December 2017

The last month in this slog of a year -- and we're doing it up in high Christmas style.

The school winter assembly wrapped up the semester -- with Evelyn performing her much anticipated African Dance class routine (she, of course, was the one with the HUGE grin throughout - bouncing around gleefully like she was full of jumping beans). Awesome drumming performance as the soundtrack for the dancing. We love her school so much.

Emerson is exploding with 4 year old energy, and can hardly contain his excitement in his powerful little body -- he resembled a bobcat or a brawling badger more than my sweet last-born at the assembly. The good news: it always ends in a blissful collapse of sleep that carries him through to morning.

My Little Aerial FlyDog !

Oma & Opa came back (after a Thanksgiving visit) for the grand Christmas event -- We've been counting down the 25 days with advent calendars and the lighting of advent candles -- Ev & Em focused on who gets to blow which candles out at the end of the evening, but enjoying the process of identifying each candle (Peace! Hope! Joy!).  Emerson has really gotten into the magic of the season this year -- sooo excited seeing Santa at the parade, and wondering why - after the tree was decorated - there weren't presents left under it yet.

After a late night at a loooong Christmas Eve church service (we of course wanted to attend a candlelight service), Emerson fell asleep on the car ride home and Ev prepped for Santa (candy canes positioned in the shape of a heart, an oreo truffle that she made, and a cup of milk) and his reindeer (9 carrots - one for each reindeer and an extra in case Rudolf was in the mix) and then skipped off to bed.  It was such a fun morning (I got to sleep until 8am!) and not a tear was shed. Ev was beaming from ear to ear the entire day - making slime (thanks Oma) and playing games. Em played with cars, discovered a newfound love of the space shuttle, and played pool with Tag and Opa.

We're just a few days left of this year...and I can't say it was a bad year, but I can't say I won't be glad to see it go -- looking forward to the adventure that 2018 brings...and hoping it will allow us to stay in this lovely place we've started to call home.