Delightful December

December is such a busy month always, but is such a lovely month. The only thing that makes the dark of December ok is all the Christmas lights. I really do love Christmas and the month of December. 

So here goes the month in review...

Sweet little Lilah cat! She is such a sweet little kitty when she is inside. Outside she is very skittish.

The Christmas tree finally was decorated after the crazy Nutcracker week was done!

Beautiful Amaryllis!

I finally found some new skis for Aubrey. These are really pretty and the perfect size for Aubrey and we were able to get them picked up in Bremerton!

The only girl who will still take pics with me. Aren't we cute?!

We attended the Julefest this year with some of our friends. It was chilly out, but fun!

 The bonefire!

After that we went to dinner with Ashia at Denny's. It was a fun night to get out.

Raelyn and Samson! Such cuties!

Here is the project Aubrey did on Hatchet at Christmas time. It was a poster quilt of 9 scenes from the book.

Raelyn still loves to do the Christmas crafts! I love that she still wants to do our fun little traditions. Such a sweet girl she is.

We started on puzzles early this year!

Even without Hans home I was able to get some lights up. They turned out nice even though, we didn't do the whole house. It is weird without the big tree too! I miss that big tree!

I love that the girls get to be home doing school with pets on their lap and in their jammies all day if they want. Which they usually do!

Another fun tradition...gingerbread houses!

As soon as Olivia got done with school she decided to do as many puzzles as possible.

Cute baby Oliver!

I still hid the shepherd randomly...lol!

Another puzzle from Raelyn!

The moon is so pretty!

We had this fun little gift dropped off one night. We had a tough time figuring this one out. After some funny and confusing texts with a few friends we did finally figure out it was Marissa and her brothers.

 Gina always plans ice skating at Christmas time. This was so fun!!

Shepherd again!

This is one of their favorite traditions! Sugar cookies! They always turn out so pretty! But unfortunately, the girls don't really like eating them...ugh!

Olivia finished the Moana puzzle!

The girls did a little dance for Ashia's class at Christmas time. It turned out really pretty!

And we went on our annual caroling with our church. Always a fun time to share some singing with people who need some cheering!

We had a surprise showing of Santa and Mrs. Claus.

And Gina brought hot chocolate of course!

More kitties under the tree pics!

Hans was able to come home for the week of Christmas! It was so nice to have him home with us. And I know he was glad to be home too. He said it finally felt like Christmas. I had bought a couple puzzles so we opened this one early so they could get started on it early.

We were able to go over to the Mills one night (the 22nd) for dessert (I think) and to visit and catch up and the kids played some games together. These kids are such great friends.

Mary and Eric were able to come over for one afternoon/evening. We played some games and enjoyed time together. 

This was the Christmas Eve gift. Some new dance games!

Isn't Sammy cute with all the presents?

We set the table for Christmas day! It looked so pretty!!

And here was our Christmas Eve table. We had our traditional lasagna, caesar salad and bread.

Christmas Eve pictures! I really love Christmas Eve and getting dressed up and enjoying church and a candlelit service with my family.   The girls dressed up so nice this year and looked so pretty!

Olivia did slides and didn't let me get any pictures of her. She looked pretty too!

The girls before they went and put their jammies on! I sure love these girls!

And Raelyn and her dad and some other people finished the Bryce Canyon puzzle! It was a tough one!

Prepared for Christmas morning!

Our traditional girls with their stocking picture!

Here are some pictures from Christmas morning! I love Christmas morning. And I love seeing these pictures because it just brings back the feelings of that morning. We are very blessed!

The Cats loved their stocking gifts too!

As did Stella! We had to rescue her toys from her or she would have eaten them all the first day.

Here are some of the gifts the girls received that morning.

Now that we have older kids we sometimes get some awesome gifts from our daughter. Olivia got Hans and I each a CWU sweatshirt. 

Olivia got new bedding for her bed!

After our wonderful Christmas morning it was time to get ready for company. Mary and Eric and Anna and the boys and Anna's new boyfriend Marcus came over for Christmas dinner. It was a lovely time. 

Sweet Samson!

Hans was worn out!

The day after Christmas, Raelyn and I decided to go walk with some friends and use our new step counting watches. 

The next day Hans took off in the Durango for San Diego. He drove our car down so the girls and I would have a vehicle to drive when we were down in San Diego. He was so awesome driving it down for us.

And it was time for the tree to come down! It was so dry! But I am always sad to bring it down. 

Rae made this cute snowman this year.

The last two years ornaments. The one from the year before had been sitting next to my fireplace for an entire year. It finally got a picture put in it and they were both put away this year.

A movie with the Griesemer girls...

Here are the gingerbread houses the girls made! Once again they turned out really cute!

Claire's

Raelyn's

Aubrey's

The New Year's Eve party this year was really fun! Even better that I didn't have to plan it or put it on. Kari put it together and it was really fun. She had these fun llama desserts which was ice cream and crumbled cake.

We played games!

And celebrated the New Year at 8 pm.  Which was earlier than I like, but I wasn't planning it. It was ok because we were headed to San Diego the next day. 

I took pictures of my packing so when I returned home in 3 weeks I could maybe kind of remember what I packed where and so could repack. Haha!

We love to have an "after party" usually, but with us travelling the next day and our "after party" friends the Kopps were out of town, so we just had the 5 of us! We did make it till midnight and celebrated! I love these girls and am so glad I get to spend my days with them.

And there you have it! The end of the wonderful year of 2024 and the beginning of 2025!