More Christmas prep

It's been an incredibly busy fall/winter. I feel like I'm drowning in stress the majority of the time. I'm not even sure how to make it better, we've simplified in so many ways, but still we're overwhelmingly busy. However, when you've got kids and it's Christmas you have no choice but to keep in truckin'. So we did, but we simplified so much. Instead of our usual activity nativity calendar we bought a Lego one. We still did most of the activities I would usually do with the calendar, just at a more relaxed pace. No one complained. The girls all got new dresses/skirts for Christmas Sunday (I made the skirts) and they looked like angels! Such sweet little girls. We did some baking, we decorated the house and most importantly we decorated the gingerbread house. I LOVE this tradition. I don't get involved, I just really really love watching my girls get messy and creative, and I especially love the icing mustaches at the end. This year I feel like more candy made it in their mouths than on the house, and I'm not just saying that, I REALLY mean it! Which is great...it's going to get eaten anyway, might as well be before it's hard and gross right??

Garage Band

So these girls are little performers. Any chance they get they will put on a show. They dream of being famous and want to sing and dance all day long...even while helping Dad in the garage.  Now I'm honestly thinking of starting a garage band for them. How cute would that be? Now to teach them guitar.

Christmas Concert

The girls school split up the Christmas concert this year into two programs (one on Wed one on Thurs) and then again into two showings of the program on the night (A-L last names go to the first showing and M_Z go to the second). It was sooo great to have somewhat decent seats, have a short concert and not have to fight for parking. Genius thinkers at that school I tell ya. Paige's class sang the cutest little song about getting some new teeth for Christmas....so relevant for those grade one singers. They also sang Away in a Manger. Hailey's class sand a Kwanzaa song and another one about Christmas Cookies. I might be biased, I know I'm biased, but I'm pretty sure Hailey stole the show. Honestly...she was dancing and singing and full on performing like her life depended on it! Nora was all smiles and flirty coo's for the people behind us and Cait passed out in her Daddy's arms. I just kind of love this season...even if it feels extra busy this year!

Trimming the tree

This has been an incredibly busy month. Like I honestly feel like I'm on the verge of a breakdown. It all started one night when Ben was casually browsing mls looking at houses to buy...when he came across one he was interested in. So we went and had a look at it the next day. We do this regularly, we're ALWAYS on the lookout. But this one seemed to work for both of us so we decided it was time to sell out house. So we started the process of getting our house ready, which has turned out to be WAY more than we ever expected. There were quite a few things we had to do to get it up to code (we bought it as a foreclosure and there were a few funny things about it that weren't serious, but could be a hurdle when selling). Then we had to get our finances in order which has turned out to be more difficult than expected. Apparently they are making things very tough for self employed borrowers. Anyway...in the middle of this we decided to tag along with friends to cut down a Christmas tree....straight out of the forest. Not some fancy tree farm. So it is quite the tree. It's gorgeous and imperfect and makes my heart so happy! But because of the craziness of life we just got around to decorating it this week. The kids had a blast and although it's not as perfect looking as my other trees it just feels so magical. And thank goodness for that because the rest of the house remains undecorated...which is SOOOO unlike me!!