December Recap, Part I

I guess now that the kids are back in school I can start blogging again, huh?

I'm not entirely sure how December slipped away so quickly, but I have a feeling it has something to do with how busy I was...

When we first returned from Houston, we sat down and planned everything that was going on for the month and I felt so overwhelmed by it all that I wanted to cry.  I started thinking to myself, "I just need to get through December and things will get easy again..." and then in a burst of clarity I found myself going-- WHAT????  Who wants to hurry and get through December?  What am I in a rush to get to-- January???  I HATE January (no offense, January)!  What is wrong with me here???

Anyway, I calmed down.  Breathed for a bit.  And vowed to try and enjoy December, even with all the chaos.

And for the most part, it went beautifully.  With only a few bumps along the way.

We got our first snow of the season the same weekend that Craig was planning on baking all day.  That was great-- nothing like a cold wintry day to keep your oven on all day!  But unfortunately, that snow was the same weekend that I had planned to drive up to Manassas for my favorite white elephant party ever.  With a bad forecast, I wasn't sure that driving a couple hours away from home (in Craig's tiny car with very bad tires) was a great idea.  So with great reluctance, I decided to be a mature mother of five and stay home.

I chose wrong, though.  We didn't get nearly as much snow as had been predicted and none of it stuck to the roads.  I would have been fine.  But nervous.

I was really sad to miss that party.  I do keep telling myself that I was extremely tired, though, and perhaps driving so much in one day would not have gone well for me.  (I'd had contingency plans for spending the night if I was too sleepy to drive home, but with the impending snow storm, I would not have wanted to get stuck.)  I'll never know.  But I sure miss my Manassas friends!!!

Everything turned pink that evening.  #nofilters

Shortly after that weekend was Bentley's (and our!) very first band concert.  The concert was great: the entire thing featured all three grades from the middle school and lasted 45 minutes and there were NO long speeches.  Perfect!  And I have to say-- I'm incredibly impressed with band teachers all over the world who are given a group of 20-30 students and expected to teach them all to play different instruments at the same time.  It boggles my mind!

Colton and Camille played superheroes

And Camille continued to be CrAzY!

Bentley suddenly became interested in puppets and made his own

Nothing like playing with Legos after church!

The next weekend was filled with my Christmas concert and our ward party, kind of a lot for one weekend if you ask me!  I was supposed to help decorate for the ward party and then attend my dress rehearsal on Friday night at the Paramount theater (and since Craig had a school dance he had to chaperone, my in-laws very kindly were on babysitting duty for us!).  Then the party was in the morning.  Since I knew I'd be busy, I only signed up for easy foods to bring, but the Young Women and Young Men were in charge of a musical number and even though a lipsync SHOULD be easy to do, somehow it was stressing me out.  (They did "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and it turned out pretty cute!)  Craig was originally scheduled to be at some basketball tournament during all this, also, but fortunately they let him off for that.  Otherwise it would have been a very complicated day!

As it was, as soon as the ward party ended, we hurried home and I changed into my concert dress and left for the first concert.  It went very well, but I was exhausted by the end and a little worried about how I'd have the energy for the second concert that night!  I hurried home and had dinner with Craig, his parents, and all the kids.  I'd put a roast together before the ward party, so we had French dip sandwiches, which were good.  Then I rushed back for Concert #2!  I shouldn't have worried about it-- knowing that I had family in the audience this time around made it all more exciting and energized me!  And the second concert was even better than the first!

Kendra being a good sister.  (Colton was nervous to go up-- he was worried they'd try to make him sing again.)

I was excited that they had Santa at this party, since our previous bishop was very anti-Santa at ward parties, a fact that irritated me no end.  My kids are dressed very colorfully, aren't they?

Concert weekend I finally allowed myself to wear mascara again-- look I have eyes!  (Never mind that I always look vaguely lost when I take a selfie...!)

My choir!  At the Paramount!

Zoomed in a bit-- can you see me smiling there?

I can't even tell you how relieved I was when the concert was over!  We'd been working on some really challenging music and I felt like I just barely figured it out in time.  We got home that night and I just breathed a sigh of relief-- now I could sit back and just enjoy the season without any more stress!