Joy for the Season

Wow!! Where has the month of December gone? What a fun time it has been for our family. And busy, busy, busy even though I purposed to not be as busy as usual. 'Tis the season, yes?

Around here Christmas decorations come down within a couple of days after Christmas. We start decorating Thanksgiving weekend, so by the time December 26 rolls around, we have been looking at it all long enough! I love taking advantage of the time Honey is off work to help get everything back to the attic. Getting it done early in the week means we have lots of time to play without that hanging over our heads. :) Add a very busy 8 month old and all her swag into the room, and this mama is ready for space again! And so as of last night, I got my space back.

We really enjoyed friends and family this season. While the death of my grandmother was not a joyous occasion, we did rejoice that her 92 year old suffering body was once again made whole and that she is in the presence of her Savior now. Funerals and weddings--they sometimes really are the best times to see family. At weddings, everyone is in a good mood. At funerals, everyone is reminiscent and quite conscious of just how precious life is and how good it is to still be able to get together.

 Grandma at our family Christmas lunch in 2010...she died a week before our gathering this year

This is the month that I dedicated 70% of my Bright Star Soaps sales to the Henson family. We are at $373 as of this moment! If the last 13 soaps sell, then I can donate an even $400 to their family. Either way, the Lord far exceeded my expectations with this fundraiser. The Hensons, through this and other fundraisers this month, almost have the amount needed for their home study!

One of the fun and super cool soaps I made for the fundraiser...not my original idea by the way!

There have been plenty of changes around here with Peanut. She is a crawler, she has two teeth, she says "babababa" and "dadadada" and just this week added in a little "tsssss". Peanut sometimes will let out a big baby laugh to get our attention. I love that she is trying to get us to interact with her! Not that she is lacking attention AT ALL around here. :)  Her latest maneuver has been pulling up on her knees. She will do it at the couch or in her pack 'n play (which we are using downstairs as a playpen, or as my older girls call it "the baby jail"!). Today, however, she made it to her feet while at the couch. She is a week away from turning 9 months old. I have to wonder if she will be an early walker. My other girls were not! Here is some Peanut photo love since I have been a little behind...

Peanut and her cousin (they are just 3 days apart!) the night before Christmas Eve. We got together with Honey's family that night and had a wild time (7 kiddos!).

 Uncle J and Peanut on Christmas Eve--my family came over for food, noise, and fun :)

Honey, Uncle J, and all the cousins (minus Peanut)

So in the evening of Christmas Eve, we always let the girls open one gift. Of course, and they know it by now, it is always their new pajamas! Then we have them change into the new pj's, we grab drinks and treats from the kitchen, and we head out to look at Christmas lights. We always have a few favorite spots and then we try to add 1-2 new ones each year.

We L-O-V-E-D having little Peanut to join in on the tradition this year!

She is covering up the "My 1st Christmas"

We were so focused on making sure we got enough good photos for Peanut's birth mama that we did not get our usual photo of all the girls in their new pj's in front of the Christmas tree. Sigh.

  Christmas morning the big girls were very gracious in letting Peanut "open" her stocking and gifts first. She is gnawing on a Hispanic Kelly doll that Little Bit had and wanted to give to her.

 This kid loves tags of all kinds, so it was easy to figure out what to put in her stocking!

 Eating her new baby doll, the only one I could find that was soft all over and looked somewhat like Peanut.

 The big girls are all sporting some new warm footwear now!

 They all got Star Wars Legos this year, you can see this made them quite happy!

We sat down for our Christmas morning breakfast and Monkey in the Middle asked if there were any more gifts. I said, "That is all we had under the tree." Which was the TRUTH. :) After breakfast, we had the girls go up to one of their rooms and wait for further instructions.

When we called them downstairs, they had this fabulous reaction to what they saw!

 New bikes all around!

We had a wonderful season together, and I hope your family did too!