December Fun

Story told by: Brody

We’ve had a busy, but fun month of December!

Mommy and some of the women from church had a fun craft night to make festive string art.

Matching trees!

As is our tradition, we went to the WSU Santa/Santa Butch night. We first told Santa what we’d like: Lainey – a Polaroid camera, Henry – a Beyblade Battle Set, and me – lots and lots of toys, but I told him I would settle for Mr. and Mrs Potato Head.

Next up was Santa Butch!

They always have fun crafts and snacks at this event as well.

Lainey is still part of her regular dance class, but her teacher felt like she was ready to be pushed a little harder, so she also gets to be part of a group of four girls that meet once a month. Their dance incorporates some harder dance moves. Lainey is loving it!

We went to the drive-thru nativity that we look forward to every year! Hot chocolate, traveling to Bethlehem, and candy canes!

The Cougar Women’s Soccer Team made it to the final four (The College Cup). Lainey’s class spent a whole week learning about it, and then wrote reports about it.

One night we had a babysitter while Mommy and Daddy attended a Red, Silver, and Green party. Mommy and Daddy together made a Christmas tree!

They had so much fun!

The next day Mommy and I got to bake together. I love baking so much!

One Sunday I picked out my very best outfit for church.

Our church had our annual Christmas dinner with delicious food and caroling.

Mrs. O’Loughlin thought of some great crafts for all of the kids!

Lainey helped Mommy with kitchen cleanup afterwards.

We found out Ferdinand’s had candy cane ice cream, so we grabbed Ava and headed over right after school.

Ava and Lainey have really enjoyed wearing matching outfits to school. It’s been happening several times per month.

The Pullman Santa route goes right past our house! It was fun to see him!

Right after Santa Claus left, Allison arrived to babysit me and Henry while Lainey went to her piano recital. Allison brought us yummy snowman treats!

Mommy and Daddy were very proud of how she did!

There were delicious treats after the recital. These are the “cinnamon candy is really spicy” faces of Ani and Lainey.

Since Mommy has a long-term sub job for two months, Daddy has been walking us to school each morning. Lainey and Henry love it. Me, not so much. Walking requires so much effort.

We’ve been learning about Christmas around the world in preschool. We’re getting different treats and traditions from different countries.

We had our Candy Cane Hunt at church. Here I am with my preschool buddies, Shay and Orrin.

Off to hunt!

There were crafts and games, but I only had eyes for this cupcake.

And because this church is amazing, it’s rare to go to an event where there’s not an egg-free option made for Henry. They’re amazing!

More baking with Mommy! Henry helped unwrap. I helped eat.

Mommy and Daddy went on a fun date night last weekend. They went into Goodwill with $20 each to buy each other the craziest outfit they could find. They were laughing so hard they were crying. This is what they came up with.

Then they had to go out to dinner and not tell anyone about their outfits…they had to pretend it was completely normal. They had so many people staring at them, but not one person asked. They had such a fun night laughing together!

On Sunday morning, our church had the children’s program, The Nativity Express.

Kids got to wear pajamas!

Mommy and Daddy were asked to be Mary and Joseph!

My true creativity and expressiveness came out during my singing.

This one had Mommy and Daddy laughing pretty hard.

After the Christmas program, we went sledding to enjoy our first big snow of the year!

There’s a park that’s two blocks from our new house with great sledding hills. And some kids had already built a ramp that we loved!

I needed a nap after we got home from sledding.

We had our Grinch Night after I woke up from my nap. We had Grinch kabobs, Who Hash, and Roast Beast sandwiches.

And green ice cream with candy cane topping for dessert!

Followed by movie time!

We got to have more snow play time at preschool.

On Tuesday night, the PTA for Lainey and Henry’s school had their Reflections reception. Reflections is a program that promotes the arts. It’s optional to enter a project, but Lainey wanted to write a poem and Henry wanted to submit a drawing. The theme was “Look Within.”

Here are our annual Christmas pajama pictures by the amazing Ileia McCall!

We were all counting down the days for Friday for our last day before winter break! Franklin Elementary School’s spirit day was Crazy Day, so Lainey went all out!

Henry’s class was decorating gingerbread houses and wearing pajamas. Daddy came in to join in on the fun!

I was presenting my own Christmas traditions at school while Addy the Advent Fairy listened (she’s the one who has been telling us about Christmas traditions all over the world).

She makes me laugh!

At the end of the day we celebrated the start of Winter Break by taking Lainey to a sleepover with Nora and Ivy.

Then Taylor arrived to babysit us, and Mommy and Daddy went out to dinner with some of Mommy’s former teaching friends. The perfect way to start Winter Break!