What December Looked Like

Downtown Festival of Lights

This was the coolest piece of art where the table is covered

with sand and that metal ball is somehow controlled magnetically

and makes patterns in the sand.

Mesmerizing!

Greensboro Christmas Parade

Ragsdale Marching Band.

Go Tigers!

Andrew took me on a date to Candlefest,

where they put THOUSANDS of luminaries

around the walking trails of the arboretum.

Loved it.

I bought one of those projectors that makes

your house look festive without having

to spend hours and hours hanging lights.

It was awesome!

Poor phone-camera quality,

but this is what the house looked like

with the red and green lights projected on there.

Caroline had a great time with her little tradition

of opening a Christmas book every day.

Gingerbread houses

And kitties. :)

W made the Shrieking Shack from Harry Potter.

Awesome!

B made the Supreme logo.

And a little house that kept falling apart.

Andrew made a fantasy basketball stat tracker.

Andrew and I thought of Wyatt while we donated

blood at our church's blood drive.

He's back in the hospital battling a relapse of leukemia.

Ugly Sweater Party!

The Amber and Gina threw an AWESOME party

with over fifty guests.

We didn't win any prizes, but had a fun time.

I was pretty impressed with my

cookie-decorating skills!

I bought a puzzle that I worked on 

throughout the month while I watched TV.

I was hoping other family members would

join it, but it ended up mostly just being me.

Christmas Dance Showcase

Whitney is working as an apprentice to Miss Shelley this year.

She helps with the preschool and kindergarten ballet and tap classes.

What a dream job for this girl!

She does a great job.

Those little girls love her.

So fun to see her in action!

Also love seeing her in action en pointe!

And singing her heart out in musical theatre!

Look at that kick!

It was a big month for me, too.

I won my fantasy football league!!!

I couldn't believe it.

I did not have the best team in the league,

but the way the playoffs worked out, 

I WON IT ALL! WOO HOO!

Speaking of winning,

Caroline won her class spelling bee!

On to the school contest in January.

We tried something new this year.

The Greensboro Symphony Orchestra puts on a

FREE holiday concert, just asking that you bring

canned food donations.

We had never been, but decided to head down to the Coliseum

this year and check it out.

The sister missionaries from our ward were the bell-ringers

in the Coliseum! Fun to run into them.

The concert was fabulous!

Gorgeous instrumentals, great choir singing,

we got to participate in a big sing-a-long, too.

AND they even had ice skaters perform 

during some of the numbers.

What??? Awesome.

It was science fair month for Whit.

She did a social science project on whether or not 

brunette ballerinas are more likely to get lead roles.

Drove through our favorite Christmas Ball neighborhood:

Sunset Hills.

Love, love, love it.

I got to help out with Care Bear's school Christmas party.

This is a great bunch of kids.

I love working with them every week.

Grandma S makes the kids a quilt when they are born.

Eight and a half years later,

Caroline still uses hers every day.

Over Christmas break, Andrew and I snuck out on 

a geocaching date. It was a nice day and we found

three of the four caches we were looking for.

This one was SO UNIQUE.

Can you see that TINY capsule hanging below my fingers?

It was hanging by fishing line under that drainage grate.

We were just about to give up on it when it caught our eye.

I finished my puzzle!

It was hard.

But I liked it.

Andrew worked several days over winter break.

One day while he was working, I took the kids downtown.

We wanted to try ice skating at the temporary outdoor rink.

A note to remember:

Don't try outdoor ice skating when it's 70* outside.

Ha! There was a huge puddle on top of the ice.

The employees warned us that if we fell,

WE WOULD GET WET.

Luckily, we were careful and none of us fell.

They also have a fun ice slide down there.

Weeeeeee!

They have revitalized this part of downtown and we

had a great time hanging out.

We played ping pong...

and foosball.

They also had a putting green and badminton.

So fun.

Love playing outdoor tennis in December!

NC is the best.

Fun date night with Tiffany and Chris at a Breakout place.

We rocked Operation Casino,

getting out in 44:39. Boom!

We spent most of winter break relaxing around the house,

playing board games, and watching movies.

But we got to work one day and finally took care of all

the leaves in our lawn.

I'd done the front yard earlier, but more had fallen and

we hadn't touched the back yard.

Amazing what five people can do in a couple of hours.

That's a lot of leaves!