December Round Up

After returning from Arizona, the hustle and bustle of our normal lives quickly returned. Elizabeth jumped back into school, and Ryan returned to work after almost a month off. The girls finished off their soccer and T-ball seasons. Casey continued to impress his speech therapist and gymnastics teacher. I caught up on work for my regular job, plus work for the BAMC Auxiliary, and threw a "Winter Party" for Elizabeth's Kindergarten class. Ava chickened out of our church's Christmas Pageant, but Elizabeth participated as an angel, waving at us in the audience the whole time she was on stage. Gifts were bought, wrapped, and shipped. Any hopes I had of finishing some sewing projects in time for Christmas quickly went out the window. At least, there is still hope of getting them done in time for birthdays and other holidays. I made a pathetic attempt at decorating the house for Christmas. The kids kept asking where our outside lights were, but at 8 months pregnant I really didn't feel like climbing a ladder to hang them. As part of our yearly tradition, we bought our tree at half off a few days before Christmas. The kids enjoyed doing the decorating this year. However, I wasn't sure if some of the branches were going to support the weight of a dozen ornaments, and nothing was hung above 44".

I think it looked great! No San Antonio tree would be complete without a "Go Spurs" sign. I almost forgot to mention that Elizabeth took Ryan to a Spurs game in December, since she had earned some free tickets for selling cookie dough as part of her school's fundraiser. She still loves the Bengals, but she is now a die hard Spurs fan. At least one team has a winning track record.

Ryan had to work on Christmas Day, so we woke the kids up at 5am to celebrate before he went to work. It didn't take long for the kids to rub the sleep out of their eyes, and behold all the goodies that Santa had brought. Ryan bought the family a video camera for Christmas, so we have lots of video of footage of the kids on Christmas morning, but we forgot to take any regular photos. You will have to take my word for it that there were lots of excited squeals, laughs, happy faces, and joy. Not to mention a mountain of paper and boxes all over the place. The Black Friday Powerwheels was a huge hit. Casey immediately claimed it as "his" and spent all of Christmas day loading and unloading "his" truck with all his new gifts. However, he isn't a very good driver, so at least he will let his sisters help out in that department. Ryan took off the week between Christmas and New Years and I worked half days. He and the kids made it to one of the missions here in San Antonio. Together, we took the kids to Sea World to see the holiday animal shows and the girls were big enough to ride a few rides. We also had a chance to get together with the Crittenden family who made the trek from DC to Austin for the holidays. It was great to hang out with my best friend, Crystal, and I always enjoy seeing our girls play together. New Year's Eve was a quiet celebration with neighbors, however heard it did get rowdier after I went to bed. At least I made it to midnight this year which was better than I did last year. Overall, I think we all survived the month of December without too much stress or strain. It really was a quiet and calm holiday season.