My posting here has been sporadic at best this month, but I think I'm all caught up now on our December to Remember. We had a fantastic month full of holiday cheer - one of the best yet! It's sure fun to feel the excitement of the season and also to remember in the quiet times the real reason for it all: that baby, Jesus, born in Bethlehem.
 |
| 12.1.19 (look at that sunrise! And those icicles!) |
 |
| 12.1.19 (Callie wrote this cute letter to Santa all on her own. I just love stumbling on her letters!) |
 |
| 12.1.19 (loving frndly.tv for all my hallmark Christmas movie needs! this was a pretty good one, I mean, as far as hallmark Christmas movies go, you know. ;) I didn't get a picture of the one my sisters and I watched "together" in November, but that was a fun evening of group texting and pausing and skipping commercials so we were always in sync on our viewing in four different cities in two different states! That one was Check Inn to Christmas, which was filmed in Huntsville and Eden and down- town Ogden, so that was fun for me!) |
 |
| 12.2.19 (nasty wasty icicles of doom!) |
 |
| 12.2.19 (not as nasty, but plenty of ice!) |
 |
| 12.2.19 (look who made her appearance! Meet Miss Zoe Jane Herzog and her happy momma, Kylie!) |
 |
| 12.2.19 (and here we are back to the grossest icicles you ever did see!) |
 |
| 12.2.19 (grandma meets her newest grand - number 7!) |
 |
| 12.3.19 (in the meantime, Gregg was in NYC for a quick but big meeting, but had a few minutes to sneak out and peek at Central Park before heading back to the airport) |
 |
| 12.3.19 (can't get enough of this Zoe girl!) |
 |
| 12.3.19 (I made a birthday lunch for my friend Sariah this afternoon and I thought it looked pretty so I took a picture before we ate - cranberry salsa dip and crackers, clam chowder, salad and breadsticks. Only bummer was our other friend, Erin, couldn't come after all, but we still had a lovely time, I think.) |
 |
| 12.3.19 (waiting in Ogden at the train station for Dad's train home from the airport turned into a little site-seeing around the area) |
 |
| 12.3.19 (we wandered down to the museum to check out the outside trains (and even saw a snowblower train! (sorry, no pics))) |
 |
| 12.3.19 (here he comes!) |
 |
| 12.3.19 (finished. SO good! Gregg loved it, too) |
 |
| 12.3.19 (started. Loved this one, too!) |
 |
| 12.5.19 (it finally fell out!!! she was so happy that it popped out while she was at school so she could bring her tooth home in a tooth necklace! She got a dollar from the tooth fairy that night!) |
 |
| 12.5.19 (pre bed shenanigans from the male set) |
 |
| 12.5.19 (but this was super cute, too - playing monopoly deal on repeat around here!) |
 |
| 12.6.19 (Sam and I collected greens from our yard for my mom's science classes - they're learning how to distinguish between pines, spruces and firs and we had plenty of branches to share!) |
 |
| 12.6.19 (bell concert night for my mom - a fun one to go to!) |
 |
| 12.6.19 (this is how we concert - ha!) |
 |
| 12.7.19 (first day on the slopes and we had the magic carpet to ourselves!) |
 |
| 12.7.19 (it was a gorgeous (and warm!) morning at Nordic) |
 |
| 12.7.19 (and then a lovely sunset that evening out our front door - it always surprises me how far south the sun gets in the winter! in the summer, our sunsets are visible in the back yard!) |
 |
| 12.9.19 (library Christmas book love!) |
 |
| 12.10.19 (another great one from the library - full of flaps and tons of info about eyes of many different animals. I learned so much from this!) |
 |
| 12.12.19 (think I got enough Christmas CDs from the library? (I found out a few days later that the limit is 10 when I tried to check out three more!) These are all quite good, I must say!) |
 |
| 12.12.19 (Callie's dog man stitchery for cousin Katie is finished and ready to wrap and send to NC for Christmas! She designed and stitched the whole thing by herself!!) |
 |
| 12.13.19 (official opening day of the season at Nordic and we were up there for an hour or so before pizza and a movie night - if you look closely you'll see Sam and Gregg skiing up to the lift for Sam's first ever ride on a chair!) |
 |
| 12.14.19 (we had a yummy and fun lunch with the Gallaghers at sizzler in Salt Lake this afternoon) |
 |
| 12.15.19 (Cal and Sam had a dream of creating paper chain decorations for our house "because we needed more Christmas in all the rooms!" here are Sam's gingerbread men hanging in the hall above his door to his room) |
 |
| 12.15.19 (Callie designed these chains of links and lights to be strung across the ceiling in the big room, and these "mistletoe wreaths" are an especially festive touch!) |
 |
| 12.15.19 (Callie's gingerbread people string - she recruited Gregg and me to help in the decorating/dressing department) |
 |
| 12.16.19 (filling up with gas and checking up on the credit union progress) |
 |
| 12.17.19 (and stitchery number two for baby Zoe is finally complete (the stitching was done a while ago, but I had to make a border since the frame was bigger than the stitchery and I finally got it done today - I'm glad I had a few minutes at the sewing machine this Christmas! I think it might be my only minutes this year) |
 |
| 12.18.19 (lovely sunrise captured this a.m.) |
 |
| 12.18.19 (at Callie's dad date, she won the jackpot 1000 tickets on the spinny wheel!) |
 |
| 12.18.19 (she "bought" a pair of unicorn headphones with her loot) |
 |
| 12.19.19 (Sam and Gregg and I had a quick handful of turns at Nordic one lovely Thursday morning) |
 |
| 12.19.19 (rockin' the lift like a champ, that boy!) |
 |
| 12.19.19 (it was a gorgeous morning with basically just us!) |
bonus video!
