December Re-cap

Guess I should probably just wrap all of our December activities into one post since I’m so behind.

Let’s see…

First up on the “event calendar” was dancing at the Landing with Callahan Dance Academy. Reese’s little class learned a dance to “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” and she practiced it no less than 500 times before her big performance. In fact, she still asks to dance to the music a couple times a week.

Reese dance SO good – I was super impressed that she didn’t get shy as soon as she stepped on the stage. She even said after the performance, “I rocked it didn’t I, moma?” YES SHE DID!

That same weekend, our cousin Jonathan left for Ft. Lewis, Washington with the Army. We went to the airport to see him off. We pray for him each day – for his strength and safety. We sure miss him here but are proud of what he is doing!

On Thursday, December 15th, Reese’s preschool had their Christmas party – a sign language performance of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” by the preschoolers, lunch from Callahan Bar-B-Que, and a special visit from Santa Claus himself to pass out all the kid’s presents.

The Weekend before Christmas started the craziness of visiting family and opening presents. We had such a nice time at each place we went – we treasure our relationships with each of our families so much.

First up: Christmas as Mimi’s. Always a fun time with the kids get together.

Later that week, we headed to my cousin Dana’s house for Christmas – food, games and presents and we all had such a good time!

On Christmas Eve, we went to church with Poppy and Gamee and then headed to Grandpa and Mema’s for dinner and presents. We also exchanged presents with Poppy, Gamee, Uncle Tyler and Aunt Lindsey, and Uncle Wesley. We made a pit-stop by Pappaw and Nona’s on the way home to open up a present with Christmas PJs inside.

We raced home to start the marathon of “Santa” – we set out the cookies and milk, finished wrapping the presents and had a kitchen to put together. I placed them all perfectly under the tree, sent “Tina” our elf back to the North Pole and was absolutely GIDDY with excitement for Christmas morning. This year Reese really “gets” it all – from listening to the story of the birth of our Savior all the way to Santa. It’s fun creating new traditions with her but also keeping our focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

We had a sweet morning as a family of three – opening presents together, Clay fixed us a good breakfast and we sat down and read the story of our Savior’s birth out of Reese’s children’s Bible while we ate. After lunch started another whirlwind day of visiting more family. We headed to my Aunt Anne’s for lunch and then back to Callahan for Christmas with my Papa and Granny.

(The band aid I must explain. Christmas morning, Reese was getting my stocking down and the stocking holder fell and punctured her head. My heart still hurts to this day to think about that. It’s still not healed all the way – we are praying it will heal well and have minimal scarring. Thankfully, it didn’t knock her out and we didn’t spend Christmas in the ER. It did not slow Reese down one bit!)

We have now successfully played with every toy, baby and game that came at Christmas and all the decorations are down and packed away. We enjoyed Christmas so much this year – even with all the  “busy-ness” we had going on. We cherished each moment we had with our family and friends.