Christmas and New Year's

On Christmas Eve, we drove out to Northridge to get Elise's Christmas present: a white mini rex bunny.  We also made arrangements with Nicole, the breeder, to get a second bunny when her next litter was ready in January.  It turns out rabbits are a lot of fun!  We kept "Winter" in Elise's room for a couple of weeks, then moved her into the garage when the messy hay and smell got too annoying (plus, I'm apparently allergic to all of it.)  We're going to eventually have a big outdoor pen and hutch combo to share with the second bunny when we get him.

    

The rest of Christmas Eve was pretty relaxed.  The kids acted out the Nativity, and Ryan and I stayed up and watched It's a Wonderful Life and Midnight Mass while I wrapped presents.  I think it looked pretty good when I was done!
     

Christmas Morning!
  

Christmas Carnage

  

I love this painting.  The Nativity by Gari Melchers

   
Later on Christmas Day, we took Wiley (wearing his fancy jingle collar) down to the neighbor's house bearing candy for the humans and chewy treats for the dogs.  Our neighbor John Tunks is tireless in calling us whenever Wiley gets out and visits him.  It's Wiley's favorite place to play.
    

We had planned to leave for Utah on the 28th to go visit my family, but Celeste came down with a fever the day before, and we were afraid to take germs up with us given Chuck's health issues.  The bright side was that the kids were able to go to "Take Your Kid to Work Day" at Analytic, and I was able to go get new tires put on our van.  After a doctor's visit, we discovered that Celeste's troubles were due to an ear infection, and we were able to leave just one day late!
  

Sick Baby

Working at the Trading Desk

Utah was super cold, and got a ton of snow dumped on it.  I was so thankful we had gotten the new tires!  One night, coming home from Orem, we passed a dozen cars that had slipped off I-15, and I had to fight to keep control of the van.  The kids had tons of fun playing outside, though!
  

On New Year's Eve, the Murrays came to play for awhile, then the kids and grownups stayed up playing board games until midnight.  We rang the antique bell (it belonged to Chuck's grandpa who was a teacher,) and opened the door to cheer and let the new year in, then went straight to bed.
   

  
On New Year's Day, Ryan was kind enough to call me on speakerphone so I could listen to our marriage improvement class at church.  I felt very strongly that we needed to take this class when it was offered in early November, even though the timing was terrible with my second counselor mourning the loss of her husband, and Claire about to have a baby any day.  I appreciate their willingness to step up and allow me to miss second hour each Sunday for three months.  It really helped Ryan and I to learn better ways of communicating, and it did a lot to lighten the depression I was struggling with at the time.
  

  
We enjoyed my family's company for another day before we had to head home.  It was a short trip, but I'm so glad we did it.
   

December

In early December, we discovered that our uncovered heating vent under the kitchen counter was letting in some nightly mousey visitors.  We set traps, and caught a couple, but it was Ryan's groundbreaking idea of actually covering the vent that finally solved the problem!
  

For the second year in a row, we joined friends at the L.A. Zoolights.  It's awfully Los Angeles, but still pretty cool.  The kids especially liked the blacklights in the reptile room.
  

One Saturday, we went downtown for a "Mini Makerfaire" at the library.  The kids did some fun crafts, then we all went to Ryan's work and admired the view.
  

Elise and Connor participated in their first piano festival.  Elise played a duet with her teacher, and came away with an honorable mention award.  Connor also played very well, but was in a tougher age group.  (He also somehow avoided being in any pictures that day!)
  

Three of the four winners were students of Mrs. Yoder!

Nana and Al sent Christmas dresses for the girls, and Corinne was so in love with one of them, she continued to wear it well into June of the next year.
  

Ryan and I celebrated our 39th birthdays!  I can't remember what gifts we got, but here is a picture of the kids showing Dad their cards.
  

   

The Christmas Cantata was a chance for all of the CVLA classes to perform Christmas songs, and to get to know the other families a bit better.  
  

Corinne's Class

Evan's Class

Elise's Class (I was too late on that one.)

Connor's Second Form Latin Class

Oh, wait, I remember what I got for my birthday!  I bought myself an artificial Christmas tree from DIY Hardware.  It's prestrung with non-LED lights, and is just awesome.  I still believe in real trees, but my life right now needs a little convenience.  My Christmas present was an upright freezer for the garage.  Sounds boring, but it makes shopping at Costco way more doable.

   

The kids were entirely in charge of decorating the tree this year, and they did a pretty good job!  Too bad the ornaments kept getting removed and scattered around the house.
  

This is one of my favorite pictures ever.  Ryan and I went out for lunch at Bottega Louis while the kids were in school.  Celeste was super excited about the portabella fries, apparently.
  

Ward Christmas Party!  Evan was too proud (or shy) to sit on Santa's lap, but the other kids were cool with it.  They had a microphone in the next room where parents could feed Santa information on their kids via an earpiece.  It was a fun idea, but seemed like a weird thing to do at church.
 

   
I survived my second year of Primary Temple Lights!  Once again, we provided hot chocolate and cookies to nearly a hundred people (including passersby.)  The baby was pretty fussy in the front pack, which made things more stressful than they needed to be, but at least she was cute.
   

Connor and Ryan went camping at Joshua Tree with the scouts, and got rained on the entire time.  They woke up with a puddle in their tent, but toughed it out until the next morning.
  

Two unflattering yet representative pictures taken by Corinne:
   

Silly stuff around the house:
  

Connor's Awesome Cucumber!

Making a Rope Net for the Treehouse

 

  
I thought this cartoon did a good job of illustrating my emotional problems.  I've gotten a lot less shy through the years (and especially being married to an extrovert like Ryan,) but I still struggle with feeling anxious about and exhausted from social events.
    

  
Aunt Helena gave us a "dentures" ice mold for Christmas.  Elise made some very appetizing blue ones.