December happenings

December is always a crazy month with so many Christmas parties and activities so I have lots of pictures to add. Here goes:

Our elf - Dash - always comes on December 1st and Brennan was SO excited to have our elf come this year...Callie was not so excited.  Brennan wrote this cute note to Dash so that Dash made sure to not scare Callie.

 My days with these two are the best!  Callie is Graham's 2nd mommy and I love their sweet relationship!

 Our bed is our kid's favorite spot to come in the morning.  We all usually pile into bed and turn a little show on as we wake up.  I love when we can have lazy mornings :)

 My parents always give us $100 every December to do some service with.  This year we decided to do the 12 days of Christmas for a family in our ward that had been going through a rough time.  The kids and Nate and I had so much fun picking out some special Christmas or Christ themed gifts for this special family.  And starting on December 13th, the kids LOVED getting to doorbell ditch this family and leave a gift for those 12 days.

 I was spoiled by my family on my birthday.  I had lunch with friends during the day and then Nate and the kids gave me some gifts and took me out to Cold Stone for the night.  I felt so loved and I am grateful for these special people in my life!

How is my baby big enough to feed himself his own ice cream?!  He was loving it!

Another picture of Graham feeding himself - who needs to eat Mac n' Cheese with a spoon when you have your hand?!  Graham is the happiest little guy and I love getting to spend my days with him!

 I love that our church does the Light the World initiative.  We tried to find simple ways to light the world.  I love that my kids get so excited to serve others.  It was a nice way to get in the Christmas Spirit.  One night we went to the Heritage Care Center to deliver some homemade paper snowflakes and a treat.  

 Aiden and Brennan and Nate and I got to attend the MOTAB Christmas Concert.  It's always a favorite Christmas activity for us and I'm grateful my mom can always get us tickets :)

 We had a fun time at the ward Christmas party.  They served dinner and then had a nativity walk and Santa came.  And the Primary kids performed a litle musical number.  

 Aiden's almost getting too big to sit on Santa's lap... :)

 I went to a wreath class that a girl in our ward held and I learned to make my own wreath.  It was so fun and it turned out pretty cute so I was excited. 

 My friends Kelsey and Meg were both moving away so we held a little going away party for them.  I am so lucky to have some amazing friends in this ward.  I play Bunco monthly with them and it's always fun to have girls nights with them!  And a few of them have moved out of the ward but they still come back to hang out when they can.  

 Callie did a cute little performance at preschool. She loves preschool and is the sweetest girl! I can't believe how grown up she is getting!

 The Brewers held a little Christmas party and we had a lot of fun.  We played the saran wrap game and ate some yummy food and had a good time hanging out.  I'm so grateful that we have such good friends!

 The Tadje family had a Christmas party at a church building (b/c we are so large we need a big church to meet in!)  We ate the usual ham and yummies and I made the jello salad this year and it did not turn out at all!  I am the worst jello maker and I have vowed to never attempt Diane's special Christmas jello again :) We had a good time playing a Christmas gift exhange game too.

 Nathan & Danae's family and Steve & Rayane's family came to town and it's always fun when they visit!  The Blackhams had a Christmas party at Brick Oven and Santa came and it was a lot of fun!  Nothing better than spending time with family!

 We had an party with all of our extended Curtis family members.  And Santa's special helper (my Uncle Dave) was kind enough to give each child a special gift.  They are so generous and it's something we look forward to all year!

 Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday and I performed in the choir Christmas program.  The woman that leads the choir is really talented and it was a beautiful program.  I sang in a small group and I was VERY nervous about it so I was sure happy when it was over.

After church we headed to my aunt Julie's house for Chinese food and then we spent Christmas Eve with just the 6 of us doing a nativity show (with our nativity puppets), fishing for presents, and watching a little Christmas show.  

I will post more about Christmas day in a separate post.

Brennan kept busy all month long making special gifts and notes for Santa.  So on Christmas Eve he put them all under the tree and Nate and I loved reading through his little notes and seeing his creations.  

 One of our Christmas gifts was this 1000 piece puzzle and we stayed up late one night putting it together.  We were pretty proud of ourselves :)

 We spent a lot of time after Christmas hanging out at my parent's house because Steve's family and Nathan's family were there.  We had fun playing games (especially Code Names and some games on Jackbox tv) and visiting and watching the kids play.  One day we went to Coconut Cove which is a fun indoor playground for the kids.  

 Nate and the kids met up with my parents and siblings and the Brewers one night for a BYU game.  Graham was really sick so I stayed home with him.  But they had a great time at the game and our kids are huge BYU fans.

 We all went to Pizza Pie Cafe to celebrate Becca's birthday.  We were quite the group!

Things not pictured: work Christmas party, some fun date nights, a Jerusalem night at my parents, new Star Wars movie event for boys, and our older kids went to the zoo with my parents. We love this time of year!