December Happenings

We've been having such a good Christmas break that I haven't been able to pull myself away from all the fun and relaxing to blog.

We had a busy December- or at least it felt like it.  There is always so much going on and so much to do to prepare for Christmas.  I have never had a December that hasn't felt busy.

We are terrible about putting off taking our family Christmas picture.  This year was no different.  We really need to get more on the ball and take it in September or October- while it's still warm.

We took this year's picture two Saturday's before Christmas.  It was 30 degrees outside.  Freezing. cold.

This was our favorite one.

Of course, not every picture was perfect.  Mitch loves to make funny faces in pictures.

Here is me trying to keep him in line.

And.... one more crazy face from Mitch.

We tried one more spot before calling it quits, which didn't work great.  The bench was soaking wet, and Leah and Lexi's faces were turning blue.

The next day, Ben left on a whirlwind business trip to Turkey.  By whirlwind I mean: He left Sunday morning.  He traveled (flew) for 24 hours.  He was in Turkey for only 36 hours, then another 24 hour flight/travel schedule to come back home.  Kind of a bummer to go all the way to Turkey and not have much time to sight see.

Flying internationally, employees get to fly first class.  It's the least they can do when on a plane for 24 hours, really. 

Everyone had their own TV.

A view of the plane- I've never seen seats like those!

Forget the peanuts and pretzels- gourmet meals all around.

He had a layover in Germany and saw this German Santa Claus in the airport.

Once in Turkey, he and his Boss (pictured above) ventured out with the little free time they had to try some Turkish waffles.

You choose the fruit and different cream and chocolate spreads to go on the waffle.

Doesn't that look fabulous?

Ben said he stayed in the fanciest hotel he's ever seen.

The hotel's restaurant served Lamb Brain Salad.  (The green sauce it's in only adds to the disgustingness of it).  Ben did not try it, but now wishes he had. 

After complimenting the hotel's steakhouse for their wonderful service, Ben came back to his room and found this complimentary fruit dish as a thank you from the hotel.  It almost looks too pretty to eat.

While Ben was gone, we got our first snow of the new winter season.  And by snow I mean the tiny skiff of snow barely visible on the ground.  But it was pretty icy for a few hours.

Snow means cold!  I broke out the twins' new winter coats that week and they adore them.

On the 18th, Mitch's pre-K class had a "Polar Puppy" winter concert.  Cutest performance ever.  (Mitch is in the middle row, black and white sweater).

I made him wear church clothes and he was not happy about it.  He was just sure that he would be the only one in formal clothes.  Luckily, Mom is always right and more than half the kids were dressed up.

I love these little winter concerts.  These 5 year olds were adorable. 

Chloe didn't have any sort of performance this year, so it was nice that we had one to go too.

We were sure glad to have Ben back home.  It's not fun to have the dad gone during the holiday season.

We got a quick Christmas picture the Sunday before Christmas.

We let the kids do a silly picture.  We took about 20 of them and Leah was the only one still smiling normally in most of them.

Finally, she let loose and got crazy!

One of Ben's favorite things about Christmas is singing Christmas songs together as a family.  After church that same Sunday, we sat down together and sang Christmas songs.  Chloe was the pianist first for a few songs.

Then I took over and we sang a few more.

A busy but fun December for us.  Christmas to come...