Well December is always super busy so get ready for the longest post ever! Haha! With the holidays, parties, preparing, school, and just enjoying family and doing some of our many traditions together, we always have a fun month. It started out with snow left over from the end of November. And of course we had to play in it! And we tried to play almost every day in it! Lol!
Friday we went to a school showing of the Bremerton Dance Centers Nutcracker to check it out. It was fun and very pretty! I liked it better than than the Irene's show.
Later that afternoon, Ashia picked me up and with her boys we headed to a tree farm to get a tree for the church. We found a pretty nice one. Any tree for $20 is a steal! And we could get a pretty tall one for the sanctuary.
That night we got more snow! So crazy to get so much snow in our area!
Olivia thought the lamp looked like the one described in Narnia!
Another beautiful day of snow!
But later that afternoon we made it out to decorate the church and put up the tree we got. While we were decorating the kids were sledding down a crazy hill there at the church. They had fun, but the snow was so wet, that they were drenched when we headed home a couple hours later.
And the decorations and tree turned out really nice and simple!
This was a busy day, because that night we decided to go to downtown Poulsbo to see St. Lucia come in on the water. I think we maybe watched this when we first moved here, but haven't for years so, it was fun to go and watch it again. It was fun and there were a lot of people there!
And then there was a big bonefire and reading. Not quite sure what they were saying, but it was fun!
After our fun night we decided to go to Red Robin with the Carlsens and it was really fun! The food is always yummy and of course the company was great!
My pretty tree! I love having a tree in the house and seeing all of our ornaments from the past. Always so beautiful!
 |
| And more Oliver under his favorite tree! |
And there was still snow on the ground so what did that mean? Of course more sledding!! SO in no particular order here are some more sledding pictures when we met up with friends back at the school. I believe this is the day that I drove the van and Olivia drove the jeep. And the jeep went right up the hill to the school, and I got stuck going up the hill and was spinning out by midway up. Front wheel drive and too much weight in the back. So, after a few attempts, I gave up and parked at the bottom of the hill and got a ride to the hill with friends.
 |
| Rae flying off of her sled! Haha!! |
We still did the shepherd again this year. Well sorta...I was really bad at remember to hide it most nights!
More Oliver pictures with our pretty sparkle Christmas tree!
And another pie night...this time at Shari's! The girls table!
And more cat pictures! Aren't they the cutest??!!
This year, I once again helped plan the youth Christmas party. This year was fun because they also ended up having a Christmas party for the younger kids upstairs as well so all the kids had a place to be. I had help from some of the kids that had won the prize of helping to plan the party.
Hre are the presents we brought which were some of the better gifts that were brought. I try to get the kids to bring fun gifts that they would want to get, but that doesn't always work so well.
I don't think I am going to re-arrange these pictures so they will be in the right order. We had a lot of fun! We had pizza for dinner. Then we did the unwrap candy from a saran wrap ball while wearing oven mitts and the person next to you tries to roll doubles so they get a turn. After that was our gift exchange which had fun gifts and terrible gifts, and the most popular gift was a gold fish. After that the girls that helped me plan really wanted to do bean boozled. Which is where you grab a jelly bean and then you eat it and see if it tastes good or bad. Most of them are bad and it is kind of funny watching their faces. And then we still had some time left so we finished with a game of celebrity and that was really fun! Getting to and figuring out everyone's names was hard with that big of group. It was a really fun night and fun was had by all!! Here are a few pictures that I took.
And I wasn't upstairs but here are a few pics of the little kids upstairs.
And we did our Christmas crafts once again this year. We have done it so many years, but the girls still love to open the boxes and get the candy and answer the clues and to the crafts. I think they know the Christmas story pretty well! I wouldn't want it any other way and I love that they still love (well mostly just Rae) but that they like doing it.
We had to say goodbye to our friends the Alfords at the Sunday service after the Christmas party. Nick was headed of to the other side of the water to pastor a church over there that had hired him. What a blessing they were to our church while they were here and we were so sad to see them go, but so happy for the new adventure at the same time.
And they invited us to come to the mall and watch them play in the orchestra after church. So we did for a bit. We were late, but the part we saw was very beautiful!
Another tradition we have is to do gingerbread houses each year. This year I got three so they coud each do one of their own and not have to share.
