One more December post.

We really had so much fun this month. Both Tom and I were off for the entire week of Christmas and we were able to do so many fun things. Even the rest of the month was filled with activies ever weekend. Some I’ve already written about, but there were enough other things I just wanted to get down in a post.

First up, for the first time ever we attended our town’s tree lighting! I’m always a little confused as to what you’re supposed to do leading up to the event. I think the real answer is have more friends and spend your time chatting with them, but we just stood around and waited. It was worth it though, because when the trees lit up, it was one of the coolest things we’ve ever seen. All the towns around here light up every tree on the common, not just one tree, so it’s super pretty and dramatic.

We did a thing!

I’m not sure if it was more for us or more for the kids (okay it was definitely more for us), but we decided to try out Disney on Ice. Hands down my favorite part of Christmas.

Disney magic is always wonderful and immediately made me tear up, but maybe part of it was also the privilege to bring my children such joy at a time when our world seems to falling apart - it was a nice break for sure. I’ve also learned that anytime you can show a child something completely new is pretty amazing. Watching them take in something they didn’t know existed is honestly one of my favorite parts of being a parent. It’s a little sad knowing that if we do this again, it might not be as amazing, but this time was worth it.

Somehow we managed to pull off a small celebration for G again, just days before Christmas. It’s such a hard thing - in the middle of getting ready for Christmas and wrapping presents and figuring all that out, we suddenly have to double decorate and make a cake and have him feel special.

For months he’d been asking for another train birthday cake, like he had for his birthday last year, but then suddenly with a month to go he asked if he could have a baa baa birthday again. I told him that surprisingly he’d actually never had a baa baa birthday before, at which point he demanded it.

Whew this year really exhausted me! I swear I need to start prepping and wrapping gifts now to get ready for next year. By the time Christmas morning was here, I could barely keep my eyes open. But we did it - and I think it went well. We numbered the presents again this year, which is working for us. Not only slows down the rush, but keeps them opening presents in the order we want, and if they all got the same thing, they open it at the same time.

We did our usual cinnamon buns for breakfast, chinese food for lunch, candy canes on the trees and so much candy all day long. We watched a few movies, stayed in our PJs, and stayed home. The kids were sad there was no snow, but I think that’s going to be a normal thing here on Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wishing everyone a wonderful day. We’re hoping for a mix of relaxing, fun, and chaos.

Five seems like a big number. Five means kindergarten is coming. More and more I look at pictures of him and realize that he has gotten so big. Everything about him looks older and not like the little kid he used to be. He’s calmer than he was, his outbursts (while still epic) are less frequent and easier controlled. It’s hard knowing that the upcoming year is going to be both hard and exciting for him (any mentions of kindergarten leads to an immediate meltdown), and that he’ll grow even more.

He’s been working to pick up new skills - how to get himself dressed every day, and put his dishes away after a meal. His drawing skills are also getting really good and are so impressive. Pictures he draws have gone from cute and funny to almost shockingly good.

Time to dump a bunch of pictures and maybe some memories tied to them. I wasn’t kidding when I said the fall was non stop events, to the point I forgot we even did some of these things until I saw the pictures.

We checked out a new local farm for pumpkins, hay rides, and to E’s excitement - a corn maze! We also later went to our local farm stand to do their corn maze, which is much more my speed - and F’s too. They open at 7am, so we like to go early in the morning and let the kids run through the maze for an hour until they’re tired.

The fall holiday season is moving right along.

As much as I’d love to hit pause, it’s not going to happen, so let’s just jump right in.

As always, I tried to make Thanksgiving as low key as possible. I had bought some pies and a pumpkin roll from a fund raiser at the elementary school, and figured that would be good enough for Thanksgiving, and then was told that we NEEDED a pumpkin pie. Which is fine, I love pumpkin pies too, so the kids made one on the Wednesday they were out of school. Turns out F is really into baking and loved the whole process. And everyone loved the pie.

It happened!

At 6 and a half, we finally have our first lost tooth!

It has been loose for months, and really ramped up the last few weeks. Tom wiggled it at Thanksgiving and declared it lose enough he would have pulled it as a child. However it seems like E takes after his mama a bit, and had no interest in pulling it. He was wiggling it a bunch with his tongue, and when he woke up this morning it was half falling out of his mouth.