xray

At the beginning of December, we asked the girls what their favorite Christmas activities were so that we could make a bucket list. Instead of trying to d it all and being frazzled and exhausted, we only picked our favorites and left plenty of room for downtime and spontaneous outings. We loved Christmastime!

The Follow the Star live nativity and international creche exhibit is always a must-do.

Can’t miss our annual cookie decorating with the Wrights. Maliyah and Allie have always been the most meticulous cookie decorators, whereas the twins and Meredith just slap on the frosting and pour as many sprinkles as the can on each cookie.

It’s fall! The leaves finally started falling off the trees in December and Meredith was so excited to jump in a pile!

The twins’ piano teacher, Miss Jenny, brought them some toy Santa boots that they tried to squeeze on poor Eleanor’s feet.

Reagan’s mom from kindergarten dressed up as a totally legit Cindy Lou Who, complete with a wig and prosthetic nose, and read the kids The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Christmas fun at kindergarten.

Santa and Mrs. Clause came to visit the twins’ school and read them stories while the kids drank hot cocoa. Sounds cozy!

Christmas crafts:

Letters so Santa (they had to clarify when Santa came that they meant a toy puppy, not a real one!)

School pictures 2018.

Chilling in the backyard.

Cookie decorating with our neighbors.

Naomi concentrated very hard on her cookie decorating while the twins and Meredith went wild.

The girls love to climb a tree at the end of our cul de sac, and one afternoon, while wearing some boots with a slight heel, Samantha jumped out of the tree and landed “not like a cat,” in Amelia’s words. We thought for sure it was just a sprain, but nope, she broke her #2 metatarsal and had to have a boot on for 3 weeks over Christmas! That’s two broken bones for Samantha, if anyone’s counting.

Samantha did not let the boot stop her from climbing trees again.

We told the twins that anytime you saw someone standing under the mistletoe, you had to tackle them.

Christmas party playdate with Meredith’s playgroup.

Instead of attempting to do gingerbread houses with the girls by myself this year (getting the houses engineered to stand up correctly whilst managing three crazies armed with tubes of frosting is not my forte), we waited for a day Jake could be home to help the, and the whole experience was much less stressful! I just stood back, bit my tongue as Meredith ate more candy than she put on her house, and took pictures.