Last Half of December 2022

This post will cover December 18th-31st, the majority of the girls’ Christmas break. Some of our plans for the break had to be adjusted due to sickness, but we still made plenty of special memories with each other and our extended families. Here’s the recap:

Travis and Alisha showed up to church on December 18th wearing the same color shirt…haha.

That afternoon, Brooklyn noticed some blood in Abigail’s eye. I can’t remember the other girls ever having this happen, so I called our eye doctor the next day to ask about it. Long story short–they told me it was probably a broken blood vessel and to use heat/ice packs over the next few days to help it resolve. Sure enough, it went away on its own and didn’t end up being a big deal at all. It looked worse than it actually was!

I love how holiday breaks allow for more time to spend on things like playing board games together as a family :)

On December 20th, we went to a Polar Express party at Lori’s house…

She had trains out in multiple rooms for the kids to look at or play with, the Polar Express movie was playing in the living room, and she had two train ornaments for the kids to decorate.

Audrey McKee helped the kids paint and dry their ornaments. They turned out really cute!

Lori also set up a photo area with a train background. It was all so fun! She meant for the party to be for toddlers through 3^rd graders, but said that Brooklyn was welcome to come if she wanted to. Most of the kids from church weren’t able to come that morning, so it was a small crew while we were there. Brooklyn wasn’t sure she wanted to go, but all three of the girls ended up being glad they went.

While we were there, Abigail declared Daniel Holder her “new best friend”. Lori got this picture of Daniel playing stuffed animals with her. Abigail was so excited. That night, when I tucked her in, she said, “I bet he’s thinking of me right now!” ;)

These candy trains made the cutest favors when we left!! Lori really outdid herself!

That night, we ate an early supper and went to watch the Woodard Family Lights – one of our favorite Christmas traditions. We love seeing what new songs he has come up with since the previous year.

I love sending and receiving Christmas cards, and this year Brooklyn made her own Christmas card too! :)

On the back of the card, she wrote a few sentences about everyone in our family, including the pets ;) She wrote that “Mommy and Daddy enjoy their phones, playing with Gabby, and cheering on Auburn.” She was poking fun at Daddy with the part about Gabby and Auburn, two of his least favorite things ;) Of course, I’m no Auburn fan either…haha. The part about us enjoying our phones was kind of an unexpected gut punch. I’m telling you…I think I learn as much from our kids as they learn from me. Brooklyn sees us on our phones a lot and thinks that they are one of our hobbies/favorite things. Ouch. It was a good opportunity for reflection and a reminder about how we want our kids to perceive our priorities…

On December 21st, Savannah started running a fever in the evening, which put our travel plans on hold. We were planning to go to Paw and Rae Rae’s the next day for Christmas, but we ended up having to shuffle things around a bit…

Travis took Brooklyn and Abigail to church that night, and I stayed home with Savannah. I zoomed into our bible study and got amused that Gabby joined us too.

You never know where you’ll find Gabby around our house!

Savannah ended up testing negative for flu, covid, and strep, so we are assuming it was some other virus causing the fever, coughing, and headache. She was feeling well enough on December 23rd to help bake some Christmas sugar cookies at least!

The girls were excited to watch them bake in the oven…

We went all out this year and used Christmas cookie cutters as well as food coloring to make different colors of icing.

It was a messy but fun process!

Now that the girls are getting older, activities like this are much more feasible. The cookies turned out great and tasted yummy too!

We also played a board game that Brooklyn made called Sugar Rush. It was a challenge because the pieces were so small and the spots were very close together ;) We all kept landing on the wrong spots and having to start over at the beginning…haha.

During the days leading up to Christmas, we had some of the coldest weather I can ever remember. I think the temps stayed below freezing for 3 or 4 days straight. The wind made it feel like it was even colder!! I had to take something out to the mailbox at one point, and I literally ran to the mailbox and back because it was so cold. We used our fireplace more than ever during those days. Thankfully, our power never went out!

The girls were hoping to open some presents on Christmas Eve, so we let them open their gifts in the morning after we ate breakfast and got ready for the day…

We got Brooklyn a new bible and bible cover–she was getting embarrassed because her old bible had a puppy dog cover ;)

We also got all of the girls their own duffel bag to use on overnight trips. They usually pack in a shared suitcase, so it will be nice for them to each have their own bag.

