December Days

We tried to hit the highlights of the Christmas season throughout the month and here are a few of them.

We waited in line for a long time to see santa. When we finally made it, Cody told Santa he wanted "no homework" for Christmas. Santa was no nonsense and without skipping a beat he seriously said "I don't think so." So Cody said Legos.

Mackayla said Shopkins and Pokemon. Macey asked for a snowcone maker and a big blow up ball. At the end she asked Santa if she could ask him a question. She asked if his reindeers really flew. This is something she had been thinking about for a little while now.

He was so sweet to take an extra minute to answer her very serious question. He asked them if they could see love. And if they couldn't see love how did they know it existed? They could feel it. And reindeers and the magic of Christmas exist through love.

I love his answer.

December is always a chance to see what the kids have been working on for the last couple of months in their classes and for them to do a lot of celebrating with a lot of sugar. 

A new tradition for us is the live nativity in Rancho Santa Margarita.

It's cool outside so we grab a hot chocolate they pass out and listen to the narrative. It's fast become one of my favorite things we do this season. They also have an impressive collection of nativities from all over the world set up inside.

 Macey seriously prayed that we would get front row seats in her prayer that night at dinner. And we got them:) She was beyond thrilled. 

Mackayla's preschool had their performance (but we aren't allowed to call it preschool...so it is "KR" for Kindergarten Readiness, which is a fancy way of saying preschool). 

They sang some sweet (super random) songs and showed off what they had been practicing. It was cute and I LOVE her school.

After we went and let the kids decorate cookies and give us their special presents they made. Cookie decorating seems like a competition to see who can get the most frosting and sprinkles piled on.

Macey's class had their singing performance. The music teacher was really a great teacher and they had learned a lot about rhythm and notes. Macey looked so worried because we walked in just as they started singing the first song and she couldn't find us. Support from me is so important to her. She didn't break a smile until she saw us and then she hammed up her performance.

Macey's favorite song was Feliz Navidad and you could just see the soul in her singing as she lifted her head back to sing it. By the way, she has loves old rock songs and it cracks me up. I love her style!

I play the organ in sacrament meeting. If Ben is ever on a call during church the kids are so good to sit quietly by themselves. While I'm playing postlude he usually takes Mackayla to her class but he was on a call today. All the primary classes were changing for the new year and after sacrament was over Macey came up to me while I played and told me she was going to take Mackayla to her classroom and get her situated. Those two fight as much as any sisters do, but Macey is such a good big sister and really looks out for Mackayla.

She also loves writing notes:

Cody's class had a "Walk through California" presentation where they learned more about California's history and each had a turn to recite the subject they were assigned to learn about. Cody dressed as a cowboy (in authentic cowboy clothes he noted). At one point he was chosen to go see if he could find gold up front. They were supposed to shout "Eureka!" if they found gold. Cody found gold and shouted "Yamaha!" He still can't remember the word if I ask. :) He did great with his part of the presentation and his memorized part as an "expert" on ranchos.

Decorating a gingerbread house.

This is the first year they did it by themselves completely.

except the wreath. I did it. Super professional.

One of my favorite Ladera Ranch friends is moving. It came out of the blue and I'm so sad to see their awesome family leave our ward family.

December activities this year are basketball, gymnastics and swim.

This is Cody's first official (not summer) season of basketball. I think he likes it a lot. His coach is great. It's fun for him to be able to go out and shoot around outside if he's ever bored.

He scored here--that never happens that I get a perfect shot at the perfect moment, so I'm pretty excited about this picture!

Mackayla started gymnastics this month and loves it! 

I try to treat the girls' gymnastics day like I would a game day for a team sport, and I try to stay and watch each week like I do Cody's basketball games.

Cody has been such a good sport about it, but it kinda kills him. And it's good for him:)

  

Swim Team Practice

   I got tickets to Cavalia for Ben for Christmas.

It was a bit of a gamble because Ben doesn't love "performances," and I wasn't exactly sure what this performance would include. There was obviously a lot of performing, but also a lot of really impressive horsemanship and training. 

I think his favorite were the liberty horses. One woman had an entire heard of horses following her commands exactly. They really didn't allow for photography during the performance but it was entertaining and worth every penny.

 Speaking of Ben, one of our friends asked for a Christmas picture of young Ben and Ben's mom dug up a picture of him with his first pair of skis and first horse ranch. He looks a lot like Mackayla at this age I think:)

I had spent a lot of time planning and fretting about what to do this Christmas season to make it special, and ended up deciding to just go with the flow. Each year since I was called to be the ward choir pianist the week before Christmas gets intensely stressful to prepare for, with hours of piano practice mixed in with wrapping (and still buying!) gifts for kids, teachers, Ben's work, etc. I always think I should prepare ahead of time so it's not all crammed together and stressful. Oh well. I love Christmastime and all the busyness that comes.

Ben was on call until late one night this month with a stressful case. We went in to his work to be with him for a while so he wasn't alone. The horse wasn't doing well at all. Three of its legs were in really bad shape and it was dripping with sweat and shaky. Dealing with life and death situations is obviously stressful. Ben had to go back and forth checking on the horse, but was able to watch a movie with us. Sadly, early the next morning when the next shift was watching it, it broke one of its legs and had to be put down. We had brought a projector we borrowed from Ben's parents and set it up in a horse stall against the white wall and watched The Santa Clause and ate popcorn while we were there. I couldn't have planned ahead for that, but it was nice to be with Ben for what could have been a lonely stressful night, and it will be one of my favorite memories from this Christmas year.