It's A Wonderful Life: December

December was a busy month, as always! The kids were eager to make hot chocolate once the cold weather hit.

These next several pictures are in reverse order again, but this photo of Charlie was after a long, and very fun day in Chicago looking at Christmas decorations.

The kids loved the street performers.

And that day started with a visit with Santa at a pancake breakfast at Charlie's school. The kids weren't shy at all!

We attended another great event at Charlie's school a few weeks later. They had organized a night of giving for the families to participate in. Each room had different activities set up: making scarves for a local homeless shelter, making cards for kids at the children's hospital, and crafts for nursing home residents. The students all sang a tear jerking song about peace, and it was a really nice family night. Have I mentioned how much we absolutely love Charlie's school? We feel SO blessed to be a part of it.

Reese lost her first tooth in December, which was a pretty huge and exciting ordeal!!! She has lost two so far, and is very excited to have another one that is wiggly.

It's a long story, but we bought a Menorah this year, and it was fun to teach the kids about Hanukkah, and expose them to other traditions! The kids loved lighting a candle each night.

We had a great Christmas celebration with Matt's family.

The next day was amazing. The kids played for FOREVER with the kinetic sand and Legos they had received. And Charlie was very excited to wear the sweater Uncle Brian got him.

We also made Christmas cookies, and attempted a Santa craft. But if I'm being honest, it was kind of a miserable disaster that involved a lot of preventing Charlie from eating cotton balls. Also, NEVER eat a cookie my kids helped bake.

hahaha

We headed down to Princeton for Christmas Eve. I showed Reese a Santa tracker on my phone, and she diligently watched it for the entire hour and a half drive home. Things started to get a little hairy and we started to panic when we were still 30 minutes from home and Santa appeared to be getting close! Thankfully, we were able to rush home and get the kids to bed before he arrived.

Christmas morning was a blast, as always. Unfortunately, poor Charlie was feeling a bit under the weather, so he didn't have his usually crazy spunk.

Matt surprised me with this awesome wine rack he made.

After our Christmas morning, we headed to Grandma Rosie's, and then ended our day with my parents, where the kids were spoiled once again!

The next morning, we headed up to Galena with Matt's family. We had a great time, and luckily, Reese had her eye pillow to make the long drive more tolerable.