Tis the Season to be Jolly

December, as usual, was a very hectic month. From the get-go, I developed an attitude of "I hate December" and that mantra was repeated in my mind multiple times a day for the first 3 weeks of the month. I created a list on my phone at the beginning of the month of everything I had to do...and it was pages long! It just seemed so overwhelming and I didn't know how I was going to get it all done! In addition to my list, the month's schedule was nearly booked to the brim: there was hardly a day that month that didn't have at least one event listed. It was a stressful time, but the payoff was Christmas Break. Everyday, I knew I was one day closer to that glorious period of time. However, leading up to Christmas Break, there were also some wonderful holiday events that brought me joy along the way! After all...isn't December the season to be jolly?! Thank goodness for these moments that brought happiness amongst all my periods of stress!

We got our Christmas Tree on the Saturday right after Thanksgiving. We came home from Utah, unpacked, changed into winter clothes, and drove up the mountain past Williams Lake. We wanted to be able to take Ammon with us on our annual venture, and that was the only time it was feasible (he was going back to Moscow the next day and wouldn't be home again until Christmas Break). The weather was beautiful! There was hardly any snow, which made driving easy, but thankfully there was still enough to throw snowballs with (which is the boys' favorite activity while picking out a tree!). We picked out a tree in record time and made it back home before dark! 

When I took Micah to Idaho Falls to get his Kids Matter Award the Monday after Thanksgiving, I took him to see one of my favorite lighting displays there. We didn't go to any musical light shows this year, which I missed, but I was glad to at least have one opportunity to look at Christmas Lights!

We watched the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional as a family on the first Sunday evening in December. 

After we watched the Devotional, I decorated the Christmas Tree. Josh put it in the stand, and we decided to place it in our entry way in front of the piano so that we didn't have to rearrange any furniture this year in order to fit it in our house. I put up red lights on it, and nobody wanted to help me decorate it, so that's all the decorations it got. I kind of liked the simpler look without ornaments! I always love turning off the lights in the house and just sitting and staring at the peaceful glow of the Christmas Lights!

I went to our ward's Christmas party for the first time in 4 years, due to living out of town during the work week, and then the church not having any because of the covid pandemic. We sat by Jordan & Cheyenne Hansen's family, whom we love! The meal was nice, and the youth provided the program. They sang and had a small narrative, and paper shapes with a flashlight were projected onto a fabric screen. I really enjoyed the program!

The boys' winter concert was held the second week of December. The music was lovely, and I was so happy watching my children perform! Kanyon played the tuba with the jazz band, and Jonah and Micah sang with the high school choir. 

The junior high and high school choirs combined to sing the 
acapella song "Carol of the Bells", and they stood around the
outside of the commons to sing it to the audience.

My garden didn't produce near enough raspberries to make enough jam to deliver as Christmas gifts to friends and neighbors like I've done the past few years. However, I still wanted to use raspberries as part of the gift. One day, I realized I could make cheesecake tarts, the traditional neighbor gift my mom always made when I was growing up, and I would put my homemade raspberry freezer jam on the top. I was excited about this idea because it combined my mom's traditional gift and my traditional gift. I knew I needed containers to deliver them, though, because they're hard to wrap and carry on just paper plates. One day when we were out of town, I was looking in a few stores for possible options, and when we were in Ross, I found two packages of gray plastic rectangular cartons with lids that would be just perfect! They were just the right size, and there was just the right number of containers I needed, and our Christmas picture fit perfectly on the top! It was meant to be! I made the tarts over the span of two days, and we delivered them to our friends and neighbors. I was happy with how it all turned out. 

I brought the "Polar Express" Reading Challenge with me to my new school in Leadore. Instead of just including the entire grade level like I'd done at West J, I included all students grade 1-6. They'd never had an all-school reading challenge with a party afterwards, and the kids were very excited about it! The challenge was differentiated based on grade level, but the reward was still the same if they completed it in the month of December: a pajama party to watch the movie "Polar Express" with hot chocolate as the refreshment. It was a big success!

I made my students fleece scarves as their Christmas gift again this year. I used pieces of material that my mom gave me from her neighbor's abundant fabric supply. Each scarf was different, and on the wrapping paper, I wrote the color schemata, so kids could have a choice of what they wanted--although they had no idea what the item inside actually was (I made extra so even the last student to pick would have choices). They opened their gift on the last day of school before Christmas Break. 

I always want a White Christmas--but snow was pretty scarce this December. Thankfully, there were a couple of days where we received at least a skiff of snow, and it started to feel more like winter and Christmastime!

December 16

It snowed on Christmas Eve! Yay!