December, in a Post.

It was a whirlwind month, so a whirlwind post will be appropriate!

In a nutshell. . .

We floated in a Parade in Chandler, singing "Hot Cup of Cocoa" (as taught to me by the great Whitner), "Let Those Merry Bells Ring" and Holiday Blessings. What a PARTY!

Oliver discovered that his finger fit perfectly inside his nostril, and, feeling that this was quite comfortable, decided to pose like this for most pictures in December. I'll only make you look at just this one.

Ivy discovered that our camera is easy enough for a Kindergartner to use. She practiced at the Ward Party.

Lizzie had Colonial Day at school. They came dressed in colonial clothes, played colonial games, and brought their lunches in a basket - so fun!

Ivy made a Gingerbread Man for Candy Cane Lane. It looks like it was raining Candy that day!

Oliver's hair grew enough so that he himself looked like a Gingerbread Man just in time for the holidays.

We built a house for him, but it turned out to be too small.

The kids all wrote letters to Santa. Mysteriously, over the next few days afterwards, their letters got longer and longer as they thought of more things to ask for. (Note to self: Send letters immediately next year!)

We met with the Andrews and walked through the beautiful lights at the Mesa Temple.

On Christmas Eve, we honored a three year tradition of eating lunch at Benihana's! Ohio!

We Skyped with the Palmers who were in Paris for Christmas, and talked with David who's in California and Matt in Japan. My side of the family was spread out all over the world this Christmas!

That night, as the kids were all taking baths, we heard some jingle bells and the doorbell rang. By the time the kids got outside, all they could see was a pile of new pj's! Too bad Oliver was asleep already...

Now the whole house is quiet, sleeping, but just barely, and hoping that the night will pass quickly and that Santa won't forget to stop by. Oh, the anticipation is sweet!

Christmas morning has finally arrived. We like to torture our children by taking pictures of them before we let them out into the living room. :)

Here's what they saw! WOW! :)

Lizzie quickly cashed in later that week of her gift of ice skating with her friends from G&G Palmer.

And Eli and Adam spent many hours perfecting a model rocket. The gift was for Eli from Adam. I mean to Adam. I mean Eli! Wait, yeah, it was for both of them.

And from Grandma Vickie and Grandpa Alan, we got tickets to the Polar Express! We've been wanting to do this for years!

Remember how I said we've been attracting snow storms this winter? Well, a doozy of a snowstorm followed us up to Williams. Our 3 hour drive turned into a 9 hour drive.

Was it worth it? Well, we got to meet Santa, so yeah, duh, it was totally worth it. We stayed at the Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel that was right across from the Train Station, and woke up to 2 NEW feet of snow! Adam dug our van out of the parking lot, re-adjusted the chains on the tires (THANK YOU KEVIN!!) and we got outta there driving on the closed freeways. The hotel lobby was threatening to turn into the Superdome, so we had to goooo!

Also this month, Oliver said his first words ("Bye bye!") and took his first steps (on Sunday, Dec. 26th!). We lost my friend and our accompanist for the CCC, Tiffany Brock due to complications of cystic fibrosis, and Adam's Grandpa Muir passed away on Nov. 22nd. Our 3 CCC concerts were joyous and magnificent, and the Stake Messiah I helped organize and 4 Phoenix Symphony Messiah's I sang in were inspiring and fulfilling.

It was truly an emotional and exhausting December, and I'm looking forward to 2011!