Ok I was going to wait to post the rest of December until I got Boston posted (which happened back then), but Boston's taking a while, so here we go with the rest of that wild month.
These pictures are in no particular order, so bear with me as I document over here.
In December this girl did a lot of this:
...and this:
...getting ready for her driving permit. Too bad she was so sad about that...
We got random pics. of Elle off in paradise...
...and our family room looked like this:
Which makes me long for that comfy room now that we had to take all our rugs out to help train Bo...
Grace also got to go to an awesome Christmas concert:
And Elle worked her guts out in her sculpture class over in Hawaii. This is not hers, but it makes me think about how cool it is people can make shapes by knowing the human anatomy so well and sculpt and make clay look human.
And while that girl of ours was out hitting all the professional surfing championships between classes...
...we were greeting this fellow:
And hanging with these good people who took us on a date to see Jim Gaffigan when he came to town:
Meanwhile Max found some awesome Japanese curry over in Taiwan:
Claire ran her guts out in soccer practices and soccer games:
And Lucy worked her tail off studying the three branches of American government and making a game about it to go with her project.
She asked if we would test it out with her for FHE so we did.
And let me tell you, she came up with some pretty stinking good questions that stumped us all except for Dave:
Some mystery admirer dropped off a little gift for Grace....
...which she refused to be in the picture for.
And more of Elle's friends gathered to scatter all over the world on missions:
The majority of those kids up there are off. Miss having them all around here.
Max was meeting all kinds of new people in Taiwan...
...and filling up that shirt pocket with all sorts of handy stuff :)
Here's Elle's guy:
More happiness in Taiwan:
We got haircuts:
We tried on dresses ...trying to find perfect fits for this girl.
Obviously she was in love with that one. HA!
Dates with their dad to do their sports...
Lucy offers to give talks in Primary whenever she can. And she usually whips them up all by herself. This is what she whipped up for her talk on Reverence one Sunday in December.
Not an ounce of that came from anyone else. Just from her own little (BIG) heart and her spirit that seems to understand spiritual things better than the rest of us.
We had a big YW Christmas party:
(...which I talked about back HERE)...right before we headed out on the red-eye to BOSTON, which is coming!
Dave held down the fort with Lucy who had her piano recital while we were gone. She did a great job...here's the picture I got along with a great video of that girl just concentrating her heart out on that piano.
Loved it.
We tried to switch up scriptures a little:
(back HERE)
The leaves were all glorious in December. I couldn't stop taking pics. at every stop sign in our neighborhood.
Found this note by my bed when we got home from Boston:
Why do I just love things like that so much??
Max got our Thankful Tree a little late, but got it!
I worked on the art of home-made crusty bread:
(recipe back HERE)
I took Lucy to the eye doctor. This is the only picture I got but I think it depicts quite well how I felt about that appointment.
The eyesight thing is tough.
Luckily this girl is quite a go-getter. I had to take a picture this day as I was dropping her off at the bus stop. She had closed the door, then opened it again and said, "Mom, remember to say a prayer for me and say good luck to me for my math test today."
Ok Lucy, I sure will.
We had the coolest youth activity at the church in December. This is unfortunately the only picture I got, the kids cleaning up, but I'm so glad I got it so it can spur my memory of that great night.
It was this amazing way to remember Christ's life. They gym was dark and we wore blindfolds and there was beautiful music and they brought around things we could touch as it narrated through His life (i.e. a palm branch, a nail, a crown of thorns, a new baby for when it talked about His birth...all kinds of things). It is difficult to describe, but it was so good.
We sent out stacks and stacks of Christmas cards:
More games:
...and one of Elle's modes of transportation in Hawaii:
Parents vs. kids night for soccer left our friend limping and Dave with a separated shoulder.
Ouch.
Now that's some tough soccer!
Our friends took us out to dinner partly to celebrate Dave's birthday a little late:
We came back to help Grace who was hosting a get-together to send off her friend who is moving back East. The friend who she met in China a few years ago and their family moved here by us.
Love this great family and we sure miss them!
Then we got ready for our Elle Belle to come home:
All the Christmas-prep-festivities including Elle's arrival home, gingerbread-house-making, various church and family parties, etc. are in this post back HERE.
She went straight hiking with the cousins:
And I whisked her off first thing the next morning to drive the soccer game carpool with me:
This little sister of hers was head-over-heels excited to have her there on the sidelines:
...All these girls were for that matter!
Sunday night emailing to Max...for once we got to email back and forth a little and the air was thick surrounding us on this couch with so much love for that boy of ours.
Who was happily biking around this place on the other side of the planet:
My parents arrived for all the Christmas festivities:
Lots more about what we did with them back HERE and also HERE but I don't think I included our gathering with this great family back there:
I thought this was a cool idea my friend had out on her front porch. Pretty thoughtful for all those people working overtime at Christmas!
Book club lunch/going away party for my friend that I caught the very tail end of.
Here's Lucy ready to deliver her thought-out Christmas notes and gift cards for her teachers:
Elle got a chance to get together for a lunch reunion with the "1st grade girls" (which name we came up with for them way back when they were all in 1st grade). Love these girls so much!
Four of them are out on missions...or heading there shortly.
Our Children for Children which turned out to be pretty awesome (read about that back HERE).
The view from our parking garage after the Nutcracker (back here)...
...pretty artistic buildings I have to say!
Elle and her friend who also lives in Hawaii with their little sisters who are friends:
...and want to go to Hawaii some day...
Claire's antics to help our old elf out this Christmas season:
Our neighborhood went from this:
To this:
To this in December:
And I thought it was the most beautiful thing.
Then it was off to Christmas Eve festivities:
(All about what happened Christmas Eve back HERE.)
Then Christmas Day is back HERE.
Then it was off to Utah to pick out our new puppy:
(all about that back HERE)
Max must have been feeling the "pet" thing because he randomly sent this pic. from over in Taiwan:
We hung out with these guys:
Skied:
And played in this winder wonderland:
(More about that back HERE and HERE.)
Then it was back home to soak up the last of the vacation days. Lucy got to work on building all her Christmas legos:
...and Grace got to work at the DMV to get her driving permit (just to practice, not official yet...)
(more about that back HERE)
Perfect parallel parking first time:
More exciting Legos:
A non-exciting family bike ride where we were all freezing and everyone was annoyed at each other:
Gotta keep it real, right?
I wrote about wrapping up December on New Year's Eve back HERE.
But let's just end with this video that wraps up a lot of what we did in December since we had a lot of family time:
Yeah, that girl's a born card-shark :)
And that's December in a wrap (except for Boston that is still coming tomorrow!)
2016 all wrapped up and put away. Good times.