This post will cover what we were up to from December 1st to 23rd, and then I will write separately about Christmas Eve through New Year’s Eve. We had a good but busy month leading up to Christmas.
Abigail was on a big Frozen kick for a while, and on this particular morning, Gabby joined her for part of the movie :)
That afternoon, some of the girls pelted the moms with leaves on our walk home from school. They like to run ahead and pop out of the bushes to surprise us as we walk past.
I love getting pictures from Mrs. Borys about what Brooklyn is up to at school! During this month, the girls were on a hybrid schedule at school because of the increasing COVID cases in the area. They went to school in person on Mondays and Tuesdays and did “asynchronous” virtual schoolwork at home on the other days.
Alisha and I (with help from Amy Hester on the bow) decorated a small Christmas tree in an Auburn theme for Payton who had recently been diagnosed with leukemia and was in the hospital at UAB. We thought his hospital room could use a little Christmas cheer. I thought it turned out really cute!
On December 2nd, we stopped by the Woodard Family light show near our house on the way home from church. We almost had the place to ourselves! This has become a must-do tradition for our family at Christmastime. They do such a good job with their show, and there are usually a few new songs each year.
December 3rd – virtual school at home. One nice change from the virtual school at the beginning of the year was that Mrs. Curry switched from Seesaw assignments on the computer to sending packets of worksheets for the kids to complete at home and turn in the following week. Savannah had a hard time with the Seesaw assignments because they were on the computer (she hadn’t really even used a computer before school started!), so doing the worksheets instead was SO much better!
One neat thing about the hybrid school schedule was that it was much more flexible on the virtual days without all the WebEx meetings that we had at the beginning of the year. If the girls finished up their assignments early, we were able to go out and run errands, or they could play outside if the weather was nice. Ex. On December 4th, we went to the library to check out some new books, and the girls were excited to bring home a grab bag with a craft activity.
On December 5th, we did some Christmas shopping for Kids to Love, a foster care organization in our area. We like to bring our kids along when we do this each year so that they can help pick out clothes and toys for kids in need.
We love Sunday lunch at Cici’s house :)
It was COLD outside on December 7th, but that didn’t stop Abigail from wanting to go outside and play on the swingset…
Mrs. Borys does such a great job of making learning fun! Brooklyn really enjoyed this word work activity…writing words with shaving cream on her desk :)
Savannah’s teacher, Mrs. Curry, was so good at communicating with me about how Savannah was doing over the course of the year. One of the blessings of the hybrid mode of school was that Savannah only had 3 other kids in her class there on Mondays and Tuesdays, so it was a very small group. (The rest of the class was there in person on Thursdays and Fridays). I think the small group setting encouraged Savannah to open up a little more with her classmates and with Mrs. Curry!
I got this text from Mrs. Curry later that same day :)
I loved this directed drawing of the Grinch that Brooklyn did at school…
One thing I learned this year was how differently kids learn math today than I did when I was a kid. I don’t remember ever learning the “break apart strategy” for adding 2 digit numbers, but doing so many days of virtual school this year forced me to learn math a new way so I could help Brooklyn with it ;)
Brooklyn made me a sweet note for Thanksgiving :)
Savannah made one for Travis…
…and Brooklyn did too! I liked how she added Star Wars into her Thanksgiving note :)
This month, Wednesdays were virtual for all the kids at school, so the girls’ teachers had live meetings that morning for their classes to participate in. Savannah was happy to see all her Group B friends that she hadn’t seen in person since before Thanksgiving!
Brooklyn was so glad to see all her friends too, even though she was wishing she could be with them at school.
Savannah surprised me with the sweetest note later that day. It said, “All I want for Christmas is you. I love you, Mommy!” :) I loved it so much that it is still hanging on our fridge 6 months later…
This navy sweater with the bunny is one of my favorites in Savannah’s size right now. I had to get a picture of her looking so cute before bible class that night.
This has happened before, but Brooklyn’s hands started to get really red and cracked this month. I’m sure all the handwashing + hand santizer they are using at school doesn’t help, but I think she’s just prone to getting dry skin in the winter. We started putting Vaseline on her hands every night at bedtime, and although it took awhile, it definitely started to help.
On December 10th, the girls planned a Christmas party for Travis and me to attend. When we got to the top of the stairs, they threw homemade confetti everywhere ;)
Even though these pictures are blurry, I loved their happy faces when they were throwing the confetti :) We were cleaning that stuff up for weeks afterward…haha
On December 11th, after the girls got done with virtual school, we walked down to the neighborhood playground for a few minutes.
It was shorts weather outside that day! You just never know what you’ll get in December…
After we left the playground, we decided to scooter around the neighborhood before going back home. It was good for the girls to get some exercise on their days spent doing school at home.
On December 12th, the girls and I went over to Cici’s house to help make sweet treats for some of the older members at church. Alisha and the boys helped too. I completely forgot to take pictures while the kids were working, but it went pretty smoothly overall, and the kids had fun.
We celebrated Baugay’s 88th birthday during Sunday lunch on December 13th. The kids all made her birthday cards, and I made a cake complete with candles that she blew out :) Brooklyn’s card had a quiz on it. Some of the questions were: “What season do you wish your birthday was in? What do you wish for? How many birthday spankings do you need?” Haha!
She’s the best Baugay ever, and we were thankful for the opportunity to celebrate with her :)
Brooklyn made a giant paper airplane at art class on December 14th!
Brooklyn wrote this letter to give to Mrs. Borys before Christmas break. I thought it was sweet…
December 15th was the girls’ last day of school in person before Christmas break. (They still had 3 more days of virtual school at home that week). So they got to wear their PJs to school!
