Pre-Christmas

December is the most hectic month of the year.  Most of it is fun, of course, but still crazy.

Connor continued with his basketball class.  One day, he decided to teach Evan to play (Evan already knew how to dribble and shoot, but not the other rules.)  He was surprisingly sweet with his little brother, and let him win every game.
  

Blocking

Somehow, he scored anyway :-)

 
Ryan and Connor's Cub Scout pack got to march in the Christmas Parade.  They took Elise and Wiley, too.
    

The Daisies had an awards ceremony, during which Elise received her watering can patch (taking care of plants), and her orange petal.
    

Flag Ceremony

 
We had Joy School at our house!  The older kids helped out on Tuesday (they were pretty good, actually,) and on Thursday we made ice-cream-cone Christmas trees.  We also did our Christmas Pageant for the moms.  It wasn't exactly polished, but that just made it cuter.
     

Connor Reading "Where the Wild Things Are"

   

Evan the Shepherd, Waiting for his Cue

Singing

"Jingle Bells"

   
Our ward Christmas party was the day after my birthday.  We were NOT late for once, and the kids got to see Santa!  There was an amazing nativity program after the dinner, put on by the Primary kids and a handful of very talented grown-ups.
    

Shepherd and Angel (Yes, I reused the Joy School costumes!)

Connor and Elise had their Christmas piano recital.  They both worked really hard to prepare for it, and I was super proud of them!  They both do really well under pressure.  Connor played "Joy to the World" (duet) and "Silent Night" (alone).  Elise did "Dance of the Reed Flutes" - from The Nutcracker (alone), and "Away in a Manger" (duet).

We drove all the way to Santa Clarita to find a Christmas tree lot where you cut your own tree.  It was dark when we got there, so the kids took turns holding the lights and using the saw.
 

Connor and Elise's school did their annual Christmas program.  It made me cry.  It was that good.  We actually got a babysitter so Ryan and I could attend without the little ones.  The lighting wasn't great, though, so I didn't get much in the way of pictures.  
   

We got a picture of a few of the kids before the show.  (We were EARLY!)

"Deck the Halls" Played on Boomwhackers

We put up lights this year, although Evan kept knocking them off the fence with his baseball bat.  We read Christmas stories by candlelight most nights (everybody fought over whose turn it was to blow out the candles), and watched as many Christmas movies as we could squeeze in.  We got Godiva chocolates for all the neighbors, and meant to deliver treats to friends, but I didn't make them in time, so we ended up eating them ourselves.  It was a pretty good Christmas season!