Pre-Christmas Activities in December

December and May are the two busiest, craziest months of the year, I swear!!! Since December is just one long marathon of Christmas activities, I decided to do one long blog post to talk about it all, too. 

The festivities in December kicked off from the moment the month began: on December 1 the Light the World monthly campaign began. The YW/YM in our ward handed out free hot cocoa and free cookies on Main Street. Kanyon and I stopped by their booth to see Dad, Jonah, and Micah. 

Josh captured this beautiful sunset at the golf course on December 4. 

Micah sang carols with the Legacy Choir at the After Hours event on Main Street on Thursday, December 6. They walked to different businesses that were open late to accommodate holiday shoppers, and sang Christmas carols. It was awesome! And SUPER cold! I've never attended it before, and I drove up from Mud Lake that night to hear them sing. Josh and I walked with them and listened to them sing at 5 businesses, then the two of us ate dinner at the Bistro with Phil and Darcy after the choir left there (it was their anniversary!).

The next morning, Josh drove with me back to Mud Lake. We witnessed a gorgeous sunrise over the distant Tetons. He watched my students perform a Reader's Theater that morning, and then he went to Rigby to visit Pup and Idaho Falls to finish Christmas shopping. He got back later that afternoon after we were done with school and drove Kanyon and I home to Salmon for the weekend. We got to Salmon in time to watch Jonah play with the pep band at the home basketball game that night.

We delivered our neighbor goodies in two segments, over the course of two weekends, this year. I packaged together one of my homemade freezer raspberry jams along with a container of biscuits for our friends and family. The twins delivered the first round to our loop on Sunday night the 9th, and Josh, Kanyon, and I did the city/bar hill route the next weekend.

The golf course is pretty in both the summer AND the winter!

Josh has a great eye for beauty! This was a sunrise on the 12th. 

Jonah and Micah's choir and band concert was on the evening of Wednesday the 12th. I drove up from Mud Lake and got there after the concert began, but I didn't miss either of the twins' performances. They both did fantastic and I was so, so proud of them!! Mr. Anderson does a great job as the music director in Salmon, and I'm so glad my boys are both in the music program! Jonah continues to play the trumpet, and Micah started singing this year. They also both took guitar from Mr. Anderson first semester, but the guitar class didn't perform at the Christmas concert due to the limited time available in the commons area for all the other groups to perform. (p.s. I really wish Salmon had an auditorium!!) Josh and I took the twins out for snacks afterward at Taco Grande as a special treat after we helped take down the concert set.

They both looked so handsome!

I sure love these good boys!

The following day, my students performed in their K-5 Christmas music program. It was a cute show about elves. I sang with some of the faculty for one of the songs in the show, too.

Ammon took his last college final on the afternoon of the 13th and he drove home to Salmon that night. Early the next morning (around 5am), Josh and Ammon drove down to Idaho Falls and stopped to pick me up in Mud Lake (I took the day off) to go get Ammon's wisdom teeth surgically removed. The procedure took about a half hour. He was hilarious coming out of anesthetic!! It was priceless! Josh drove him back home to Salmon to recover, and I checked Kanyon out of school early and drove home about 20 minutes behind them.

His face was pretty swollen for a few days, and he spent most of the time on the couch resting, taking pain meds, eating soft foods, and playing Xbox with his friends when they came over to visit him. I know it's not the funnest way to start Christmas break, but it was the optimal time to get it done!

Josh took the twins to a YM fishing activity on Saturday the 15th while I stayed home with Ammon and Kanyon (the doctor said not to leave him alone for the first couple of days). Jonah even caught a fish!

I had a ticket to see the matinee showing of the local ballet production of "Nutcracker", and I had to leave before Josh got back, but Ammon was doing alright so I wasn't too worried. I sat by myself at the show (it's all too real at moments like that when I realize that I don't have a ton of friends--but if I want to do something, I have to be okay with going solo!), and I absolutely enjoyed it! It was at a new venue this year; rather than on the elementary school stage, the director Nida Bird opened up her own stage at the same location that she teachers her classes. It was nice to actually see the show with the raised seating now (the Pioneer stage really is a terrible venue for performances because the stage is only raised a couple feet).

That evening, Josh took me on a Jeep drive up Blackrock. We had a beautiful view of snowy Salmon from a different angle! I loved being back in the Jeep with my man. It's a new favorite of mine!

On Sunday the 16th, Josh and I went and watched Darcy sing with the Cantata at the Faith Bible Chapel. It was a wonderful experience, and so uplifting! Darcy sang in a trio for one of the songs and she sounded exceptional, as always.

That night, our Home Evening activity was to make graham cracker houses. I'd purchased a ton of candy ahead of time, and then made some frosting. While Josh and I were at the cantata, the boys worked on their houses. Ammon's friend Madi came over and helped him with his while we were gone, too. I think the houses turned out so cute! I loved everybody's unique creations!

I went out with my girlfriends during the last week of school. We went out on a weeknight to eat at Jalisco's, and then we drove around and looked at Christmas lights and watched a Christmas light show at a residence in Idaho Falls. It was such a relaxing, enjoyable night. I sure love these ladies!

I've never seen a house so decked out! It was right by Candy Cane Lane. 

This house had the light show set to music, and lasted about 40 minutes.

It was worth it!

The 2nd grade had their Polar Express party in my classroom on the 20th--we decided it would be better to do it the 2nd to the last day of school before Christmas break, rather than the last day. I'm glad we did that because all my students were there on the 20th, but 5 of them were gone the next day!

Kanyon's Junior High Christmas Dance was the same day as my party. I think the Jr. High teachers had thought the same thing as me and my team teacher did! Kanyon looked so handsome for the dance! He normally doesn't wear plaid shirts, so it was unusual to see him with this attire, but quite nice, too!

Jonah and Micah were out for Christmas break on the 20th, but Kanyon and I didn't get home until Friday evening of the 21st. It snowed in Salmon on Friday--the good, thick, packing kind of snow, and Jonah and Micah built a huge snowman near the entrance of our house. It made me smile when I first drove up and saw it. It is amazingly mostly still there (I'm writing this at the beginning of February!). They did a great job! Isn't it adorable?!!

Yay! My Christmas Break had finally arrived!! And what did I do?! I headed into school to watch a ball game in Salmon with Josh (the girls basketball team was playing against the West Jefferson team). Ammon surprised me and came into the game, too. He looked all healed! I loved seeing him up and about!

I was so happy for Christmas break to finally arrive!!! The students get CA-RAZY the closer the break is, and by the time the break came, I was in dire need of a vacation! I was so glad to be home with my family and ready to celebrate Christmas with them!