December picture dump

Since I was obviously not blogging about our December activities in real-time, a one-stop picture dump will just have to do.

My first pictures from the month come from a trip to see The Nutcracker ballet. Originally shocked by the ticket price, I shopped around and found a deal. I also found a sister willing to come along - thanks, holly! We all agreed that no matter how thankful the Toyland toys were to be rescued, their celebration went a little long...!

Just a few days later, Emma and Samantha had a Christmas Program. They've been preparing for it for several months now while they're in their "school" at a local church on Fridays. They have really enjoyed making new friends and doing activities at school, and I've enjoyed the time alone. Props to the girls' section at Ross on the new dresses - we had a little ironing debacle with the dress Emma was supposed to wear, but a quick stop into Ross provided a cheap and appropriate alternative!
Each of the classes memorized a song (which was practiced faithfully at home...all month long). My awesome mother-in-law volunteered to stay at home with Abby so I could fully enjoy the show, but Josh's dad came with us and got roped into a picture. =)
...as did my mom!
A few days after that, I was sitting in the living room minding my own business, when I heard some strange voices coming from the backyard. I peeked out, and Josh's parents were dropping off a new playhouse for the backyard! Even though it was a little chilly, everyone wanted to go try it out immediately!

We decided to let Daddy open one of his presents early this year (because truthfully, he already knew what it was and wanted to start enjoying it, but shhhh! Don't tell the girls! They loved "surprising" him.)
Let's just say we've been setting some records for Wii MarioKart usage!
One of Josh's aunts and her family came up to Oklahoma for Christmas. We had such a great time of fellowship with them, and all the girls soaked up the extra attention. Abby in particular was drawn to Krisha's sunglasses...
Silas kept a low-profile during the holidays, and chose to sleep through the most important parts:
...or be completely overwhelmed. Actually, he did great. He is great. He's a super-baby.
Abby got to whack on her first pinata:
And we got in lots of extra time with my brother and sisters:

One of the highlights of the holiday season for me was watching Emma's exuberance as she opened gifts. In this picture, she just got a whole new wardrobe, with brand-new boots:
This movie was equally exciting:
And the taller-than-her-dollhouse just left her speechless. She seriously cracked me up!
This was a much more unusual holiday season than we've had in the last few years. We absolutely loved spending time with our immediate and extended families. We loved eating and being together. We tried our best to remember that we're not in America every year, and we tried to be open to doing things differently than we have in the past. If we were going to be in America every year for Christmas, we'd have to think more critically about how we hope to celebrate Christ's birth, but for this year we just tried to go with the flow.

As a family, we had some special times during the month of December as we counted down the days of Advent. We did our Jesse Tree again and added a Bulletin Board nativity for Abby to add each day. But even in spite of our best efforts, I feel a little like Jesus gets steamrolled by American Christmases. I'm not sure how to resolve that yet, so I'm going to let it percolate a little more.

Percolating is always good.

My new camera lens is also very good.

But that doesn't have much to do with percolating, does it?

Over and out.