That night we watched some friends do some dancing and another St. Lucia showing. It was really pretty and fun to watch our friends and the show.
Can you tell I love my sparkle tree? Raelyn and Oliver sitting by the tree!
On a Wednesday night at church we had a violin player from Spasenie the band and the Ukraine. He was so amazing. I was starting early with my new minister of fellowship roll so I was in the kitchen serving hot chocolate, coffee and cookies. It was a neat night of worship and praise.
Next it was time for the Christmas dance show at Irene's. Raelyn had a ballet and modern dance. And we had a fiasco with Claire's pointe dance and it was in a different show, so she ended up just dancing in her ballet dance. I was sad that she didn't get to dance on pointe again, but she wasn't feeling very confident in her ankle yet, and they changed the dance on her at the last minute and she didn't know it, so she didn't want to go on stage and do it. I was really sad, and upset that she didn't get to do it.
Here is a picture of the girls getting ready for the show.
First up was Claire in her ballet dance. She looked so pretty in her long white skirt!
Next Raelyn had her ballet dance! She looked really cute in her black skirt and pinky/ red glitter belt.
Next up was Raelyn's modern dance? Can you find her in the these pictures?!!
And here are a few pictures from after the show. This ended up being our last dance at Irene's, well at least for now. The girls ended up switching studios in January as we were feeling frustrated with Irene's.
Claire was able to get her 5 year dance trophy that she was supposed to get in the spring, but didn't because of her leg break. Raelyn has been dancing a long time and still hasn't gotten a trophy. I may just have to buy her one, for all her hard work. I missed her name being called and seeing her on stage, because I had left to go potty (I had to go really bad!). And it wasn't on the program, so I didn't know. But they gave it to her because she wasn't going to stay for the next show and her pointe dance.
Hans took this picture of himself when he was supposed to be taking the next picture.
We made some hot chocolate bombs this year! They were yummy and fun to watch explode, but really a lot of work to make. I might try them again next year....we will see!
And then it started snowing again! Snow just a few weeks apart! This was crazy! The below picture is so pretty with the bald eagle flying in the snow!
On a Monday night when we had some snow coming down, we did some caroling for a retirement area. It was a beautiful time of sharing carols with them with our church family. It was also the night I found out Hannah had gotten engaged the night before. What exciting news that was!!
And it kept snowing! So here we were just a few weeks later with another week of snow right before Christmas. And I thought it was hilarious that CK tried to minimize Christmas by having the kids go to school till Friday, December 24th, but instead God cancelled their week of school with snow. But unfortunately they will now have to go school till almost the end of June. Once again it was so pretty and we had to go sledding of course some more!
This sledding day we went to Michaud's parents house to sled with some friends. The kids had a blast! And of course Gina the hostess made hot chocolate for everyone!
 |
| She smiles so nice for me...lol!! |
And Raelyn wanted her hair trimmed...I think I have the pictures in the right order...hard to tell! Lol!
 |
| That morning we saw a coyote in our garden. |
The next day....you guessed it! We went sledding again! This time we were off to a new spot the Longley's house to sled. They have a cute kitten who they caught a mouse for and he ate it right there. Weird!
Another tradition we have at Christmas is to make sugar cookies! This year we did royal icing and they were so cute! We don't love the taste of royal icing as much, but it sure is fun to decorate with!
And I love amaryllis at Christmas time! This one was really pretty!!
And more sledding!! This time we were back at the school with friends! We were actually kind of getting tired of sledding! And I was getting tired of all the wet clothes! Haha!
The night of the 22nd. So pretty!
 |
| Our pretty little ornament tree. |
On the 23rd it was icy outside! We call the 23rd Christmas Adam. I was glad it was icy and we had an excuse to stay home, finish up cookies and get ready for Christmas. With all the snow and sledding, and well you know, I am always behind, I was behind! Lol! Presents to wrap, treats to make for friends and neighbors, etc.
Some of the cookies were done! A few more to go to finish up! But unfortunately when you stop and go back to it, the frosting can get messed up...grrrr!!
Another tradition we have is on Christmas Adam I always gift the girls with a puzzle to work on over Christmas.
The final cookies! As always they turned our really cute! And really yummy!
Lots of truffles and treats to hand out to friends!