Savannah had been hoping for the American Girl doll named Grace. Grace likes to bake, has blue eyes, and Savannah liked that she was the doll of the year in 2015, her birth year. You can’t buy those dolls new anymore (they were only sold in 2015), but I found one on Ebay in good shape, so we ordered it.

Savannah has already been playing with my Samantha doll, but we decided to get this doll for Savannah so she could have one that she picked out herself.

She was very surprised and excited!

Abigail was most excited about Elsa and Anna nightgowns that we gave her…

She jumped up and down and (very dramatically) collapsed into the recliner after realizing what they were. She wanted to put one of them on right away :) I figured they would be a hit for our princess-loving girl!

I thought this picture was so sweet. Brooklyn and Savannah went shopping at the holiday store at school and bought little gifts for family and friends. Just goes to show that it doesn’t matter how big or expensive the gift is…it’s the thought that counts :)

Travis and I got some very thoughtful gifts too :)

The girls also made homemade gifts for each other, including these binoculars made out of toilet paper rolls :)

Hot chocolate hit the spot on such a cold day!

We went back to see the Woodard Lights that night after supper – I think this may have been our first time ever going on Christmas Eve. We tried to make the most of our change in schedule due to sickness!

The girls all picked out one of their decorated sugar cookies to put out for Santa that night ;) They also wanted me to put wrapping paper over the doorway to their hall because they remembered doing that a few years ago.

As far as Santa gifts this year, Brooklyn had been really hoping for a gumball machine, so that was her big item :)

Savannah put a stuffed panda on her wish list…

…and Abigail had been hoping for a giant giraffe stuffed animal. Santa brought a small one instead ;)

With Christmas being on Sunday this year, we didn’t do much other than seeing what Santa brought first thing that morning before we got ready for church ;) I figured the girls would be up early, but they didn’t come out of their rooms until about 7 am.

When we said “go”, they busted through the wrapping paper and went running into the living room…

Even Gabby hurried into the living room to see what all the commotion was about ;)

Santa didn’t bring much this year (one thing didn’t arrive in time), but they were excited about the things they got. Brooklyn was really happy she actually got a gumball machine. Abigail was most excited about a Melissa and Doug diner set. It wasn’t something she asked for, so I was glad to see that she liked it. She really enjoys playing with pretend food, and we haven’t gotten any new stuff in a long time because the other girls got so much when they were younger.

Each girl got a new stuffed animal and book and several things in their stockings. Savannah was surprised and happy to get her own tape dispenser for her desk in her room. It’s the little things!

All assembled and ready to dispense lots of gum! After worship, we ate lunch at Cici’s house (the Loveless crew was with Tyler’s grandma). It was a good day! Thankfully, Savannah was fever free on Saturday, so we were all able to be at church on Sunday!

On December 26th, we were excited for our Christmas celebration with Cici and the Loveless family. Cici fixed a huge spread for breakfast, and everything was delicious.

The kids opened presents, and there were smiles all around!

Brooklyn is our resident book worm and received lots of books for Christmas this year…

Savannah got a really cute koala fuzzy journal :)

Abigail really liked her new soccer t-shirt…

My favorite part of the gift exchange was seeing what the cousins gave each other. Brooklyn and Savannah both picked out army men from the school holiday shop for Carter and Luke (I think). One of the boys accidentally re-gifted a football to Savannah that Brooklyn had given Carter last year…haha. We got a good laugh out of that. Carter gave Brooklyn some of his Pokemon cards, which was really thoughtful!

Abigail was opening a present from Cici and announced, “This present smells horrible!” Then she opened it up, and it was a Melissa and Doug drink dispenser, and she decided it was the best present EVER! Haha. That’s Abigail in a nutshell.

We went around in a circle this year and let the kids open gifts one at a time. I love doing it that way because it gives everyone a chance to see the kids’ reactions to their gifts.

The girls shopped for Cici at the holiday shop too…

We ate a lot of this caramel/cheddar popcorn that afternoon…it was addictive!!

The kids also watched a movie, and Rosie laid down for some cuddles :)

Thankful for this girl!!

It started to snow outside (it has been an extremely COLD weekend…below freezing for multiple days in a row, and at one point the wind chill was -15!), so the kids went out to play for a few minutes. It wasn’t really accumulating at first, but a couple of hours later we learned that the roads were getting bad in the area. Normally we stay until after supper, but we decided we needed to get home earlier so we didn’t get stuck driving home in the dark. By 5 PM when we left, there were already several wrecks on the roads between our house and Cici’s. Thankfully there are quite a few ways to get from her house to ours! We drove slowly and didn’t have any problems, but there were several cars in the ditch that we passed. We were thankful to get home safely!

