Where has December gone? An (almost) photo-essay.

It's probably a good thing that I haven't written since the beginning of the month since it usually means we are well and just busy leading our lives. This month has flown by! We have had many ups and some downs but I want to focus on the good stuff. Some of the things that have kept us busy...

Dance classes...

Making Christmas presents...

 Arts and crafts...

Putting up outside decorations....

Visit with Santa...

Christmas Texas-style....

Santa's "Ranch"

Choosing a Christmas tree... we had a little difference of opinion...

Decorating the car...

Decorating the tree...

How many kids does it take to put the tree in place?

Reading lots of Christmas stories...

Getting the "perfect" Christmas picture for our holiday cards... (just went out today!!!!)

They looked like peeing reindeer in some of our best shots. Given the relevance of pee to our special needs kids we toyed with writing something like "Hap-pee Holidays" on our cards but thought our family and friends just wouldn't understand...

Cleaning the house for grandma's visit...

Made Christmas fudge...

Celebrating adoption anniversaries....and getting some family jewelry...

Each of us now sports one of these.

Leaving treats for Santa...

Cookies, Fudge, Chips, Guacamole, Milk and Beer...

Christmas morning.

We do lots of shared gifts and family gifts.

The big hit was baby blankets from their grandma in PA. She made one for the youngest when she was born and that has been a big favorite. We mentioned to her during our summer vacation that our three oldest kids didn't have something like that and she took the idea and ran with it. They are among their most treasured items and all three insist on sleeping with them every night!

Comment of the day from one of our geekier children... "If we had one more kid with a name that started with a "P" then we could spell "PARTY" but instead we are a "TRAY."

Then right after Christmas someone had a birthday...

 We plan on quietly ringing in the new year...