Happy Christmas Eve!

Today the girls woke up to a great Christmas Eve surprise- Gram and Grumpy arrived "while they were sleeping" AND it was snowing out. 

We had a Christmas project to do in the morning- new cabinets for the laundry room (thanks Gram and Grumpy!).

And the girls had to go out in the giant snowflakes

MiniM.E. was disappointed Gram and Grumpy hadn't seen her skate, and LittleL.G. has been wanting to give it a try so we went ice skating.

When we got back it was time for a quick rest and then we got ready for church, which was exciting because LittleL.G. decided to be in the "pageant" and was also singing with the choir again!

Happy Christmas Eve! Two little girls are VERY excited for tomorrow!

One Last Holiday Party

Last night we had our last holiday get together before the real festivities start tomorrow!

The girls were the most excited to play with E. and Baby J. LittleL.G. couldn't wait to hold Baby J., who is now one and is as tall and weighs more than she does.

And the best buddies had a great time playing all evening.  They were good to let LittleL.G. play too and it was the first time we were able to hang out and chat, just the adults.  It was a really enjoyable evening!

Our Month of Christmas School

Looking back at our weekdays during December, we kept plenty busy with all the usual Christmas preparations, baking, wrapping and a lot of me sneaking away while the girls were happily playing to get a few things done. Not to mention the necessary survival mode of barely keeping enough clean clothes in our drawers and making sure there was some sort of food for us to eat.

In addition to the occasional library trip or play date, we filled our days with "Christmas School" which will definitely be a tradition in years to come. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with our normal school routine with all the extra holiday activities so I made our own STEAM advent calendar with a daily science, technology, engineering, art or math activity. This was by far the girls' favorite part of Christmas School and many activities were requested multiple times throughout the month.

peppermint oobleck

building Santa a chimney

We also used Truth in the Tinsel to learn more about the reason for Christmas. Each day we focused on an event leading up to and including the birth of Jesus and created an ornament for our "Advent Ornament Tree". While they certainly didn't retain everything, they learned a lot about why we have Christmas, and I have to admit, I learned some new things too!

And of course in between our school activities there was lots of playing...

imaginary water park

And festive activities.

making sugar cookies

Another Busy December Weekend

This weekend was another busy one. 

We started Saturday with another bounce house birthday which was postponed due to lots of snow.

Which made getting to MiniM.E.'s last ice skating class a bit challenging. But we made it right on time. She had her skills demonstration and since I haven't seen her skate since last year I was so impressed with the progress she's made!

LittleL.G. couldn't keep her eyes open...

We came home to a holiday gathering at our house with our close friends and again, stayed up way too late.

Which almost made us late for MiniM.E. to sing at church on Sunday- it was the first time since I can remember that I had to wake everybody up to be somewhere.

Sledding!

Yesterday we had a great "snow day" and found a fantastic sledding hill near our neighborhood and went sledding with the neighbors. The girls really enjoyed themselves and it was the first time LittleL.G. seemed to enjoy being out in the snow.

Today we were excited to meet our friends at the Spa Park for some more sledding. The weather was nice and mild and the hill was the perfect size for the girls.

Our 3rd Dance Recital

MiniM.E. had her third dance recital last night. For being exhausted from the weekend, she was impressively excited about it. She did a great job. They've come a long way in the past year!

A Crazy Weekend

This weekend was one of our craziest in December! It started out with a Christmas party at the neighbors' on Friday night where we had a great time and stayed out WAY too late.

Then a bounce house birthday party

followed by ice skating for MiniM.E. and nap for LittleL.G. and then as soon as MiniM.E. got home we left for a holiday get together with our friends- again, staying up WAY too late.

Sunday we were lucky to make it up to the indoor waterpark at the Great Escape in time for a waterpark birthday party!

MiniM.E. with Santa and Mrs. Claus

We got home from the waterpark just in time to host a small holiday dinner at our house.

The girls had a blast even though our weekend was so crazy. MiniM.E. even commented that it was "the best weekend of her whole life!" So even though we are all exhausted, it was worth it!