December was filled with family, friends, food, concerts, parties and lots of fun! It sometimes felt like we had something every night single night of December but to be honest, I kinda love the hustle and bustle of Christmastime.
As with every December, my parents gave us service money to help those less fortunate. This year we put our money towards helping refugees in our area. There was a new live nativity that was put on at the Lehi Rodeo grounds that we decided to go to. All of the money spent for the nativity went to refugees in Utah. The coolest part is some of the refugees even acted in the nativity so we could see them there helping for their charity. There were a lot of hands-on activities for the kids like sawing logs, shopping at the market, petting animals, and doing other fun things in the pretend town of Bethlehem.
We ran into our old friends the Howells there so it was fun to catch up with them too.
Another night in December we decorated gingerbread houses. Our family loves candy so this is a favorite tradition (because a lot of the candy never even makes it onto the houses!)
I turned 33! I felt lots of love that day from family and friends and that night Nate and I went to dinner and a movie. Nate always makes sure my birthday is special and I love that about him!
The kids had a sleepover with cousins at G&G's house. They had lots of fun and stayed up super late being silly. The next morning my parents took them to see Frozen II and they all loved it...even the boys!
I finally put up our family pictures in the frames in our living room. Sometimes I spend so much time stewing over what to hang on the walls and how to decorate so it feels good when I like what we finally put up there! I love that we have our family pictures as a major focal point in our living room.
Moving from South Weber was especially sad for Aiden because he made such a great friend there - Max Brown. Luckily, we're only an hour away so we try to get these boys together as much as we can still! One day Max came over to our new house and then Nate took the boys to a Jazz game that night which they loved.
Graham loved visiting the party store one day...lots of fun Christmas accessories. He makes a cute Santa huh?!
These boys have homework online each night (Lexia for reading and Reflex for Math) and they love getting to "play"on the computer for homework. One day after they were done, I introduced them to Frogger (the old computer game) and they loved it! Nate and I tried it out too. It was like a blast from the past!
I love when I walk into a room and see my kids reading! I love reading and I want all of them too as well.
The older boys got to go on a little date with Nate and me to see the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. I love this tradition and it will be sad when my mom is out of the choir and we don't get tickets each year! This year Kelli O'Hara and Richard Thomas were the guests and it was wonderful.
Nate's new company had a big Christmas party we got to go to at the Grand America! It was a Winter Wonderland theme and super fancy. Nate decided to book a room at the Little America that night too so we had an early anniversary celebration. It was so nice to spend some quality time with Nate over the weekend!
Saturday we spent the day in Salt Lake and ate at our favorite Coffee Shop at the Little America and then did some shopping before going home to our kids. Becca was awesome and watched them for us overnight and the kids didn't seem to miss us at all.
We had a fun Tadje Christmas party at Diane's clubhouse. It's always a little crazy when we get together because there are so many of us but so fun too! Diane did a fun "fishing game" where the kids fished for presents and then we did another fun game of passing the presents around in a circle depending on a Left/Right story.
The boys had an early Christmas present - skiing with Nate. They tried out Sundance one time and then Brighton a couple other times and they liked Brighton a lot more and decided to keep going back there. So glad these boys love skiing so much!
Somehow I injured my foot during a High Fitness class in December so I had to spend a few days making sure I didn't walk around. Sadly the swelling went down a little but the pain did not so walking was really uncomfortable all month long (and even into January). Kind of a gross picture, but this shows just how swollen and red the top side of my foot got. I love to exercise and be busy so it was hard having to take it easy a lot more during the month.
We had our annual brunch with Santa at Brick Oven and had a lot of fun! The kids made cute little Rudolph candy jars and then we stuffed ourselves with pizza. And of course we love when Santa comes to visit at the end.
The big boys are getting a little too big for Santa's lap :)
We had a fun little Christmas party with the Brewers one night. The kids decorated sugar cookies and played a gift exchange game and then we just hung out. So grateful to have good friends like them!
We also had a great time at the annual extended Curtis family party. Nathan & Danae's family didn't come out for Christmas this year (because Cooper was just born) so we missed them at all of these family functions. And Andrew and Melanie's family doesn't come out in December anymore so we were happy to have Steve's family and Becca with us at these parties. Santa's special helper came again and each kid received a fun gift from the North Pole. That is always a highlight of December.
My aunt Deanne and Uncle David are so generous and make this all possible!
Christmas Eve day we had Chinese food at Julie's - another favorite tradition. My mom brought her bells for the kids to play and they did surprisingly well!
Christmas Eve night we hung out at our own house which was nice to keep it low key. We made two different fondues (a meat & cheese one and also a white chocolate one) and Diane came over to join us. We loved getting to have Diane there with us at our house. The kids did their puppet nativity show and everyone opened warm and fuzzies and it was the perfect chill Christmas Eve.
Santa came late that night and the next day was SO magical! Our kids are at the best ages and make Christmas so fun!
Callie got the Baby Alive doll she had been eyeing for a while.
Brennan got his three-wheeled scooter that he quickly learned how to maneuver all over the kitchen.
Graham got a Blue Trak and some new race cars that he played with for hours.
And Graham got a new 2-wheel scooter. When he first opened it, he didn't hide his emotions and let us know he didn't want it. But them once it was out of the box he liked it a little more. 3-year-olds can be hard to please :)
Aiden got the Star Wars Lego Set he was really wanting. And he immediately started building it.
Nate opened up some new clothes and a new Nike duffle bag to take with him to work so he can workout right after. I got some new workout clothes as well.
I loved watching my kids open their presents and seeing the magic of Christmas through them! We had lots of new art supplies, games, and activities and the kids were so excited with all they received.
After eating breakfast and finishing up our own Christmas morning, we headed to my parents for more family time. My parents are always so generous with us and we went home with lots of new games and a new popcorn maker and money and books. All the families went in and got my parents tickets to a play, a date night to a cooking class, and new BYU hats because my family bleeds blue.
We all love this sweet baby!
On the 26th, all of the Tadje adults met up to celebrate Diane's birthday. We ate at Cubby's (my favorite!) and then saw Little Women (which was amazing!) It was so fun to get to hang out just the adults and not have to worry about a million kids running around ;)
For the rest of the month, cute little Callie made sure to bring her "diaper bag" purse and baby everywhere we went. She loves pretending she's a mom. I had to document it. She'll make the best mom one day!
For one of the kid's Christmas gifts, my parents took the older grandkids to see Suessical the Musical. I love that they do these special experiences with the kids. One of my mom's students was in it so they got to meet one of the stars after the show.
Becca turned 26 so we celebrated with her! She is the best aunt and my kid's favorite babysitter!
My friend Nikki was in town and she organized a breakfast meet-up over Christmas break. It was so fun to catch up with old high school friends! We ended up talking for 3 hours...all the way until we realized the lunch hour was coming in and we had come for breakfast. I love that she organized this so we could all catch up!
We spent the day at Aaron & Samantha's house one day. We are so sad they don't still live in AF where they are close but glad it's not too far of a drive to see them.
I got some blue light glasses and the kids loved getting to try them on. Kids in glasses is the cutest!
We hosted a New Years Eve party and had lots of food, games, and fun!
And just like that we were onto a new year...and decade! 2020!
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