Back blogging December

So here it is; the fun and festivities of December! Christmas makes it a busy month no matter what and we also have Isaac's birthday to celebrate. We topped it off this year with Isabella's performance in the Albany Berkshire Ballet production of the Nutcracker. Busy was not even the word! Exciting, fun, amazing, or stupendous might be better adjectives.

To get things started we did our decorating

Next up was a fabulously fun and festive time at Grammy and Papa's house making gingerbread houses with cousins we don't get to see often enough.

Then it was a whirlwind weekend with Isaac's birthday and Isabella's performance in the Nutcracker! Isaac turned 9! Isabella was a mouse and an angel in the show.

Another awesome activity in December that added to its spectacularness was the Christmas play that the kids put on at church. They wrote it, choreographed it, acted in it and made their props. I was so impressed. I was also the holder of the spotlight so I didn't get any pictures but here are two wisemen practicing at my house a few days before the show

In the midst of the craziness of this month we took a day off from everyday life and took a much needed and much enjoyed family trip to the Boston Museum of Science. It was such a great day! There is so much to do there! I hope we can go back again soon and explore some more...

I don't know if you know this about me, but I tend to be a bit of a procrastinator. It often causes me problems but I have not been successful in overcoming this personality flaw no matter what I try. It was this very problem that led me to have Almost all of my christmas shopping left to do with only 3 days until Christmas! Another flaw of mine is that I have trouble asking people to watch my kids. When you have 4 kids you are asking a lot of someone to watch them all!! Sooo, a few days before Christmas I embarked on what could have been a rather perilous journey BUT we prayed before we left, decided we would choose joy no matter what and that we would seek to be a blessing to others everywhere we went. Did I mention that it was pouring rain that day? I mean, really raining buckets... So, we made our first stop and I got out of the car in the rain, choosing joy mind you, and this is what I saw...

I LOVE RAINBOWS!!! It was a terrific little gift from The Lord and it totally made my day. A Christmas rainbow! How cool is that?! We had a great trip, got all our shopping done and even got some awesome deals!
We came home, did our wrapping, packed our bags and we were off to the Ponderoacha to celebrate the birth of our Savior with family! It is always hectic as we make the rounds to see all of our wonderful family. We are so blessed to have so many amazing people in our lives. That is such a wonderful gift in and of itself...my almost favorite, second only to the ultimate gift of my Salvation through Jesus.

Last year we started a new tradition of coming home Christmas night and ordering Chinese food. It is now officially One of the kids favorite things about Christmas! They are so funny.

After that we had a snow storm. Blah. I was a good mommy and took Amelia out to play. I just love bundling up a screaming baby who has no idea why I am suddenly forcing her into a marshmallow suit she can't walk in, laying said baby on the floor to flounder about while I pull on my snow pants that used to be too big but are now barely buttonable (thanks to too many christmas treats). Yeah, that's my fave. I was hoping Amelia would just hate the cold inconvenient fluffiness so we could come right back in...but she loved it.

The rest of December consisted of more family fun, more snow and more museums.

And that is it for 2012!!
Fortunately for the sanity of all (ok, maybe just me) things have slowed down a bit so I should be able to finish back blogging and be all caught up soon!