December recap

December was full of Christmas-y things, but not too full. We did a lot of relaxing.

A few months ago we found a girl in our ward who babysits, and have had her come several times.  We're so sad we didn't have a reliable babysitter sooner, because now that Hyrum's leaving it doesn't do us much good.  To take advantage of it, we went out to eat twice this month--once to a delicious German restaurant that brought back good memories, and once to Noodles & Co.  Both fun.

The first weekend in December we pulled out our decorations and bought a tree.  We weren't smart enough to buy a saw and cut off the bottom, so it started to dry out pretty quick.  It barely made it till Christmas, when we promptly took it down.  

I also showed Tiago this little smoker we got in Germany.  They're almost as common as Nutcrackers.  The person's body pulls in half, and you put a piece of burning incense inside; then smoke comes out the mouth.  Tiago loved it.  

Hyrum invited a coworker over for dinner, so I made the Pioneer Woman's rosemary pot roast.  It looked and smelled delicious all day. And then... they were required to work late due to some Army emergency.  Eventually, one (but not both) could leave, so Hyrum came home and enjoyed it.  But it was kind of a dinner-invite fail.  (And a LOT of food...)

Hyrum took Tiago a few different times this month to go play soccer.  It always involves them dressing in matching soccer clothes, and putting on their cleats ("guayos"), and running around.

One morning Hyrum wasn't able to come home for breakfast (he went to work quite early) so I sent him pictures of how cute the kids looked waking up in their Christmas pajamas.

Hyrum went to Japan for 8 days to watch a soccer team play.  More on that here.

This is how we felt about it:  (this is Mila, leaving the YMCA).  Their hair is getting so long!

While Hyrum was gone, Tiago got in the habit of sleeping in my bed.  It didn't always start out that way, but at some point in the middle of the night he would sneak in.  He is a DEEP sleeper.  

Just a bunch of random pictures of the girls, because I think their hair is so wild sometimes.

Mila

Siena

Mila, doing a "Siena" face

Mila and Siena were so miserable after their nap on Sunday.  I kept taking pictures because their faces were just so sad.  (Siena is in the plaid dress).  

We had a few warm-ish days, so we ventured to the park.  I forgot how much we'd missed it!  In the summer we spent most afternoons there, but now whenever we go, it's completely empty.

After the warm weather, things took a turn for the worst.  We had a day of insane wind.  I got up like normal in the morning and went to the wind.  While I was there, I got an email from our housing complex about securing loose items from the wind.  I just knew I was in for trouble when I got home.  Sure enough, our kid swimming pool and trampoline flew over the fence in our backyard and had to be dragged home.  (The trampoline was all in pieces, and about 3 yards away.  I'm sure I looked awkward dragging it across rocks and bushes.  It ended up in the garage until Hyrum got home.)

But that wasn't the worst of the weather.  The next day, there was a huge snow storm.  I went out to shovel during the girls' nap and it took almost an hour.  The whole time, I was thinking how much I'd rather be at the gym.  For all the work of shoveling, it didn't feel like a great work out.  Just rough on the body.  Our driveway doesn't get any sun, so if it's not shoveled off, it will turn to ice.  Even though I invited Tiago to come outside with me, he told me he wanted to stay inside.  As soon as I came in after shoveling, and took all my winter gear off, Tiago came running to the door carrying his snow boots.  "I want to shovel!!"  Perfect timing.  I put his stuff on and watched him from inside.

Hyrum got home on a Monday night, just before the kids went to bed.  He brought them fun toys that they enjoyed, like a squeaky samurai sword.

At the YMCA, the little kids put on a holiday concert.  It was adorable, although most of the kids didn't sing.  They had bells to shake.  Tiago is definitely not a performer and didn't crack a smile the whole time.  Siena did slightly better, and Mila, probably worse. 

My family came for Christmas.  More about all of that in this post.  

New Years Eve was a big food fail.  At least in the kids' opinion.  I made crepes with strawberries and nutella for breakfast.  They wouldn't even try it.  And for dinner we tried doing fondue (what's not to like about bread and sausage dipped in cheese?!)  The kids didn't touch that either.  They're crazy.  The rest of the night Hyrum and I enjoyed a TV marathon.

I'll end with a food success from New Years day.. so technically not December.  I found a sushi-like recipe online and had to try it.  It required several random ingredients I'd never bought before (nori seaweed sheets, crab, sticky rice, and sweet chili sauce, to name a few) but they were all relatively cheap.  It ended up delicious!  This could fill my future desire for sushi when I can't go buy some.

A few other random things I want to remember about December.

• I made the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls again this year.  The beauty of it, is the recipe makes about 9 pans.  So I buy a bunch of tin foil containers and it's super easy to give away to people.  Plus, it's hard to mess up too bad.  
• For some reason, I ended up with SO much laundry to do one week.  Maybe I put it off for too long?  It was load after load after load.  I'm always glad for that feeling of satisfaction after everything is finally folded and put away. 
• We bought new shelves for our pantry.  The pantry is actually the space under the stairs, and had two flimsy (random) shelving units in it previously.  Amazon had great ones, for a great price, so I bit the bullet.  And I'm so glad I did!  Sturdy, organized shelves make me even more happy than put-away laundry.  To make things better, I decided to fill the shelves with a bunch of stuff to cut down on the shopping I'd need to do while Hyrum was gone.  I spent a small fortune and Costco and my regular grocery store, but hope I have enough sugar and toilet paper to last the year.  
• Our branch Christmas party got passed off to the Relief Society, and a lot of the delegation assignments we thought would happen fell through.  So the whole week leading up to it there was a big question mark about how everything would turn out.  (We were doing a pancake breakfast with Santa.)  For example, we didn't have a Santa, and had no idea how much food we'd need or how many would attend.  By a stroke of luck, it all worked out.  Not perfectly (egg casseroles and bacon showed up 45 min late, the room we were in was over-crowded, and there were no decorations) but we found a Santa suit and a willing person to go in it, and people got fed.  I'm a little embarrassed when I look at pictures from other ward parties and they're beautiful and elaborate.  But that's just not the stage our branch is in... 
• Lastly, December was a month filled with amazon and target boxes showing up on the doorstep.  Most were last minute stocking stuffers, and just random great deals I couldn't pass up.  (I probably ought to stay off the internet in the month of December.)  But really Target... free shipping on any amount!  I truly enjoyed that offer and wish it lasted year round.