Christmas and the whole month of December were great. This year we were all relatively healthy all month which is so much better than the past two years when we had the flu.
Montana provided a very white Christmas holiday season. I sort of missed getting big snowstorms while we lived in Memphis and Albuquerque. There is no missing the snow here. We've been dumped on so much and the temperatures have been so cold. It's funny. When we lived in Memphis and Albuquerque, anytime we had snow, I bundled the kids up and pushed them out the door to play in it because I wasn't sure how much snow we'd get each winter. I think it was the third snowstorm here that I finally bundled Oliver up and let him crawl around in the snow. I knew we'd have more snow then we knew what to do with by the end of winter.
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Willa has discovered sledding. We have a little hill in the yard that she loves. And one evening, Matt pulled out the riding lawn mower and towed them around. Good times.
Our Tree
In Montana you can chop down a Christmas tree in the forest for $5. We planned on doing that, but December started to pass us by before we had time to get out into the woods. The sun sets by 4:40 in Great Falls this time of year so going to the mountains after school isn't an option. We ended up with a live, local tree but bought it from a stand on the side of the road.
It's big and beautiful and obviously not from a tree farm. I love that you can see the trunk through the branches.
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| putting the star on top |
Holiday Concerts
The week of school before winter break was so busy. Oh, my gosh. It was filled with holiday parties, Christmas concerts, the making and delivering of teacher gifts, and doctor visits (I naïvely scheduled well visits for my kids that week and Clark's new lenses came in so I had to drop off his glasses and then pick them up. We visited the medical plaza on 4 different days.)Willa's concert:
We won front row seats in a PTA drawing. I never win anything. It was so nice. We didn't have to show up early and we got to go right up to the front row. Willa is such a ham during performances. She sings loud and does all the motions supersize. She loves for us to watch her and take pictures.
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| top row. far right. |
Clark's concert:
Willa's concert was a short 20 minutes and Matt was able to go. Oliver was entertained. Clark's concert was a different story. It was much longer and I was on my own - hence, the one blurry cell phone picture. Oliver ran up to the front to give Clark a hug and refused to sit still. I wrestled Oliver most of the time and ended up behind the set for most of the show. Behind the scenes was much more fun to watch apparently.
Clark sang all the words and did the motions, but he was a little more reserved than Willa - not shy, just not over the top. Clark was really proud to have his own holiday concert.
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| Clark far left. Oliver is in front of him. |
Santa
We have true believers again this year... two of them. Santa visited Clark's preschool. Clark loved him. Willa never sat on Santa's lap this year, but someone from the ward surprised us at our front door dressed as Santa bearing cookies. Willa loved that and felt really special. They both absolutely think they saw and talked to the real Santa.
Christmas Eve
Matt was on call Christmas Eve. We ate Café Rio with Matt at the hospital. It started snowing early in the day and by the time we were ready to leave the hospital, it was getting dark and the snow was sticking. We had an exciting drive home with lots of slipping, a very near rear-ending moment, and twice we almost didn't make it up a hill. But we made it home. The kids put on their matching jammies and left cookies for Santa. Clark and Willa crawled into Willa's bed and were sound asleep before 8:30.
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| after Santa visited |
Christmas Day
The kids slept in until 7:00. Matt had the day off. We spent the day home enjoying our new presents and playing in the snow. Matt made a big breakfast and we had chicken fondue for our Christmas meal.
