Before Christmas

What have we been up to this Christmas season?  

We made gingerbread houses (with kits from Wegmans).   

We made homemade cards with residents at the Assisted Living Center and only got threatened with a lawsuit once. A resident told us that it was in her contract that she didn't ever have to see kids and would sue us for being there.    Other than that it was a lovely experience and we enjoyed our time there.   

 I wore my ugly Christmas sweater and Santa hat as often as possible.   I also taught the biology at coop, which meant I ended up with PTC strips in my pocket, so I could go around  testing whether random people have the super taster gene.

We woke up to an ice storm on Saturday, December 17th.  It took us 20 minutes to chip all the ice off of our car.

But it was worth the effort to see this awesome girl (Nicole) get baptized.

 She's Emma's age and has been an awesome addition to our YW.   It's also been fun to have a good excuse to spend more time with the Sister missionaries.   :)

I also tried to put together festive outfits (some more successful than others),

and hit my mid-afternoon slump and collapsed on the floor until someone could help me up (and feed me chocolate)....

The kids enjoyed staying in their pajamas half the day...

 We keep trying to balance out some of the goodies with some wholesome(r) foods, but it's going to be a rough road getting back to healthy eating and exercising once the holidays are over....

Ellie made her own nativity out of cardboard and paper as a gift for her auntie....

Our Elf is losing his zing and would often get stuck in the same place for several days....

We did 12-days of Christmas for someone, but didn't realize until later that they had motion sensored cameras by both of their doors, which meant that our identity wasn't actually a secret.   

They kept playing along though and let us keep delivering despite the fact that we weren't anonymous any longer.   One night they  left a little thank you gift for us, which the kids LOVED.

We hung out with friends!   We made pretzels, played games, and talked!  

And I enjoyed my cute conversations with Briella and Joseph (and their mom, Rachel)! 

Emma returned from England on December 23rd!!!     We are soooooooo happy she's home....

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!   Stay tuned for a full Christmas recap coming soon!