Random December Happenings!

Here are a few things that happened in December that don't necessarily constitute their own blog post! 

I finally saw my hairstylist almost exactly one year since I last saw her. My aunt cut my hair in July, but it was in desperate need of being cut again. The first picture is me on Election Day and the next is me on December 3rd. She cut about 6 inches off. My hair feels so much healthier it's wonderful! 

One night Charlie actually decided to be a cat. He rarely snuggles with us at all and if he does he's never up next to us like this. He prefers to snuggle down by your lets. 

I really hope as he gets older he'll enjoy snuggling more! 

Every Christmas I like to have one small Christmasy thing to do each day to savor the season as much as we can. With so many things cancelled....singing Christmas Tree, Christmas Choir, etc...I was trying to think of creative ways to still have those little Christmasy things present this year. That's when it hit me...Christmas puzzles!!! I used to do puzzles everyday at work with my friends. I really enjoyed it so I knew this would not only be fun for the kids, but maybe even more so for me! :) I knew that we couldn't have the puzzles on the dining room table since we use it everyday for school and of course for eating, we couldn't have it on the coffee table because the top is tile which makes it not totally level and it's not nearly big enough. Also having the puzzle on the floor is not ideal, especially for my back. That's when it dawned on me we still had the drafting table top from my old crafting table. Ella and l cleaned it up, brought it inside and put it on top of the coffee table and it worked perfectly. 

I ended up buying 3 Charles Wysocki Christmas puzzles. I only took pictures of 2 of them. Honestly they were more entertaining for me than the kids, but that was okay. This Christmas break I really wanted to give Michael the gift of relaxation. I'm normally such a busy body I don't like to have days on end with nothing to do. The puzzle helped me feel productive without having to take away from Michael's relaxation.

 

The kids stayed at Ga-Ga & Pa's for two nights. They went to the Fantasy Lights and they went shopping for Michael and I. The first day the kids were gone, Michael and I went shopping, bought the last Christmas present, got takeout at Circo Circo and watched a movie. This is typically the weekend that I wrap all the kids presents. I enjoy watching Hallmark Christmas movies while wrapping. It's one of my favorite days of the month! 

Jackson has gotten back into playing with his Toy Story toys. We used a cardboard box and created a saddle so Woody could ride Ella's Barbie horse. 

This beautiful girl is finally starting on the path to getting her fake teeth that she wants. If you look at the two teeth on either side of Ella's two front teeth. you can see how tiny they are. They are called Peg Laterals. They are her adult teeth, but they are underdeveloped and will never be full side. Ella needed braces to correct her overbite, but also to make room for her to eventually get veneers on those tiny teeth. 

And just like that an hour later she aged 5 years. For right now she only has braces on the top. In about 3 months she'll be getting them on the bottom. It should take about 18 - 24 months before she gets her braces removed. 

Even though we weren't able to have Michael's work Christmas party we still went ahead and made goodies for all the workers. Instead of making 4 different kinds of goodies, I just stuck with what was the easiest.....homemade Turtles. The kids love to help make these! 

We made over 100 Turtles! 

My friend Starr wasn't able to take our family pictures this year so we settled for a picture on the front porch. This was the picture we used for our Christmas card this year. This is definitely going to be the last year where I am taller than all the kids. Owen is going to surpass me any day now!