December - Pre Christmas

Here's our December (before Christmas) in a nutshell.

A few days after we got home from Thanksgiving we had our first big snowstorm of the season. Corbyn saw all the kids playing outside and wanted to go play too. After getting him all dressed in his coat, gloves, and hat, he took one step outside, let me take a picture, and then decided he didn't want to play after all. (He got snow pants and boots for Christmas and has been much more into playing in the snow since then!)

My dinner group had a cookie exchange the first Thursday in December. I made Brownie Cheesecake Peppermint Bars and Peppermint Cookies and Cream Popcorn. Corbyn was my peppermint crusher.

We went to pick out our tree.

The kids loved helping decorate the tree. Most of the ornaments ended up in the same spot, so I redecorated it after they went to sleep.

They found a sheet of bubble wrap that some of my decorations were wrapped in. Boy did they love popping it!

I was so excited to decorate for Christmas this year because I had quite a few new decorations. In October and November Kohl's sent me a bunch of coupons for $10 just for the heck of it. I didn't have anything else to buy and their Christmas decorations were already 50% off, so I was able to add to my collection for almost nothing!

I also got a couple new nativities at Deseret Book (one for $3 and the other for $4). I love my little nativity display! I now have 7 - one for every Christmas we've been married.

Thanks to Pinterest I found a way to hang all our stockings without buying 4 stocking hangers and without a mantle. (And if you look closely, you can see what kept me so busy the entire month of December - advent ornaments for this little tree from imagineourlife.com. I'll be posting about that in more detail another day.)

While we were hanging up ornaments I pointed out Corbyn's ornaments to him - then of course he wanted to know where his ornament for this Christmas was. I have always waited until after Christmas (when they're 50% off at Hallmark) to buy them, but I knew he wouldn't let me wait this year. I was able to find a coupon for $5 off a $10 purchase at Hallmark, so we took the kids to pick out their ornaments. I would have picked the Jake ornament for Corbyn (because he was his favorite for more of the year), but he insisted on Batman!

Peyton picked this Mickey and Minnie ornament which is perfect for her because she just loves Minnie!

The kids saw Santa for the first time this year at our ward Christmas party. Corbyn was so excited (unlike last year when he wanted nothing to do with him)!

This was Peyton's year to be terrified of Santa. The rest of the night and for days after she would say, "Santa home" over and over - like please tell me he went home and I never have to sit on his lap again! 

We had a Relief Society activity where we learned to make homemade Christmas treats. I won a drawing for all the ingredients to make fudge! I guess now I need to get over my fear of making fudge and try again!

Corbyn got a really really bad cough. I took him to the doctor and they gave him 3 breathing treatments while we were there. (We were there FOREVER. Luckily I had dropped Peyton off at my parent's house.) They sent us home with an inhaler and a bunch of prescriptions for him to take. He got better quickly, but we had a few really not fun days. (And of course those days coincided with the weekend Rog had to take all but one of his finals and go see the Temple Square lights with the youth - so we didn't see him at all.)

I had already scheduled an appointment for the kids to have pictures with Santa at CheapShots Photography, so we put Peyton through another encounter with Santa. Such a classic shot!

I made Soft Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Lemon-Creme Filling for Sunday dinner with my family. They were so good! And surprisingly very Christmasy even though they didn't have any peppermint!

After that really bad weekend Rog finished up his last final Monday morning and then had 3 glorious weeks off!

I got our Christmas cards sent off.

We did chips and salsa for neighbor gifts.

We rode Frontrunner and TRAX downtown to see the lights on Temple Square with my parents and the Jar. It was fun seeing how Rog gets to school every day!

We had dinner at Kneaders in City Creek and then met up with the Petrosinos. 

Peyton rode on my shoulders almost the entire time!

If you look closely there's a little Corbyn in the bottom right corner checking out the Christus.

We always take a picture here because this is where we got engaged 8 years ago (on December 21st).

If Peyton wasn't riding on my shoulders she was being carried by Grandma.

We went sledding in front of our house.

It was the perfect warm-up hill for the kids' first time sledding this season.

We drove through the Spanish Fork Festival of Lights. The kids got to come sit up front with me. 

We love living so close to this and look forward to it every year!

The Bishop hosted a fun activity at Nickel Mania for the single sisters in our ward with young children.  He invited his counselors and their families, so we got to go. We all had fun playing games and earning some tickets.

Peyton invented her own way of playing Skee Ball.

Corbyn loved the Ninja Turtle game even though he was a little young to play it himself.

I taught my Primary class for the last time the Sunday before Christmas. (I was assigned to help Rog teach the 5th Sunday lesson the Sunday after Christmas.) This class was absolutely crazy, but I really grew to love them.

Elise Jones, Luca Soelberg, Kyson Romney, Traeson Staiger, Maggie Stephenson, Dallin Cook

(Not pictured - Presley Knapton, Charlie Nelson, Keira Wall)

The Sunday before Christmas we had our Ririe Christmas party. We had a nice dinner. We told Corbyn he had to eat his dinner or he wouldn't get to open his present. He's never eaten better!

My Uncle Kevin gave a spiritual thought and then we got to open presents from my Grandpa and Grandma Ririe. Peyton got clothes and bottles for her dolly and Corbyn got a Jake and the Never Land Pirates Lego set.

I made Oreo Cheesecake Bites with Red Holiday Oreos for dessert. 

We had a great time spending time as a family celebrating and getting ready for Christmas!