fun!

 December is always a full month for us with birthdays and then, of course, all of the Christmas fun and this year, despite the pandemic, it still seemed full and lots of fun.  

We arrived home from Atlanta on December 1st so we kept the kids out of school until December 8th (there wasn't any school on the 7th anyways) so although that week was quieter without the back and forth with school the week went by fast and we had fun decorating and getting in the Christmas spirit.  I asked Rich to put up the Christmas lights outside the house before we went to Atlanta so they were ready to be turned on the 1st when we arrived back home.  I then asked him to stop by Costco to get our tree on the day we landed after he got his covid test so we were ready to decorate the tree on the 2nd.  I flew through the unpacking because I was motivated to get the house decorated and I'm proud to say that by the 3rd the tree was up and the house was decorated!  Yay!  I love Christmas!!  

The month started off with the kids doing schoolwork at home for the first week and on day one realizing that Joseph was having trouble writing due to his fall off the skateboard on Thanksgiving.  That night Rich took him to urgent care where we found out that it was a fracture but would have to wait until the following Monday to get it casted due to the doctor being out of  office.  So, he had a splint for 5 days and managed to get his schoolwork done with two laptops and some help from his momma :).  He was a trooper though!

Julia does not love the work from home part of school and almost every morning complains about it (she dreads Lexia and always says the loom lessons are too long) but once she gets working she does amazing and her writing has improved so much.  I took a picture of this to send to Sydney because she wrote "I want to go ice skating with my cousins."  

Jingle was here waiting for us when we got home on the 1st (she was actually hiding in a vase in the dining room with a note saying how happy she was to be back) so we were all so happy to see her and looked forward to finding her every morning.  She had lots of fun hiding spots this year and a few crazy antics that we all loved.  We love Jingle and she really is something special!  

Collecting the candy canes from the treasure hunt!

The Army Navy game was December 12th this year and we watched it with the Cawlfield gang again.  We went to their house this year and had a great time.  The kids just played (literally the entire game) and Army won which made for a happy Daddy!  Rich, Joseph and Ella were up early that morning decorating the Cawlfield's lawn with our West Point flag so that was fun and got everyone excited!

The night of the Army Navy game we headed out to Christmas card lane and Candy cane lane to enjoy the decorations.  We love this tradition and although we decided to drive this year, instead of walk, it was just as special.  We are so glad we did it early on in the month and early on at night because we heard that since most people drove this year the traffic got awful.  The kids loved hanging out the roof and, of course, the hot chocolate!

The last day of school before break was pajama day so the kids were excited to wear their Chrstmas pjs to school that day.  We knew that Nani was going to gift them pjs so asked her to bring them over the day before so that Ella could wear them since she had outgrown all of her other Christmas jammies. 

We're so thankful that Nani and Poppa have the tradition of matching Christmas jammies-it makes it so much fun for everyone!  

Jingle brought them gingerbread house kits on the first day of Christmas break so that was a fun way to kick off break!

These kids crack me up-playing "reindeer" and "Santa" became a regular occurrence during the month of December! 

I had a mammogram at the end of December so Rich met us at a park in Mira Mesa while the kids played while I went to my appointment.  The park was actually awesome and we ended up staying for another hour after I got back so it worked out really well.  

Char and I even snuck in a run at Lake Miramar when the kids were back in school.  

Hanging at Nani and Poppa's one day in the pantry with Finn and Murphy.  

Thankfully, overall, the weather was beautiful in December so we were able to spend a lot of time outside still.  We got even luckier by a lot of time finding parks and playgrounds that were pretty much empty so didn't feel inclined into having to wear masks due to others being there.  

We found a swing this month, too! 

Charlotte learned how to ride a two wheel bike this month!!!  Yay Charlotte! We are so proud of you!  After a few times practicing in the cul de sac and one time at the community park with Daddy, she was ready!  She's kind of all over the place still when riding but overall doing awesome!

Ella is loving her new rollerskates and we found a few parks that have big flat loops for her to practice on!

We even got some hot tub time (which always ends up turning into pool time!) in this month!  

Random shenanigans at home...

I don't have a comment for this and don't even remember what was happening but let's just say this seems pretty typical and doesn't surprise me at all.  Ha ha ha.  

Fort building and booby traps

Giant strawberries

Quilt making

Showtimes

Dress up (thank goodness the Halloween costumes are still going strong!)

Selfies and outfit portraits

Birthday gift and Christmas crafts

Being creative, but safe ;)

Wrestling...always wrestling when Daddy is in charge

Influenced by wrestling with Daddy at home comes wrestling with each other in the leaves at the end of the street...

Poppa was only able to take Joseph fishing once this month with our two week quarantine in the beginning of December from our trip to Atlanta and then our two week quarantine at the end of the month from the Zickler's testing positive but their one trip was a good one!!!  They didn't catch anything (which isn't out of the ordinary for them ;) but as they were leaving somebody offered then three fish since they had caught a lot.  They said yes so they came home with these three good sized fish and big smiles! Poppa cut them up in our backyard and Rich and Joseph grilled them up that night for dinner.  It was a win-win for all.  Hopefully 2021 has them catching fish of their own!

We went to the Escondido Center for Performing Arts Christmas Light Display and loved it!  We will definitely do this again.  It wasn't very crowded at all and they had a great light show that Julia and Charlotte danced through the entire thing.  

One of my favorite traditions is definitely baking Christmas cookies!  Well, honestly, I don't love teh cleanup or the prep for it, but I do love the memories being made and, of course, we all love the end result!  Since we baked sugar cookies with Nonna this year in Atlanta we didn't do those but we did do Hershey kiss cookies and peanut butter cup cookies which were all delicious!

Gotta love the days after Christmas-they always seem a little bit more low key and everyone just spending time with their new things.  Such a good feeling!

Since we couldn't all be together this year for the annual Christmas gift card game, we organized a zoom gift card game that ended up being lots of fun.  We look forward to all being together in person again next year but we are thankful we were still able to celebrate with everyone and keep the tradition alive. Nani and Poppa did a great job with assigning each gift card a beanie baby which made it more exciting and Rich kept it organized with a spreadsheet so it didn't get out of control!  Charlotte got upset about something in the beginning so at first didn't want to participate but she came around and was happy to win her new beanie baby, Blackie.  Everyone left happy and ready to spend some money!   

We celebrated Poppa's birthday with a drive by celebration since we were still all quarantining to keep them safe.  At this time both Rich and I had negative tests but my parents were just riding out the two weeks so we gave it a few more days until we were all together.  We were happy to celebrate him though and most importantly are glad that he is healthy!

We had a little bit of rain this month which resulted in amazing rainbows!!  

Despite having to quarantine after our trip, having to quarantine because of exposure to the Zickler's and having many of the normal holiday events cancelled, we still had the best December.  These kids are amazing and didn't complain at all and we just made the best out of everything.  Every day is such a blessing and we are so thankful for all that we have and all that we are still able to do despite things being on lockdown.  Christmas just brings the special magic to homes no matter what is going on in the outside world and we are so thankful for that.