It's been a heck of a month. Let us begin with pictures of Ava's birthday. She's 10, and it's gone by in 5 seconds. It doesn't make sense.
There were way too many orchestra concerts this month. It was out of hand. THREE CONCERTS in the span of 2 weeks. TOO MANY. This first photo is how it actually is attending these things. You can't see your own child, you just have to trust that they're there.
But then you take pictures like this, partly for posterity, and partly so the children know you were actually in attendance.
Anders has been playing basketball lately. His team is named The Silly Gooses.
Aani was being Santa one night.
Ava had lots of singing to do this month, at the Singing Sharks concert, and the school Christmas sing.
GrandPar's cancer really took a turn since November. The siblings all came for a visit one weekend, which was a blessed event for everyone. Par got to torch some creme brulee, and it was a great time together. After 6 weeks of not being able to eat or drink anything, he graduated from this life on Dec. 27th. We were able to say goodbye just a few hours before he passed, which was a privilege, and very special. We will miss him more than we can say.
Teenagers + Cousins.
I found Mr. Potato Head at the PT clinic and set him out. Our book keeper made him a Santa hat out of tissue paper and toilet paper, which made me very happy.
One of my jobs is to man the white board and come up with questions to make people interact. This was one of the better ones.
Aani and Ava got creative on Christmas Eve.
Traditional nativity. The kids are growing up and are less enthused about the forced participation.
Throwback to 2011, I believe. This Christmas card will never be topped. Sorry to everyone who has ever tried. Even we stopped after this.
Christmas Day
Addie bought Anders a Ken doll and she was the only one that thought it was funny.
The girls got stickers for their water bottles in their stockings, and I swear they were more excited about those than anything else. Trends are so so weird.
Yummy food. Dinner was especially delicious. Good job, me.
Nils' plate
Nils and the kids made a graham cracker Saratoga Springs temple. It only took like 7 hours.
And now we have this sitting on our table, and the kitchen smells like frosting all the time; but it was a fun activity. :)
I feel like this year has whizzed by faster than ever. I'm assuming this is normal for the phase we're in, but it's crazy and we're just holding on, trying to not fall off the ride.
We're so sad about Nils' dad passing away, and the year ahead will be less bright because he's not around for it. Fortunately, he gave us a fantastic example to follow, so we have a lot to strive for. May 2020 be blessed, indeed.
