Yup, a quick overview of a month already well blogged… December…

Advent fun…

Chinchilla….

YMCA time…

R.I.P.P.E.D

Night out with Chris and Renee to see a play!!

Pre show Mystro time

A Christmas Carol

More Chinchilla…

So serious

Taught Gavin how to clean the cage.

Crafting with Gavin…

He made all of our cards!

Crafting period…

These are my final finish of the year and are an adorable set from the designer Knot Bad.

Neko-Chan is such a sweet model

Knot Bad rocks!

The arrival of a lovely fruit box from Grandma and Grandpa Reinsch…

Baking…

The twins made cookies as a present we mailed off!

Monster cookies

A somewhat surprise visit from Nana and Baba…

And just plain old fun!

Cousin Robbie visited and mentioned never having had a scarf… well that problem was quickly solved!

Opening presents with Aunty Holly and Cousin Jimmie

Don’t forget school time, we kept up a pretty good pace considering the amount of excitement. Lots of opportunity to learn as we researched some origins of our favorite carols.

We made crystals!

A handmade Christmas card

By Emanuel

Chinese for New Years…

If you want to see the already blogged activities.. here you are…

1. Anoka Lights
2. Santa Visits
3. Christmas Pageant

So now that I have posted this WAY out of order (what with the blog back log), here’s hoping I can catch myself up before mid 2018!!!! Wish me luck!!!

We braved the insanity of Mall of America right after Christmas… someone asked for a gift card from Santa this year.

She stood in line so long that some Christmas money made its way to the purchase.

Dungeon and Dragons with Dad!

Gavin asked for an item with sequins…

Doing Home Depot at home

I swear we have made a tradition out of seeing Santa multiple times. First was an early trip with the Schwartz family to their Santa display of choice at a local mall. I splurged and bought a package and the online print. So you can see it first hand right here below.

Much like Macy’s Santa trips of previous years we headed to Culver’s after for dinner with our friends. It is a little sad that Macy’s closed down but this Santa experience was excellent none the less.

Of course I took some before pictures. Not every day we get these 5 so nicely dressed. Gavin wore the blue shirt and Zander the cream. Enjoy!

Our other established (as in 3 years now) tradition is the YMCA Santa. They really do do an enjoyable evening with cookies and crafts and a bouncy house. Not to mention a movie in the activity center and the chance to see Santa and Mrs. Claus they gave out books this year!

This year we met up with our homeschool buddies. But since they wanted to see Santa and then eat we came early to play around. After all there was lots to do. Trinity and Echo both had their hands painted by Trinity’s drawing teacher Mr. Eddy.

The boys, who were not in the frilly wear were able to spend some time in the bouncy house. We also picked up some reindeer food and tried out the non paint related crafts.

In line

After Santa, who was amazing… as usual. A thanks to Aimee for taking a group picture for us… 

We went to Culver’s for dinner. All in all TWO great evenings seeing Santa with good friends!

Oh and here is the overflow of cute!

And a bonus Santa… Home Depot !!

Hmm let’s see… November… AMERICAN Thanksgiving, a visit from Nana and Baba, full on fall weather, school, the beginning of the Christmas countdown. Because Nana and Baba were there in the right time frame we also saw Santa which you can read about in a previous post.

Beach towels from their travels

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Not only did Nana and Baba take over the cooking and make a full on turkey dinner BUT the Novaks also joined us! The kids were beyond excited to have the 4 boys over and we adults had a great visit.

Echo chose our seasonally coloured cake. I baked it.

And the twins decorated it.

Ken and I snuck off after Thanksgiving for basically a second honeymoon. For the first time in over 12 years we went out overnight WITHOUT kids. We went to a B and B that Karyn and I had visited previously in Wisconsin (different room). We hung out in our awesome room.

Went out for a delicious dinner at an old mill.

Dressed up for a dinner out.

Shopped at an amazing yarn place.

AND drove out of our way to an even more amazing wool place.

Oh yah I spent a little

We even stopped in at a brewery for a tasting for Ken.

And visited the capital building.

It was AMAZING.

ALMOST like back home.

It really was as good as people say!

Breakfast

Wisconsin = cheese of course

NAP

The weather went from sundresses and sunshine to snow and snowboots.

We spent plenty of quality time at the YMCA.

And Ken and I went to an open house at Shandai and Ravyn’s new digs.

We found time for Home Depot.

Crocheted in spare moments.

Cat butt coasters!

Fingerless dragonscale gloves.

Hats for cats!

The girls had their nails done by Nana.

And the twins pitched in with some baking.

We decorated our tree. 

And watched our local black squirrel run our yard like a boss.

Can you believe we even found time for schooling. 

Prepping the Christmas countdown paper chain.

And a visit with the Schwartz family!

A trip to IKEA had us well lit and the girls in new beds. 

November went by in a blink of an eye. But it was a fun blink!

Christmas decorations at the YMCA