December and Christmas

Yup, posting about Christmas six days before Valentine's Day. That's how we roll in the Hunt household that I call mine.

Let's set the stage.....

The two remaining lambs have been sent to the butcher and designated freezer homes outside of our garage. Side note: Morgan wouldn't hear of keeping any of the lamb, lest it be Nutmeg. Spencer, on the other hand, asked for a couple weeks when we would be eating the lambs. *sigh*

Abbie the Elf made an appearance and is up to her usual shenanigans - fishing in the tank, sitting on cactus and regretting it the next day, and hiding the in the best places.

Our neighbor brought over a beautiful gingerbread house that he created and which we proudly displayed the last two weeks of the month. It was broken apart and the edibles consumed by cousins Christmas night....

Both girls had concerts at school for music class. No great pictures obtained as we didn't have a great view. The back of someone's head with small children dots in the background don't make for interesting viewing. The music was great! The school has such an awesome, fun, and dedicated music teacher. The girls love her.

Morgan also had a piano recital, which she rocked. Mr. Bob has some amazing students under his tutelage and it was fun to listen to the varying levels.

New windows were installed December 20!! Three new windows in the bedrooms upstairs and one over the kitchen sink. Doing dishes has never been so beautiful.

End of December. The perfect Christmas tree has been chosen, cut, decorated, and losing needles by the handful for at least a week. Presents started accumulating under the tree, and Morgan has them all memorized - which ones are hers, which ones are new. We haven't had any snow since the beginning of the month (pictured below) and while there really isn't any in the forecast, we are all hoping against the odds.

Christmas Eve inched closer. School was released Friday. Chadwick had Sat-Tues off and we got to work making food, wrapping the final presents, and dreaming of snow. James, Jolynn, and their kiddos joined us for Christmas Eve smorgasbord. We ate and ate and played some games.

Then ate a bit more. I love the food of this season! Brings back so many memories of Christmases as a child. Christmas morning, I actually had to wake the kids up to open presents!! Well, that was after all three were awake from 3-4 am to get water, go to the bathroom, or be tucked back into bed. Wrapping paper was everywhere, there were squeals of joy with each one opened, and it was over too quickly. The girls and Spencer seemed to feel like they scored big, and we didn't see them the rest of the day as they played and played. (That is, perhaps, one of my favorite things - watching them play together for hours.) One of Chadwick's clients gave him a basket of gourmet dog treats. They were so lovely, I had to check the back twice to make sure it read "dog treat" as they looked too pretty to give to Darwin!

That night, we joined the rest of the Boise/Meridian Hunts, Austins, and Hambletons for dinner at Stephen and Tara's house. The lasagna was delicious and it was SO great of them to host the chaos.

The remainder of the month was spent playing with toys, playing with friends, and enjoying the lazy morning schedule of no school.

And that's December in a nutshell!