Where DID December go?

I had good intentions to post every week of all our fun in December.  Then we were so busy I couldn’t even keep up with the laundry let alone a blog.  I was so excited about the new skin for the blog too.  Here are a few of the highlights of our month!  Sit down and buckle up, it’s a long one. 

 

We started the month off with some family ski trips.  This year is the very first year, after having kids for over 10 years now, we were able to all go skiing together.  We’ve hit the slopes quite a few times now and the kids are picking the sport up very quickly.  Me?  I’ve been making good friends with the snowy ground.  hehe  But I will say I’ve gone down a few blue runs for the first time ever, so I must be doing something right.  Jeremy and I got to go on a little “no kids” skiing getaway and I skied at Alpental which was quite a success for me (but I’ll save that for another post)!

 

    

Jeremy: The “Keeper” of the passes.   They carry their own skis!

 

            

  Kayleen was delighted to be carried up the hill.

 

   

Alexander’s first time on the lift!!!     

 

  Faster lift…kind of….

 

       

They are learning SOOOO fast!!!!

At the top of a blue trail…K & E  made it down before me….

 

My first blue run!!  I fell and a guy helped me and said,

“Are you okay?  That looked like a train wreck!”  Gee, thanks mister! 

 

I will say, the kids and I have learned a lot the past few weeks and are moving on to more challenging trails.

 

 

I host an Ornament Exchange for the women of our church each year…this year was our 3rd, I believe.  It’s in the first week of December, so we are very busy after Thanksgiving getting all the Christmas décor up.

 

                    

 

       

 

                    

 

Everybody pitched in to make the house festive!

 

Another annual tradition is the decorating of ginger bread houses.  This year Costco sold them already pre-built…for the same price as the old build-your-own ones!  What a treat for mom!

 

 

Surprisingly, Kayleen was very orderly when taking the parts out of her box.  Ethan on the other hand put it all in a big pile.

 

 

Colorful goodies and much concentration at the table that afternoon.

 

 

The Annual Women’s Ornament Exchange was a hit!  The house was packed with 34 women.  What fun!   The food was very good and the spiced cider hit the spot on a cold, rainy evening. 

 

 

Our nieces also celebrated birthdays this month.  They are sisters who turned three years old and one years old.  What cuties! 

 

         

Aunt Jill and Cousin V looking at ourselves while videotaping ourselves.   And Cousin A hanging out on the couch looking sweet as can be.

 

 

We ventured to Bellevue Square to see what all the fuss was about.  Oh yes, Santa!  It’s been a yearly tradition to get pictures taken with Santa.  We have them all lined up as decorations and it’s such fun to look at how the kids have changed through the years.  Here we are waiting in line to see Santa.

 

   

     

 

After waiting in line for about 45 minutes, we saw Santa and then raced over to Lincoln Center to watch the newest of the Narnia movies.  I think we’ve had a great time these past two weeks off from school!

 

     

 

 

 

Jill’s parents and brother spent Christmas weekend in North Ben with us.  We all hung out and enjoyed each other’s company.  It was very nice to see the kids reunite with their Uncle Chris.

 

Movies, preparing the ribs, cooking the food, and enjoying each other…

 

   

Kayleen with Grammy Bechard eating popcorn and watching a movie; while Papa Bechard and Jeremy discussed the meat on Christmas Eve.

 

Milk and cookies for Santa!  Jeremy and Uncle Chris were my life savers…they wrapped almost all the gifts while I made the quiche for Christmas morning breakfast.

 

 

Kayleen getting some help decorating her Harry Potter hat.  And Jeremy doing his “stink” eye for the picture for a sweet, memorable Christmas morning photo.  (ehem)

 

 

 

 

Here we all are playing Kinect – our family gift.  What a blast!  The games are very well done and we all had fun to play game with each other.  Lots of laughter filled our family room!

 

 

Jill making a yummy Congac and cream pan sauce from the meat drippings…mmmm……  And just look at that delicious looking hunk of meat Jeremy made!

 

 

Christmas Dinner with family and friends.

 

 

I had to take this picture as it reminded me of Grandpa Rule.  Later on the “boys” played Chutes and Ladders.  Yoda really wanted to play too. (wink)

 

Alexander stayed in his jammies the whole day.

 

 

As you can see, it has been a busy month.  And now we’re down to the very last day.   What did we do to end 2010?  But of course, more skiing!  Are you all tired of hearing about skiing yet??  I’m sure there will be more, it’s all we do now.  Have to get our monies worth with those season passes right???