The Blur That Was December

Well, all of 2015 seems a bit of a blur.  It all goes so, so fast it seems. 

We've had much to be grateful for and many blessings.  Many challenges too, but God has been faithful and has helped us remember that we are so blessed in so many ways.

 

 At the beginning of the month we had a field trip to a Christmas tree farm not too far from here.  The owners did a great job of telling the kids all about running the family business, how they make the wreaths, and showing them around.  The first weekend of December there is a woodcarver who comes and makes all kinds of fun statues out of stumps.  Of course Olaf was Kate's favorite.

 

 

 

The girls have continued working on their epic movie.  They have been working really hard on this for quite a while.  Callie's dress was made by her father's grandmother for his mother when she was young.  Kate's fur was my grandmother's.  Never mind the sweatshirt and snow boots! LOL They were trying to keep warm before filming outside.

We managed to work in a few of our favorite holiday movies.  It was hard though.  More than once it just got to be too late and we'd have to stop in the middle of one and try to finish it up later.  I'm not sure we ever did finish Holiday Inn.

There were a few parties with some of our favorite people, and now that the art museum is charging, we had to take advantage of their free day.  The timing was really not convenient at all, but we just love going so much, I couldn't pass it up.  The problem now is learning patience at the museum, because of course, the teenager and the 10 year old don't have the same favorite spots. 

 

We all agreed that the hanging books were pretty cool though.   

 

 

 

 

 

There was still weekly babysitting {oh how we love these girls} and ballet.

 

At the last minute we made our annual trek downtown to see the Monument Circle tree and lights.

The lady at Menard's called our tree a "Charlie Brown" tree.  Twice.  I thought she was quite rude, even if she may have been right.  But there is one thing about this tree that I'm extremely proud of.  I won't deny being a control freak about some things.  Christmas decorating would be one of them.  This year though, Cameron and I sat on the couch and quite happily watched the girls place their ornaments on the tree.  I only moved ones in danger of falling and that was it!  I didn't rearrange one thing.  Admittedly, Callie is old enough to know how to spread them out.  Kate?  Not so much.  Especially her paper ornaments that she made. But I didn't even flinch! 

 

 

 

 

We opened our presents on Christmas Eve, went to church and then it was finally time to head just a little south to celebrate with our family. {Kate usually insists that certain animals join in our festivities}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took more pictures at my parents, but sadly, they didn't turn out very well. We had a great time though, as we usually do. 

{I had grand plans for blogging and getting some other things done during the Christmas break, but Kate got sick the next night after we got home and then Callie got it too.  Callie had already been a little sick, then was better, then got sick again.  It took me four days to get this blog post written, the Christmas decorations are half put away, the laundry is, well never mind, you get the idea.  It could be much worse and I keep reminding myself of that.  It could have been the stomach flu!  Thankfully the girls felt better on Saturday and we had a fun day celebrating Cameron's birthday.  Hopefully they will be completely better by Tuesday because it's time for real life to resume. The break was nice while it lasted.}