The Woolley Family: December Part 1

I couldn't decide how I wanted to break up this post so I am just going for it. December is a busy month for our family as it is with all families but with 2 birthdays and our anniversary on top of all the other holiday celebration it just makes my head spin some times. I love being busy with lots of fun things to do so I always enjoy this time of year! Lets jump right into it!!

The day after Thanksgiving our Elf Gabe pulled all our Christmas decor out for us to put up! Don't worry!!! This was the biggest thing Gabe did all month! The rest of the month he just hid in funny places. It was a lot easier to have time to move him this year. Last year the kids would wake up and see we hadn't moved him and there was no recovery after that but this year (after realizing how much he freaked Olivia out last year) he only stayed down stairs so Michael moved him before work each morning.

This is a music box a friend of mine gave us when we were first married. This music box is the kids favorite piece of Christmas decor. It gets a little annoying after 20 minutes but if I turn it off someone will always turn it back on! I love anything that brings them together!

I stayed up until 2 putting everything together. I made sure to get a picture because first thing in the morning it was "loved" and I don't think the living room ever recovered after that. I LOVE the feeling my home has at Christmas!

We made gingerbread houses for family night and I thought it would be our only chance to do them during the month but I was wrong! Olivia ended up making gingerbread houses two more times! I guess it was the year of gingerbread houses for us! We ended up with 9 gingerbread houses around the kitchen! The kids were very observant when one would disappear haha!

Olivia's school earns Cheetah spots for doing good things and they earned enough for a crazy hair day. Olivia rarely lets me do her hair and if I am lucky to brush it it always comes with a lot of effort to pin her down to get the snarls out. I had fun playing with her hair even though it wasn't super fashionable haha.

I was asked to help plan our church Christmas party. Someone on our group email for church asked if anyone wanted an old pre-lit Christmas tree so I said we could take it and use it for the party. I got it home, took off the lights and fell in love! I decorated it and decided this beauty was staying with us forever! On Black Friday we also got a new tree since our skinny 6 foot tree needed a little upgrade. Things got out of control and I fell in love with having 3 trees in my house and I'm already excited to put them back up next year!

I purchased 2 bags scented pinecones and hot glued hemp and some bows on them to make ornaments. I put berry picks all over the tree and a little ribbon was the perfect final touch!

I strung buttons I had laying around my house on some bracelet hemp and made some cute garland for the tree. I was pretty excited about my spur of the moment craft. I found some old ribbon from 5 Christmas' ago and the tree came together perfectly! Later I added some pinecones and it gave it a little more texture. I love the simplicity.

Michael turned 32 this year and work was crazy for him so we met him at 7 o'clock at chipotle for his birthday dinner! Just how he likes it! No stress and burritos! Gosh I love this man more than I ever thought possible!! The last 3 months have been super hard and stressful for both of us and things weren't always pretty but having the Holidays and birthdays really lifted our spirits to help us through some hard times.

I love Michaels face in this picture. Since he got home so late on his birthday we weren't able to have cake that night so we saved it for the next day. He had a dentist appointment to get a cavity filled and he was really numb and couldn't pucker his lips haha!! I kept Olivia home from school so we could spend the morning with Michael and drive him into the office since he missed the busses.

I mentioned I was helping with our church party. The theme was 'The Polar Express'. I cut out these trains from cardboard from all our holiday Amazon boxes and painted them with a little help from some friends to make the cutest trains! I hope Walt wants a train party for his next birthday!

I went to a carpet store and asked if I could have the tube they wrap the carpet around and they gave it to me! I don't have a finished picture to show you but we painted them red and white and turned them into the North Pole sign. They turned out super cute!

Olivia asked Santa for a Unicorn.

Walter asked for a Lightning McQueen train table.

Ellanore didn't want anything to do with Santa!! Walt told Santa that she wanted anything

"Let It Go".

The Stake Center next to the Seattle Temple puts on the most amazing Nativity program. They had over 500 nativities on display and every room had themes. This was in the live nativity room and we were able to dress up. Olivia didn't like all the attention and was feeling a bit embarrassed so she didn't dress up and stood in the back.

On our way home from the nativity we stopped by a church for some free hot chocolate, cookies and a light show. Walt and Ellanore had fallen asleep on the way so just Olivia and I went to check it out. It was chilly but lots of fun!

The weather is a big deal here in Washington! It rains a lot here haha but it hasn't been what I expected. Last winter was BAD!! Everyone was coming out of depression when we moved here and they all talked about how they never saw the sun. I don't know what is normal to compare the weather too but so far it hasn't been that bad. I was really nervous about the weather because to be honest I never wanted to leave Orange County and the beach. I would love to live by the beach again one day! We will talk about Pacific Northwest beaches later... lets not even call them beaches. It rains a lot like I said but we had two weeks in the low 40's with lots of fog, frost and sun. It was beautiful! I loved how it made me feel like home. Fog and Christmas go hand in hand for me, growing up I drove home from Nutcracker rehearsals in late November and early December in the fog and it just makes the season right for me.

I got to help in Olivia's class when they made gingerbread houses. I love spending time with her at school. I love this little girl so much! It breaks my heart that she is gone 8 hours a day... but thats a post for another day. The kids had a blast and most of my assistance went to helping kids open candy they had tried opening with their mouth already! yuck!!! I washed my hand for a long time after I got home haha!

One day we needed to make a trip to IKEA to get some things for Michael to donate at work and since we were closer to his work than home we dropped them off at his office. I never have good timing when I am out and about because I always end up leaving around rush hour. So instead of dealing with traffic we went and explored a massive gingerbread display in Seattle. It was a little stressful doing this in rush hour with hungry kids on my own but we did it and I was feeling pretty proud of myself! We took our time so we could take Michael home instead of him riding the bus. We went out for dinner and had lots of time together in the car on the way home.

Mom guilt confession! I am not good at putting my kids to bed early. It is a cause of a lot of stress in our house. On a good night my kids will be in bed and asleep by 9:30. On a bad night its more like 11:30. Michael gets home most nights around 6:30 then we eat dinner, go through the bed time routine and to our amazement its 10:00!!! Other nights we do things and don't get home until late and then its another late bedtime. I have been feeling guilty about keeping my kids out late or struggling to get them to bed early but as I reflect on nights like this one I don't feel guilty my kids were out late or it took forever to get them to bed. Im just so grateful we had family time!

Walter turned 4!!! I love this cute boy! I LOVE his giggles and that cute smile!

Walter LOVES the Broncos! Olivia's class mascot is the SeaHawk and she loves to point out all the SeaHawk stickers, flags, posters, clothing, and anything else that has the logo on it. Walter decided that he wants to be like dad and be a Bronco fan! He has not taken off his new Bronco sweatshirt grandma Woolley gave him. Actually, he had an accident at school the other day and all he asked me to bring was his bronco sweatshirt and bronco hat haha!! I brought him pants and underwear too haha!

I didn't take many pictures of Walter's birthday but it was so cute! It was his first party and he had his closest friend over for some fun CARS games, food and cupcakes. He was a happy little boy. We also took cookies to his preschool class. He loved all the attention and we make a huge deal about his birthday all week. I know he felt special. Now that I'm writing this in January we are still singing the Happy Birthday song every night for his bedtime song hahaha!! Cute boy!