12.19.19
 |
| 12.19.19 (this is how my package arrived - top flap barely hanging on under that tape) |
 |
| 12.19.19 (and this was the bottom! Good thing I didn't lose anything - oh wait! There was a card game that was supposed to be in this box. Would have slipped right through that terrible tape job. Luckily I got it refunded and rebought through walmart and it got there before Christmas!) |
 |
| 12.20.19 (I got to go watch Callie (and all the other kids in the school) in their Christmas song sing-along program. She's been singing "Musty" Santa all month!) |
 |
| 12.20.19 (whipped these up for dessert in honor of my buckeye sister home from Ohio!) |
 |
| 12.21.19 (ski day Saturday morning - our new favorite thing to do is get to the resort right as it opens and snag first chair up the hill, ski for an hour or so, and head back home before the crowds get there. This was my first day taking a child on the lift so it was a monumental day!) |
 |
| 12.21.19 (crushin' the Old Barn run) |
 |
| 12.21.19 (we're a skiing family! it's been so fun - I'm having a blast!) |
 |
| 12.21.19 (family snakes down the hill) |
 |
| 12.21.19 |
 |
| 12.22.19 (we made a batch of yarn snowmen thanks to the instructions in the back of this book from the library (the book was called One Splendid Tree) while we watched Charlie Brown's Christmas) |
 |
| 12.22.19 |
 |
| 12.23.19 (I love this time of morning, when the house is quiet and I am alone by the glowing tree. I'm glad I snapped this when I did because a couple days later the top half of the lights up and died! And these were brand new strands!!) |
 |
| 12.23.19 (we had a fun cooking day/book club at my friend Christine's house in Logan. We read some Ruth Reichl books and then talked about them (and plenty of other things) while we made a couple of her recipes! Applesauce Ginger Cake (drizzle coming soon), chili, and Cranberry Pecan Crostata) |
 |
| 12.23.19 (there's the drizzle! so yummy!) |
 |
| 12.23.19 (this was so good! I want to make it again next year for Thanksgiving!) |
 |
| 12.23.19 (finished this fun Christmasy read - I really enjoyed it) |
 |
| 12.25.19 (I had to snap a pic of these tags Callie made for my stocking - she made them for everyone's stockings so Santa would know which one belonged to whom) |
 |
| 12.26.19 (she couldn't wait to get started on her kiwi crate arcade kit!) |
bonus video!
12.26.19
 |
| 12.26.19 (making the pom pom prizes) |
 |
| 12.26.19 (pom pom perfection!) |
 |
| 12.26.19 (so nice to be on the trail for our first snow hike of the season! (we've been doing so much skiing, we haven't got out on the trails for a while!)) |
 |
| 12.26.19 (I don't know what happened here, but it makes me smile) |
 |
| 12.26.19 (naptime on the trail) |
 |
| 12.26.19 |
 |
| 12.26.19 (just a bit of rough housing on the hike) |
 |
| 12.26.19 (another batch of new-to-us Christmas goodies from this month) |
 |
| 12.26.19 (we finished this one in the car - good ol' Grandma Dowdle!) |
 |
| 12.27.19 (Gregg and I got to have a date day to see Swaze (I mean Jason!) and Shenell get married in the Twin Falls temple! It was so great!) |
 |
| 12.27.19 (after the luncheon we changed clothes in the church bathroom and hit up some night skiing at Pomerelle - that made my fourth ski resort in 3 states and Gregg's 31st resort in 8 states!) |
 |
| 12.27.19 (it was a lovely evening - the sky just kept getting prettier and prettier every ride up the lift - and it was snowing softly and it was just so fun!) |
 |
| 12.27.19 (while we were in Idaho, the kids were having a blast sleeping over at Grandma Elwood's and playing with cousin Gracie who was also still there from Christmas!) |
 |
| 12.28.19 (Aggie game day with these fun folks! We got to pull out the first ever up by 60 chant at this one!) |
 |
| 12.28.19 |
 |
| 12.28.19 (he was all decked out in his favorite #5 jersey to be like Sam Merrill, but Sam Merrill didn't even play in this game - bummer!) |
 |
| 12.29.19 (last Sunday of the year pic - this has become a tradition for some reason and I love looking back at how they change over a year!) |
 |
| 12.29.19 (and in this one you can see the dead light strand at the top of the tree) |
 |
| 12.29.19 (we all LOVED this one - even if you've read it before, I highly recommend listening to it told by Cherry Jones - she is a master!) |
 |
| 12.30.19 (we love all things Elisha Cooper, so when I heard he had a new book, I immediately requested the library purchase it and then I got on the holds list first thing - this was a great one!) |
 |
| 12.31.19 (I always like to snap a pic of our advent nativities to see how they evolve and change over the years) |
 |
| 12.31.19 (I don't want to forget about Callie's cute Christmas Around the World projects she made at school this month. Pictured here are Old Bufana (from Italy), Surfing Santa (from Australia), Poinsettia (from Mexico), and Gingerbread Cowgirl (from Germany).) |
 |
| 12.31.19 |
And that's a wrap on the month, year, and decade! Bring on the '20s!