At least we remembered to get a family picture before everyone had to leave. We had a great day together!

It took several hours the next morning (12/27) for the ice to melt and the roads to be safe to drive on, which gave the girls some time to play in the “snow” before it melted. It was just barely a dusting, but that didn’t matter to them.

They bundled up and went down the slide…

…and had a snowball fight.

They also threw snowballs at their poor father who wasn’t dressed for the occasion ;)

They even played soccer in the snow! The first snow of the winter is always a big deal, even when it’s not much. You never know whether it will snow again before spring! Update: this actually ended up being our only “snow” of the entire winter. You would have thought that the super cold weather in December would be a sign of things to come, but that’s the thing about winter in Alabama. It’s always a surprise what we’ll get!

Three little girls warming up their toes by the fire…I wouldn’t trade these memories for anything!

I bought a new bookshelf for Savannah’s room from someone in our neighborhood for only $10. It ended up being an IKEA shelf in really great shape. It’s a little wide for the wall we put it on, which bothers Travis, but it’s been really nice for her to have more space for her books, toys, and knick knacks. She had been running out of room with her previous setup.

After the roads cleared, we finally hit the road to go to Paw and Rae Rae’s house. We got to Trussville mid-afternoon, and of course the girls were ready to open presents first thing. Brooklyn brought her crabs, Waffles and Syrup, with her! It was their first time to travel with us. She had to hold them the whole car ride.

Brooklyn was very surprised to get her AG doll Julie’s basketball goal and outfit from Paw and Rae Rae. It was something she hadn’t asked for, but I thought she might like it.

Savannah got lots of books too and a couple of outfits for Grace, her new AG doll.

She got the entire set of Humphrey books and a stuffed animal hamster :)

Abigail was excited to get two Squishmallows that she’d picked out online…I think we have officially joined the Squishmallow craze.

She was very excited to get Mary Ellen’s desk and a backpack for her. Lots of AG stuff this year!

Savannah picked out a nail file for Rae Rae at the holiday shop because she knew Rae Rae likes getting her nails done :)

So glad she enjoys reading so much!

It’s always fun to look at the pictures in Rae Rae’s new wall calendar each year. That’s been an annual gift from the pets (currently Gabby, Charlie, and Champ) for as long as I can remember.

We enjoyed lots of down time at Paw and Rae Rae’s over the next few days. The girls also went to the park with Paw and Charlie every day. Travis and I got to go to eat for a belated anniversary dinner at Half Shell. The food was delicious!! Hard to believe we’ve been married 15 years!!

Abigail got some soccer cones for Christmas since she loves playing soccer in the backyard at home. We made up different games and races using the cones while we were there.

Rae Rae bought some chocolate chip cookie house kits for the girls to put together. A different twist on the usual gingerbread houses…

Daddy helped Savannah with hers…

…and I worked with Abigail on hers.

Poor Brooklyn and Rae Rae were having a hard time getting hers to stay together. I went to take a picture of the finished product, and it collapsed right before I could get the picture. Thankfully, Paw helped her put it back together again. I couldn’t help myself and started singing, “Oh, the walls came tumbling down…” Brooklyn didn’t think my song was too funny though ;)

We came back home on December 30th, and the girls had fun playing with their dolls together.

They also got to open a belated gift that they weren’t expecting – new light sabers! They love having light saber battles upstairs in the playroom.

One of my favorite sights is catching the girls reading together :)

While the girls played, Travis and I spent a low-key New Year’s Eve purging and organizing things around our house. We took a whole car’s worth of stuff to Goodwill, and I organized one of the drawers in Travis’s new office setup. I loved how these acrylic dividers fit so nicely into the space, and now everything has a spot! We definitely didn’t stay up until midnight, but it was good to head into the new year with some things checked off our to-do list.

Notes and Quotes – Last Half of December:

• 12/18/22 – Abigail: “Did you know that when people get old, they start to know a lot? But sometimes they forget.” :)
• 12/27/22 – Rae Rae fixed prime rib, mashed potatoes, green beans, and slaw for our “Christmas dinner”, as well as homemade green cake. After we were finished, Abigail asked her, “Rae Rae, why do you do all the work and not us if you’re so old?” ;) We all got a good laugh out of that!

Thanks for reading!!