The puzzle I got this year was 4 in a set. They were smaller, so went faster, but are really cute! This one was a beach scene, because we were heading to Hawaii in a few months.
Look at these cute cats on my bed!
More cute cookies!
This year we pulled out the guitar hero. It had been a long time since we had played it, because we had lost an adapter we needed for the guitars. Well we found new adapters and decided to teach the girls to play. It was really fun! I forgot how hard it was! But it is really fun!
I'm not sure why only half the table was set...hmmm...maybe I remembered after a couple people took their plates to fill them up. We had our traditional lasagna, bread and ceasar salad.
 |
| A little more guitar hero before church. |
And I was able to get some pictures of each of the girls in their dresses before we went to Christmas Eve service. Olivia did slides at the Christmas eve service so that is why she wasn't here for these pictures.
One of my favorite things! Candlelight Christmas Eve service! I love seeing my sweet girls' faces all lit up by candlelight! And of course I just love being with our church family celebrating our amazing savior and all that he did for us!
After service we got a few sister pictures and one picture of Olivia.
One of our favorite traditions is the one Christmas gift the girls get to to open on Christmas Eve. Of course they know it will be pjs, but they are still excited to see what they get!
Christmas beauty!! It really is magical!! Even though there is no magic at all!
Christmas day was on a Sunday this year. In the past when Christmas was on Sunday we skipped church and just stayed home. But we decided this year to got to church as the girls are older and it just doesn't happen very often that Christmas is on a Sunday. It turned out to be really fun to worship with our church family on Christmas morning. We got up and going though so the girls could do stockings and breakfast and get ready for church.
 |
| Stella was excited about her stocking! |
I made this cute little phot shoot spot at church in a corner. It turned out pretty good. I hope to revamp it a bit and make it better next year hopefully. But I liked our photos turned out on Christmas morning.
 |
| Cute friends. But this needed to be taken in closer so you couldn't see the edges. |
And back at home the girls let me a get few more pictures of them in their dresses from Christmas day, before changing for Christmas present opening.
I am not going to adjust the order of these pictures of our Christmas present opening after church.We try to keep the girls with 3 gifts, something to read, something to wear, something they want. And then there are few things like calendars and other things I give them each year. So in no particular order here are the pictures from our gift opening! Oh and the girls exchange names each year so they each have a sister to give to and receive from. That is always fun and then they get a few more things they want.
The rest of Christmas day was relaxing and fun. We had a yummy prime rib dinner with twice baked potatoes, cranberry salad, and brussel sprouts I think. We had yummy egg nog pie and banana cream pie for dessert I think. I can't remember for sure.
December 28th, we decided to blow up Claire's inflatable paddle board to see how it worked!
Later that afternoon we decided to go bowling together. It was really fun. I wish we did this more often, but it is kind of expensive. We ordered some nachos and fried pickles to snack on and had fun bowling. Here are a few fun pictures from our time.
And look at these final scores! Do you see who came out on top? Lol! That doesn't happen often!
 |
| I am blessed! |
The next day on the 29th, we went with a group from our church ice skating for an hour and a half. The girls and Hans all skated, but I just watched. It hurts my ankles too much. Everyone had a blast and it was really fun! Here are some pictures from our time.
And then it was New Year's Eve! Wow! Another year gone by! We celebrated first at the church with our church family and a New York New Year's Eve countdown at 9 pm. We ate, played games and then did the countdown and cleaned up for church the next morning. I helped with the serving and clean-up and I did the countdown and handed out cheap noise makers to all the kids. It was fun! Then we headed to the Kopps for the after party we called it to ring in the new year at midnight. And of course that was fun too! Always a joy to be with friends that feel like family! We really are blessed to have such good friends and such an amazing church. I can see God's hand in leading us to our church. We were young and naive when we moved here, but God was sovereign and provided this amazing place for us to be!
That night when we got home! Another kitty picture and house picture. I love the lights of Christmas!
And that is a wrap on 2022!! Here it is middle of May '23 as I am writing this and this year that we are in is flying by! I am so far behind on this blog I am tempted to give up, but at the same time, I really love looking back and seeing all that we have done. It is my journal of sorts. I will probably try to keep going, but try to figure out how to maybe post not quite so many pictures and keep it more of the highlights. We will see...you know me..lol!!
