The Delights of the Season

Bitty created this awesome angel to top the tree on our fridge.  

Oh  December...I always have the best intentions to keep up with you and every year I find myself a month behind on blogging with about a hundred entries I could make.  Perhaps I should just accept that part of my New Year's traditions are catching up on a very eventful month's worth of blog posts.

It's really a joyful thing that we have so much to celebrate at the end of each year that we're so busy doing stuff that I can't really get time to sit down and write about it.  It always flies by with such speed that everything feels just a little bit bittersweet, because I know that it will all be over before I can take it all in.  Perhaps that is what makes Christmas so anticipated and relished - I know I'll never get quite enough of it.

So here's an overview of some our favorite festivities from the Christmas 2015.

We were really hoping to get together with our gingerbread house friend for our annual first-Monday-of-December-gingerbread-house-extravaganza.  Sadly, I had to pick up Skippidy early from school due to a sick tummy, so I thought the best Christmas gift I could give them this year was to not come to their house and spread illness and disease.  We did gingerbread houses on our own this year, which was kind of a bummer but we tried to make the best of it.

Another evening which worked out much better was the snowy night I spent with the girls at temple square with Bitty's age-group from church, otherwise known as the Activity Days Girls.  It was packed shoulder to shoulder of course, but with the snow gently falling and such lovely sights to see we really had a good time.

The candy windows at Macy's this year were pretty darling - all Charlie Brown themed.  

I know, that was way too many pictures.  But I went to the trouble of bringing our real camera down and felt like I caught some really fun shots.  Oh man.  Those lights are just spectacular.  I know the crowds are horrible but just look!  It's so lovely.

Another really fun thing Troy and I did this year was go to The Lower Lights Christmas Concert.  The Lower Lights is basically a huge gang of local (I think) musicians who all kind of do their own thing but have formed this group.  They kind of stick to Christian/LDS music, but give it this really fun sort of Southern revival sound.  I love them.  And their Christmas albums are some of my favorites.  The stage was decorated so beautifully and those musicians were just heartfelt.  Some songs were just jamming - we had to get up and dance.  Others were soulful and swinging.  There's always something about watching musicians just open up and sing their guts out that brings tears to my eyes. We had a great evening.

We always manage to hit Zoo Lights each year - this year I took the girls early in the month on a very warm night.  Both the girls dressed as if it were freezing outside in hopes that it would exhibit their faith in winter arriving, but honestly it was extremely warm.  Now that Christmas has passed and it was very snowy indeed I can look back on a warm night at the zoo with gratitude that we weren't freezing cold.  If the whole month had stayed warm I'm sure I couldn't remember that mild night quite so fondly.

                    

                                                   

Cap also made it to Zoo Lights this year - in his preferred method which is definitely with friends over sisters.  We were grateful the Moores were able to take him. I had to laugh that our oldest child was the only one to come near to seeing Santa or being in a picture with him.  The girls wouldn't even consider that - in fact, at our church Christmas party Santa came and not only did Skippidy refuse to see him, she ran to the kitchen and hid in a cupboard.  

Speaking of December getting snowy after all, we had this one Monday when the snow hit and hit us hard.  I haven't seen a storm like that in Salt Lake in ages.  It was...well, dangerous and I know a lot of people had some serious trouble getting around.  As for us, we sure appreciated Inigo's snow skills and we had so much fun watching the snow pile up all day long.  

                              

There were some fun daughter dates this year as well - I got a chance to take Bitty with me to a jewelry making night at a friend's house, and Troy brought Skippidy with him as his date to his work dinner, which she thoroughly enjoyed until she zonked out from pure exhaustion right at the table.

So, it was a busy month with even more fun packed in here and there. More Christmas concerts, lots of our favorite movies. Spirits were high and we never seemed to have a moment that was free of Christmas music, at least as far I as I could enforce.  Last of all, I'm including this AWESOME picture Skippidy did in class, of her catching snowflakes outside.  It makes me happy.