I love watching Brooklyn and Savannah walk into school together in the mornings :)
When I got home from dropping the girls off, we had a pile of Amazon packages at our front door. Merry Christmas to us! The delivery people were working overtime during the holidays because so many people were ordering online because of the pandemic. I can’t remember ever getting packages at 7:30 AM, but that just shows how hard they were working.
That day, Brooklyn made an ornament at school…
wrote about a book they read called Mooseltoe…
…and checked on their class elf named Twinkle. Brooklyn loved giving me the daily report about what Twinkle had been up to each day ;)
Savannah brought home a gingerbread friend from Mrs. Curry, and she was so excited about it :)
Virtual school day on December 16th
Abigail was looking cute in her leopard print vest and pink cowgirl boots that night for bible class :)
Savannah was busy working on a worksheet for virtual school on the 17th. She enjoyed the worksheets and was able to do most of them without help from me, which was nice!
Savannah named her gingerbread man “Ginger” and wanted me to take a picture of him to send to Mrs. Curry :) We cut a door out of the gingerbread house she made at school for Ginger’s house.
It actually worked out nicely that we had virtual school on Friday, December 18th, because we were able to go help with chalking at Phil and Gena’s house later that morning. Payton was coming home from the hospital that afternoon, and Alisha had the idea to write some “welcome home” messages for him in their driveway.
“He Can Heal Cancer”
It was a cold but fun morning with our little helpers. Hopefully it meant a lot to Payton too!
On December 19th, we went to Travis’s cousin Leslie’s wedding reception in Lacey’s Spring. The venue was really pretty and had a great view of the river! It was a fun evening, and we were glad we decided to attend even though we weren’t really comfortable with indoor dining at this point in the pandemic. We basically wore our masks the whole time except when we were eating :)
Savannah loves wearing her hair like this :)
I think Brooklyn enjoys being the biggest cousin…
For a few weeks, we had been hearing about the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that would be visible in the night sky for a couple of weeks. The best night to see it was supposed to be December 21st, so we went outside to look, and sure enough…we could see both planets! They appeared to be right next to each other. It was really neat! I wished we would have had a telescope to see them better, but I found some really neat pictures online that others took…
like this one!! I found this on NASA’s website:
“The planets regularly appear to pass each other in the solar system, with the positions of Jupiter and Saturn being aligned in the sky about once every 20 years.
What makes this year’s spectacle so rare, then? It’s been nearly 400 years since the planets passed this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will for 2020, allowing nearly everyone around the world to witness this “great conjunction.”
The closest alignment will appear just a tenth of a degree apart and last for a few days. On the 21st, they will appear so close that a pinkie finger at arm’s length will easily cover both planets in the sky. The planets will be easy to see with the unaided eye by looking toward the southwest just after sunset.”
Brooklyn tried using her binoculars to get a better view, but we really needed a telescope to see Saturn’s rings. It was still really neat though!
On December 22nd, I took Abigail to our neighbor’s house for a playdate. Katie and Will live two doors down, and they have a little girl named Emily who is a few months younger than Abigail. We had fun playing in their backyard. I’m thankful we live in a neighborhood with so many kids!
That day was also our anniversary. I loved this card from Grandpa Dvorak…he even used a hashtag!! ;) 2020 was definitely the perfect year for our “lucky” 13th anniversary…haha.
Brooklyn has been begging for us to get a dog for months! Unfortunately, I think Daddy is going to be a hard sell ;)
On December 23rd, Brooklyn and Savannah helped me make some donut mini muffins. It’s a really easy recipe, and they taste yummy :)
I realized that afternoon that I’d completely forgotten to have the girls wear their Christmas dresses to church on the last Sunday before Christmas (the 20th), so they wore them to bible class that night instead…haha
I liked Savannah’s squinty eyes and big smile in this one :)
I ordered these cute personalized ornaments on Etsy for the girls’ teachers, but the shipping was so slow that they didn’t come before Christmas break started. They finally showed up in our mailbox on the 23rd!! Oh well. Their teachers got a belated Christmas gift in January ;)
Notes and Quotes from December:
- 12/7/20 – Savannah told me a little while ago, “Mommy, I think I like being at school better than being at home because Mrs. Curry is there.” High praise for her favorite teacher!! She loves Mrs. Curry!!
- 12/7/20 – Savannah noticed that she has her FIRST loose tooth!!
- 12/8/20 – “Tick tack taddywack” – this is how Savannah sings the Knick Knack Paddywack song she learned at school…haha
- 12/10/20 – Brooklyn asked what we were having for supper, and I told her Mexican chicken corn chowder. She exclaimed, “Oooh, Mexican chicken SOUR! I love that!” Haha!
- 12/18/20 – Me: You’re getting to be such a big girl, Abigail!
- Abigail: You’re a big girl too, Mommy!
- Me: I’m a big girl??
- Abigail: No, you’re a mommy!
- 12/19/20 – Savannah: “Why do they call it “football” if they don’t use their feet?” She’s a deep thinker! She is always asking why this letter makes that sound or why a certain word is spelled like that. She’ll say, “It doesn’t sound like it should be spelled that way!”
- 12/19/20 – The girls spent the night with Cici last night, and I asked Abigail when they got home, “Did you have fun?” Yes! “Did you obey Cici?” A little bit. Then she thought about what she’d said and added, “A lot of times!” :)
- 12/21/20 – Abigail was dancing and spinning around in the living room, and when she stopped, she said, “The house is going to fall down!”
- 12/23/20 – Abigail saw a lady with white hair in the truck next to us while we were stopped at a red light and asked, “Is that Santa’s mom?” She is also convinced that she will meet Santa while she’s asleep tomorrow night :)
Thanks for reading!!
