The first part of December

December has been a pleasant blur, mostly.  :)  At the beginning of the month, as we were approaching all of the covid anniversary dates from last year, I was kind of an emotional wreck at every sign of a sniffle or cough.  Mostly for the girls' sake; they missed almost all of the fun things last year, programs at school and church, the Nutcracker, school parties, family stuff... and the closer we got to Christmas the more they talked about how awful last year was for them.  They were such troopers at the time, but it was really hard on them all.  So even though there was sickness this December, somehow we made it to everything.  Praise the Lord for small miracles.  

 

I should not be allowed to browse pinterest in November.... I invariably find a project that I don't need to be doing, but I just can't help myself.  I spent far too much time making little paper houses, but it turned out so cute.  😋

This is... probably not the best choice of places to practice flute.  ha.

Emmy decided she wanted to embroider a towel for her teacher for Christmas. :) 

Miri was 'helping' me work on Christmas dresses, which I started working on too late so they were more of a stressful project than they should have been.

Bob got his yearly sinus infection right after Thanksgiving that lasts pretty much all December, so the girls and I went to Christmas caroling without him and Perrin.  We went to nursing homes so we'd be inside, but we had to walk between two locations. It was much colder and windier than we thought! 😋 I was very glad that Dianne had ridden with us in our van- she helped get my crew from one place to another, and apparently the girls told her that they "didn't know Grandma's could run!"  😂 

So Perrin still doesn't like to sleep for long stretches ever, and I don't get to bed very early (my own fault), and one morning I woke up to my eye looking like this.  Yikes. Cue panic that I had pink eye and we were all going to get pink eye and they were going to miss all of the things again this year.... but I had no other pink eye symptoms and the family chat diagnosed me with broken blood vessels... good old bloodshot eye. 😝 I wore my glasses for a week and it slowly faded away...

We got to go to Jack's birthday party at the farm. Legos...

Haha, Cecily was knocking balloons down from the ceiling and Dad was quietly sticking them right back up. 😋

Logan likes to hold Perrin, who is most as big as he is. 

"We got a Cwist-mas twee, we got a Cwist-mas twee!" 

The other two were in the stroller....  😂

Perrin might win for most interested in touching a Christmas tree. 

 

 It's always so fun to decorate it and get out the ornaments. 

 Everybody look at me and smile.... or not...

Cecily's middle school concert was first on the calendar.  Bob still sounded too sick to go out in public, so I took the whole crew. 

 

Perrin was so good the whole concert! I didn't even get him out of his seat, he just chilled and played with his toys.

Cadence went to sit by Laural, so I was down to three, then Emmy and Miri wanted to sit with Betty, so I just had Perrin.  :)

There was a clip circulating the interwebs of a 5th grade band and when our 5th grade band started playing and it sounded the exact same I almost lost it... good thing Shelly wasn't with me... but they are definitely learning, and most of the tunes were at least recognizable.  😁 I told the girls that they have to be in band AND chorus because music is important and you can do it the rest of your life.... also, when else in life do you get access to, and have time for 'free' instrumental and vocal lessons?  Never.   But that also means we get to stay for the whole concert.  :P  Oh well, I enjoy this sort of thing, and it seemed a bit better than ye old EMS concert... those were long and hot and the bleachers were hard.  :)  Cecily and Kenna post performance.   

 

It calls to me, Momma....

Cecily was the first school kid down with a fever.  Just a low fever.  Unfortunately it meant she missed the church program practice.  :(  She wasn't super sad to miss the practice, just that she wasn't there for the gift exchange.  We sent a gift for her, so she did get to open something when the other girls got home.  She was rather chatty for a sick kid and spent the evening talking to me while I worked on Christmas dresses.  

Miriel was so excited to get to go to the program practice for the first time and get a present and see her beloved 'Miss Mawsha.'  Bob said she didn't sing at all up on the risers though. 

Cecily was just slightly feverish for three days... and the third day we had tickets for the Nutcracker.  gah.  So, I know it's bad, don't be like me, but she was just hovering around 99/100, and you're most likely contagious before you show symptoms and at the very beginning of illness, so we dosed her up and took her along anyway.  (Her fever didn't come back when the medicine wore off, so...)

We wanted to go in 2020... we tried to go in 2021... and we finally made it in 2022.  Ha.  A former co-worker is a ballet mom and was able to order tickets without all of the extra box office fees so we had great seats!  It was so fun.  I loved it, and the girls enjoyed it, even the slightly sick one.  :)

Cadence fits in my old coat this year, even though it's "too long!"  *sigh*

All four girls were well enough to be in the Christmas program at church, a small miracle.  Also, I finished the last dress the night before the program.  We were in a hurry, as usual, and running slightly late so I did not get any pictures of them that night.  Thankfully, none of them distinguished themselves, and Miri actually sang her song. We came home with extra oranges and a good time was had by all.
Miri insisted on wearing an apron and Emmy's chef hat to roll out cookie dough. 

We did gingerbread.

Cadence is still my best dough roller- all that practice with play-do at the farm.

And sugar cookies.

Perrin got his 9 month pictures taken closer to 10 months... oh well.  Handsome little boy needed his Christmas pants and bow tie. 

We decorated cookies.

They ate cookies.

Emmy missed school for three days because of a fever- boo.  One day she was hot, the next better, the third hot again.  It was weird.  She's my best cookie decorator though, so I told her she could help if she wore a mask and gloves. 😂

Dried orange slice garlands are a thing (an expensive thing, and not really my decor style); but, since we had extra oranges from the program I tried drying some in the oven. It took all day, but it worked! Not sure what to with them at this point... ha.

Somebody discovered garbage cans... huzzah.

Posted this on the 15th:

One year ago today I almost met this little squish all alone and far to early.

I was in the ICU with covid pneumonia and my blood work got mixed up. I woke up to a room full of Doctors and Nurses convinced I was developing HELLP. I'm so thankful that people were praying... that the nurses caught the mistake (they were amazing)... and that he arrived 2 months later, 2 days after my due date.

I would have named him something completely different. Bob: I would have changed it.

Happy Un-birthday Perrin!

Blessings.