Here Comes December!

I'm starting with the most recent happenings and working my way backward. And as Peter Pan says in Disney's movie: Here.....we......goooo!

Elsa and Myles took part in a Christmas presentation for a local assisted living facility that our ward's youth was putting on. They put in a lot of practice for this.
Elsa really wanted to wear my Nana's skirt for this performance 💓💓

We put up the Christmas tree for a Sunday family activity after Thanksgiving. Myles made a star to put on the top.

 Santa Paws.....

 Aeva was so cute, she sent Molly a postcard:

 This was one of our recent science experiments for aerospace engineering. We were discussing drag, lift, thrust, etc. I pretty much didn't have to read much because Myles just explained it all to us, which was really great!

Last Friday night I entered my bedroom and found this:

 As I looked closer I saw that a sweet note had been left, with the laundry all folded.

 I needed a treat for the young women on Sunday. Myles eagerly agreed to make a double batch of his favorite cookies Saturday night.

Snickerdoodles!

 Molly's facial expressions are priceless and they pretty much sum up her relationship with Meg 😁

Our Miss Molly snuggling up with me Sunday night.

 Tuesday was Myles's orchestra performance. I somehow never made it onto the email list, which I view as a blessing. I had no idea that we were supposed to bring three silent auction items. Budget wise it was good that I never got the emails because I could claim ignorance about it. I did have one item to donate that I had won from my Chiropractor. I managed to walk out the door without it though, Tuesday night. Luckily, a friend, whose son is in the orchestra, bid on my item, and I was able to just deliver it straight to her.  While I could claim ignorance over the auction items,  I could not claim ignorance on the potluck dinner to be held afterwards. I picked up a yummy chocolate mouse cake from Costco, and then the little girls helped me make potato bake to bring. We also signed up to help set up before the performance. The event was very nice. Myles did a great job! He's learned and grown so much attending orchestra practices. The dinner afterwards was scrumptious. The YouTube links below will allow you to view the three songs he played in:
Night on Bald Mountain, March of Carmen, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

https://youtu.be/emfFfut9aqw

https://youtu.be/gPOUhTI-gfw


https://youtu.be/9sZpbW5Pp70

Meg had a birthday, hooray!!

She received her very own Lego Friends  set with a car, so she won't have to wish she could play with Elsa's or Aeva's.

She also picked out her very own mega birthday cupcake as well as cupcakes for the rest of us. We celebrated early in the day since Chris was starting his first night of swing shift.

The kids were feeling a bit out of sorts with adjusting to our new routine, so after running some errands we went and got Meg's free birthday burger at Red Robin. It was a fun way to end the day.
It's the simple things like a free birthday burger (well, okay that's pretty big), a free balloon, and free antlers from Bath and Body that bring smiles and giggles to my little girl.

 And one more present, one from Oma and Opa, before bedtime:

Now we settle into a new routine, prepare for the girls to come home for Christmas, and finish up school before Christmas break!

Moving out of November and On In To December

This post is going to be all over the place and very much not in chronological order; just wanted to warn you 😀

 I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was quiet this year. We stayed at home and had a lovely Thanksgiving..........just the five of us. Aeva spent Thanksgiving with my friend, Samantha and her family, and Rhaevyn spent Thanksgiving with a friend and fellow classmate and her brother. I'm so glad they both had a good time and were not spending Thanksgiving alone.

Rhaevyn recently performed with her gamalan class at the BYU Global Rhythm event. We were so excited to watch it as it live streamed!!!
FYI: Gamelan (/ˈɡæməlæn/) is the traditional ensemble music of Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese in Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments.

 She has really enjoyed taking this class, and it was amazing to watch her perform.




This past Friday I went to pick up my last quilt of the year. The sun was out, and I had a beautiful view of Mt. St Helens as I drove north up the road for a bit. Pat, the sweet lady who does my quilts, made me a beautiful ornament and wrote me a very sweet card. The ornament is called "Tree of Life in the Light of the Moon."

Okay, back to Thanksgiving. I tried to make sure we had plenty of fruit and veggies to snack on before hand. Myles was filling up on blueberries and whipped cream.

  Myles also filled the deviled eggs for me.

 Elsa turned on the Christmas music as we all headed into the kitchen to work on the mashed potatoes together:

 Myles thought this potato peel looked like a little fish:

 

 Chris and I armed ourselves with weapons for the potatoes:

 We all sat down to watch the John Wayne movie, Stagecoach:

 But before the day got going my dearest friend and I went on a nice brisk walk. It was a great way to start the day off, and we think we are going to make it our new Thanksgiving tradition.
Saturday, after cleaning her mom and dad's house, we shared lunch and saw the new Mr. Rogers movie. I highly recommend this movie. It was soooo good!!!

 I love watching the girls play dress up! Their imaginations make my heart smile!

 We all know a blog post is not complete without pictures of Miss Molly:

 
 Myles's orchestra practices are winding down. He only has two more practices before the performance. While he was at the last practice I ran over to Trader Joe's to look around. I picked up three chocolate advent calendars since they were only 99 cents each. The kids were so excited!

I love moments like this......
Chris and Myles just hanging out talking.

 The youth of our ward had an activity where a couple of ward members shared their mission experiences. The focus was Japan, South Korea, Africa, and India. After experiences were shared, we ate food that each had brought from those countries, and there was a question answer period. It was so much fun, and it was great to try new/different foods.

 The kids had asked Aeva if they could pull out her Legos and play with them. This was Meg's creation:

 I've been having fun watching a Hallmark series I found at the library.

 Myles made a picnic for everyone a couple of weeks ago. A great memory made.

 My friend who does my hair gave me this gigantic item to hang earrings on. She wanted to get rid of it, and since I had mentioned, at one time, that I really liked it, she gave it to me.............with tons of earrings on it!!
Chris was good to get it hung up a day later after I forgot that it was resting on the boxes and accidentally caused it to fall on my head.

 My sweet friend Jen had Meg over for a few hours two Mondays ago to make a cake. Meg had been talking about wanting to make a mega diabetes cake for months. Meg had a blast helping to make the cake mix and decorating this mini cake. She was so proud of it. We all had about one small slice and called it good 😄
 

 We have been enjoying watching all the different birds that come to eat the suet. We have  learned to recognize which birds have what chirp or song.

This is the latest dress that Aeva made:

These girls of mine or so funny. I asked them to take a picture together for our family Christmas card, and this is what I got. One picture. Because I had, apparently, only asked for "one" picture, and I was given strict instructions that I could crop it, but I couldn't edit it in any other way. When I received this in a text I giggled, and I thought this really showed their cute and wonderful personalities💓

Happy December to you all.