The Christmas Lead-In

As usual, time seems to both drag and fly by in the last few weeks leading up to Christmas. We were able to meet up with my bestie, Hoolio, and her two girls one morning. Hoolio came into town with her youngest to watch her eldest sing with her choir.  It was so good and fun to see them! The morning just flew by and I wished we could have spent the whole day together. We need to make that happen one of these days soon, I think.

We got some snow a few days later and Edith and I decided it would be fun to build a snowman. Well, we were wrong! It wasn't fun at all. I know the saying goes that we have the greatest snow on earth, but it sure isn't great for building a snowman very often. After trying and trying to make a snowman out of the way-too-dry-and-powdery stuff that was on the ground that day, Edith and I finally had to concede defeat. Such a bummer.

We were able to attend the boys' elementary school Christmas programs that week, too. It was so wonderful to hear a few new songs this year. The parents all cheered with happy grins plastering their faces, so happy to hear something different than in years (many years) past. I still have "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas" running on a loop in the deep recesses of my mind, though. That one I'm pretty sure they'll never do away with. They'd better not before Edith gets a chance to sing it next year, that's for sure. She's so excited that next year she'll finally get a chance to sing it in the program.

We had my mom over for breakfast-for-dinner on the 23rd so I could use the waffle iron she gave me for Christmas. Plus, I figured it would be nice to have some leftovers for an easy breakfast the next morning so I could just worry about the big Christmas Eve meal. After dinner, we left Pen at home to work on college applications and drove around to look at Christmas lights. As usual it was a lot of fun. We're always happy to see our pal Farting Santa.

We had my mom over again for dinner on Christmas Eve and added on Grandma and Grandpa Gorilla, too. It was so great to have all of the kids' grandparents together with us for our special (and nummy!) meal. The meal tasted so good that I forgot to snap a photo until it was all gone. 

Eating great food and creating special memories--what could be better?! I sure do love my family.

We all know what comes next...