December

Hands down the fastest month in the calendar year, December once again blitzed by. I made a list at the onset of the month just to keep focus of things I wanted to make sure were woven into what the season means to us. It is so easy with school pageants, holiday baking, shopping and work lunches to get sucked into compulsory Christmas.  I'm disappointed I didn't capture a couple blog posts to collect thoughts from some of our travel and events, but that's why I take so many photos. They aren't good (my Nikon is dying) but they still tell the story when I look at them, and that is all I am hoping to do. Snag images that trigger stored memories in my brain of this quickly passing time.

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We enjoyed a really warm December

We reached new heights (and lows) at hide-n-seek. Roland stumps us, often.

We went to San Diego to visit with Grandma Joan and our cousins.

We did some fun holiday crafts and made many presents.

We might have started a new Christmas Eve tradition, or found a new flu vaccine.

We enjoyed really thoughtful gifts!

We ate tons of great food (and this was just MY plate...)

And rang in the new year spontaneously downtown with great friends.

Christmas was only about 8 hours this year, and that's OK. Highlights of the season include:
- Flying in from San Diego at 6PM with my mom racing us to the school so the kids could nail their performances in their Christmas pageant at 6:30 was pretty incredible, pretty crazy, and pretty typical.
- Decorating cookies and Grandma Joan's tree
- Getting up close and personal with a komodo dragon, taking the sky bucket across the zoo (and waving to Dad eating lunch, who's not a fan of heights)
- Delivering holiday baked goods to all our neighbors in the cul de sac
- Christmas Eve at the Owens with all our extended families enjoying darts and moonshine...hm...that sounds dangerous
- Making and giving presents
- Visiting McKendree and seeing 5 years of ornaments on a few residents trees, and meeting a 104 year-old retired school teacher
- And of course, spending time with family and great friends.

Photos? Click here.