December (The Disappearing Month)

December is annually a blur. A month of our year that flies by and we're sitting in the middle of January trying to catch our breath...even more so as a family of six!

 Only a little bad news to report: Tim hit a deer.

And Miriam's heart murmur reappeared. She scared us a time or two saying her "heart hurt" and getting pretty winded at a birthday party.

But lately it doesn't seem to be slowing her down too terribly much.

St. Nicholas stopped by with gifts to celebrate his feast day on December 6th.

There was a touch of snow on the ground, so Felicity ran out to play in it.

Eventually we got a little more...and Miriam crafted herself a (little) snowfriend.

Miriam was the Star Student in first grade and got to make a poster all about herself.

We were a little surprised that her favorite place to visit is the library. We get it - the library is great. But we were expecting something like Aunt Shirley's lake or Great Wolf Lodge or any children's museum or the splash pad. Nope. The library. And we love that. She chose all the pictures on the poster which are all so such sweet memories.

Simon mastered smiling throughout the month. He preferred smiling for his sisters. Make sense...they are the goofiest people in the house.

As a Christmas gift, Tim's Aunt Sue helped us purchase stained glass windows to hang on our big empty kitchen wall! Mommy picked out some Amy Butler (a fabric designer) wallpaper when we were building the house, ordered a sample, loved it...and found out it is all gone. She even tried to get it from England. No luck. But we got the sample framed and flanked it with our new stained glass. Every time we hang something on the walls it just makes the space feel more complete, more ours.

See...goofiest people in the house.

The girls had the Christmas Program at school. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Maria, Aunt Nichole, and Nana all came! The girls and their classmates were adorable, as usual. But Mommy was very distracted by Simon who was cooing and smiling through the older students' performances...Daddy even sushed her at one point.

We kept up on Felicity's theme weeks...including a week about Bears and Hibernation.

We had family Christmas parties...Simon met his fan club.

...and two of his great-grandmas!

 The girls learned to play the limbo thanks to Fun Aunt Lori (Grandma's sister).

We pause this blog post for more pictures of Simon with his extended family.

Aaaannnd we're back. 

Christmas Eve we were the Holy Family at the Children's Christmas Mass at our parish. The girls were adorable, Simon didn't cry, and Mommy and Daddy were mostly hot and uncomfortable being in front of the congregation in costume...but the girls thought the whole thing was really special so it was worth it.

Christmas Day! Santa came with too many presents. Like normal.

 Simon gave us more precious smiles.

 And Nana and Papa gave the girls their Journey Girl dolls that they're obsessed with.

So there's December. A month of frantic partying and trying to remember the real reason for the season: God humbling himself to save humanity.