Wrapping up December
I have been gone a lot this month. I just had a lot of things I wanted to do with my family! Especially since my girls are both at an age where they can understand most of what is going on, and the magic of Christmas is in full force.
I’ve been really busy on Instagram, trying to show daily updates I hope you will come follow me there. This is what we did this December!
We stared off by making about 800 cookies, and then we delivered them to a few local friends! Etta loved every minute of it, both girls went up and delivered them all, and were so excited! Funny story, we stopped at one wrong house (we didn’t have the right address…) anyway long story short, Justin knocked on the door( to see if it was the right house, when the lady answered Etta yelled Merry Christmas and handed her a bag of cookies! (hope she liked them!)
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It has been REALLY snowy!
We decorated gingerbread houses, (my favorite tradition). We made it SUPER easy this year, by buying our houses at Ikea. They were only like $3.99 a house, I bought 6, they were worth every penny in time and effort saved! (we only decorated 4, so I feel some Valentine houses coming in the future).
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 Daddy’s house |
 Etta’s house |
 Mommy’s house |
 Lydia’s House |
I went to a fun Christmas Concert in the Masonic temple in SLC with the youth form our church! The building was amazing and I had a lot of fun chatting about high school and books with the girls that drove up with me!
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Etta had here first Dance recital! Before the show started Lydia wanted to be up on the stage (notice she is wearing a leotard and tutu, and what she calls her “tap shoes”, she wore it for 3 days straight after the dance recital). She wants to be in dance class SO badly. She kept climbing up on the stage and I was worried we’d be out in the hall for the whole recital, she was in such a mood…. well the show started and she was mesmerized, and sat perfectly still with her thumb in her mouth watching the dancing, the only move she made was to clap heartily after each performance! I might put her in it this next summer, we will see, I know she is super young, but she wants to dance so much!
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Etta was amazing! She started her dance class 2 months late so I was worried about her knowing the dance, and let’s face it she is 3 so it was just for fun, but she LOVED it! And even though she has a tendency to be shy, she asked about 10 times if she could do it again, she wanted to be on the stage performing for the adoring crowd all night long!
That night we drove over to my sister’s house, because my lovely niece got a mission call and we all got to watch as she opened up the letter and we found out she would be headed to Portugal! We are so excited for her!
Miss Lydia is a hoot! She is REALLY into dressing up right now, we get a few interesting outfits a day:
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We all drove up to SLC to the see the Christmas lights on Temple Square. Sorry we didn’t take our camera in, but either way, it was really FUN!
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One tradition, that I have been hoping to have since reading about it in a book in high school is making ice cream snow. Luckily we had a GREAT snow day with about 15 inches of snow, so the girls went outside and played in the snow and then came in to Snow Ice cream! It was SO easy and a LOT of fun to make. I hope we get to do it every year (I’ll get the recipe up really soon! It is super easy!)
I carried on another tradition, that sort of happened by accident. I made Etta a Katy Kitty 2 years ago and last year I made the girls Molly Monkeys. So I wanted to continue the homemade gift tradition. Now that we live in the cold they needed some hats so I crocheted 2 hats and made these 2 ballerina dolls. Or Ball-nina as Lydia would say! Love that little girl. I’ve been working on a pattern, I am not exactly happy with how the first set turned out so I made a third, and may make a fourth, I’ll let you know when I have it ready!
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My mom has an in with Santa so on Christmas Eve night the man himself and his wife stopped by our house and knocked on the door to talk to my little girls. They each got a pair of pink bunny slippers, (cutest things ever- it reminds me of that Christmas story movie). Etta was scared but Lydia had no fear at all she walked right up to Santa and held up her arms like, if you’re here then you better pick me up! She stayed there in his arms till he had to go! Etta gave him a hug from her lap and when he asked what she wanted she said candy.
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We did our first ever (hopefully traditional) family nativity. It was fun scrounging for costumes, and I think we came up with a fun little collection, (notice the Lamb puppet on Etta’s hand and the shepherds staff that was my grandfathers (no he wasn’t a shepherd). Lydia was a cow, a leftover costume from 2 years ago.
Christmas morning was really fun. My parents were there and the girls had so much fun opening presents! We all took turns around the room in age order (best way in my opinion!), once the presents were open they got to see their big surprise present, which is a playhouse and castle (hopefully plans will come in the next month or so!)
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After Christmas morning we went to my sister’s house to hang out with my brothers and sisters, and of course love on our new baby nefew, who makes me super baby hungry… not that eating babies is a good thing!
Lastly, what is a birthday celebration without a cake?! We started this tradition about 3 years ago, a birthday cake on Christmas night. We talk it up for a week before hand, because I want the girls to remember why we are celebrating Christmas, and they totally get birthday cake!
Anyway, we had a lovely blessed Christmas, it has been MAGICAL living near family after such a long time away! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too!
p.s. Please don’t forget about my Joss and Main event that starts tonight at 9 pm eastern time!
Cassity Kmetzsch started Remodelaholic after graduating from Utah State University with a degree in Interior Design. Remodelaholic is the place to share her love for knocking out walls, and building everything back up again to not only add function but beauty to her home. Together with her husband Justin, they have remodeled 6 homes and are working on a seventh. She is a mother of four amazing girls. Making a house a home is her favorite hobby.
Your nutter butter cookie recipe rocks! Thank you so much for sharing! My kids and I all love peanut butter. What a treat!
THANK YOU! I’ve gotten quite a response to those cookies especially for those who got to try them first hand, they really are good!
The family nativity is such a great idea 😀 Creative thinking! Thanks for all your hard work on your blog 🙂
Thanks it was really quite fun, and the girls really got into it. I can’t wait to see how it looks in the coming years! THANK YOU for reading the blog! It means a lot!
The cake idea is great!!
I’m copying it too!!!
XOXO & Happy 2013
Cris
Thanks Cris, it really is one of my favorite things that we do!