The Wilson Family: December

I'm too lazy to upload the videos to blogger, so this isn't as cool. One of our science experiments. Lighting bubbles on fire.

P.E. for Noah. One of the many benefits of home school has been being able to do activities during the day when there are no crowds.

Noah performed A LOT in December. This was his first concert at the Granite Bay nativity. They did 2 performances. They played all the Christmas songs in the Hymn book. During the second performance Joy, Noah's teacher, made Adam sing Silent Night with them. :)

Noah joined the Placer County Youth Orchestra this year and has really enjoyed it. This was their charity concert. He is on the front row, behind and to the right of the director.

FHE with some friends. Caroled to a lady in our ward, walked around a Christmas light street and then ended with ice cream.

This year I decided to really simplify the month of December. Usually we do a big friend service project and the kids do their big bake sale. December is usually so stinking busy and with all the 'extra' stuff I was really starting to dread all the extra activities. I read this article about how December is when everyone wants to do service project and give, and then after Christmas is over the service projects and giving dwindle substantially. It mentioned that spreading it out over the year is better than stressing during December and thinking we have to stuff it all into one month. Granted we try to do service all year, but the service during December was taking a toll on me, so this year I decided to try and just do small and simple acts of service and focus on enjoying the holidays. I must admit, this year I really did enjoy December a lot more and wasn't stressed at all. We did a bunch of small things that didn't take much effort or forethought like paying for a families meal when we went out to dinner, caroling to widows, gave away one of our Craigslist sells, babysitting etc.

Made spice ornaments for activity days this month. I got released from activity days and called as a counselor in the RS. I loved activity days - such a fun calling.

Ava made a pumpkin pie from our fall decoration pumpkins.

Our mandarin tree finally produced a decent crop this year (approx. 50). LOVE walking out front and picking fresh mandarins off the tree. Can't wait until it's producing hundreds.

Playing in the creek.

Another impromptu FHE activity with friends decorating cookies.

Didn't realize how blurry this picture was :/......Noah's last Court of Honor for BSA. He earned his Star rank. We aren't continuing with the BSA and will focus on the new church youth program.

Noah's preferred method of P.E. I hear my walls rumbling all the time since he likes to jump off the walls and land on the trampoline.

My little (not really that little anymore) tree climber.

Ava made her ugly sweater for school.

Noah's first time driving. We've let him move the truck a few feet in the driveway, but never officially driving. It was very scary!! He needs practice.

The kids making more spice ornaments for the neighbors (we also made cinnamon rolls for them).

Gingerbread house kits were on sale at Sprouts (2 days before Christmas), so I caved and bought some. They had fun decorating - Ava mainly ate the yucky candy.

Our cute little Christmas tree. Adam and I bought a piano and it was getting delivered on Christmas Eve, so the month of December we slowly rearrange the front room to make room. We gave away our 2 white chairs, moved the orange couch and moved the Christmas tree from its original location and the kids never questioned all the changes. :)

We wanted the new piano to be a surprise on Christmas morning, so Christmas Eve was a bit tricky. Adam had to work, so once I got the call that he was on his way home (he still needed to move the old HEAVY piano) and the piano movers were on their way with the new piano, I loaded up the kids and we had to be out of the house the until bedtime. We went to lunch, and the piano still hadn't arrived, so then we went to Top golf for an hour. Finally Adam called and said the piano had arrived. We went back home and picked him up and then headed towards Tahoe to play in the snow.

We found a couple places to sled and waste away a few more hours.

On our way back we stopped for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I was really hoping they would come out and sing Deck the Halls, like on the Christmas Story movie. :)

Then we stopped off at a friends house for their Scandinavian Christmas Eve party. On our way home we stopped by the neighborhoods with all the lanterns. Finally it was bedtime!!

We made the kids shower and then we brought their pajamas and book presents upstairs for them to open.

Christmas morning. We let Grant run downstairs to plug in the tree and told him he couldn't look at anything. We completely missed his basketball hoop and new piano in the room. HA!! He said he was squinting so we wouldn't peak.

Noah got a 3D printer and some collecting coins. He was so excited about the coins. :)

Ava got a hover board and a dragon toy. The hover board has been a big hit and a source for lots of negotiations and envy.

Grant got a basketball hoop and some Legos.

We all love the new piano.

Christmas afternoon we headed to the cabin. My goal was to get all the windows washed, but only got about 30% of them done. Grant wanted to try the highest ones.