December 1 marked the first day of our Advent calendar and
Jesse Tree. It also marked the
start of our race to the holidays!
With just a couple of weekends at home before leaving for our Winter
Break trip to Ohio, this month began, proceeded, and finished BUSY!
The month began with a major home project to replace a broken water line; complete with digging up the front yard and breaking through the basement wall. The digging machines provided exciting watching, and in a day’s time, all was well again.
We made a special trip this year to see the Merrifield Gardens
Santa; a visit complete with carols, a telling of the real Christmas story, a Santa
press conference, and a sleigh-side visit with the big guy himself.
Kristy’s family also invited us to join them at their church for breakfast with Saint Nicholas, who also read the Christmas story. We enjoyed meeting him, having breakfast together, and working with our family to make some pretty and meaningful Christmas ornaments and crafts.
And at our church, we went to the Angel Breakfast, enjoying
Star Pancakes with the story of the Angel Gabriel’s message for Mary about her
baby-to-be, and even won a fun “Olaf” toy in a game of ANGEL Bingo!
At home, we helped Mommy make and dip white chocolate Christmas cookies, and decorated the tree with our ornaments. We made some extra special presents for our teachers and families – hand painted Christmas trees on burlap canvases! And we had great fun discovering the antics of our Elves (on the Shelves)!
Kristy helped us make some really cool projects at home this month! Christopher realized his vision for a Wilson train costume from a packing box, some paint, and a tap light! And Katharine constructed a Lego version of the tower walls of Jericho, complete with flags (she was inspired to create one for our Advent tree, when she realized that we were about to reach the Promised Land without Joshua’s challenge at Jericho). And in our days off at home before our trip, we also went to a fun dance class with Emmie, and made peppermint candy ornaments together, which were fun and super cool looking!
We made lots of neat ornaments and crafts at school, and decorated giant gingerbread cookies at our friend, Maya’s house. And we proudly sang with our class in our school Christmas Concert. We did such great job singing “O Come All Ye Faithful” (we even know the “Venite Adoremus” version!) and “Jingle Bell Rock” with all the motions, in our “fancy” Christmas outfits.
We were thrilled to finally travel to Ohio for Winter Break
to visit with our families there (after weeks of anticipation). We spent several days in Wadsworth, visiting
with Grandma and Grandpa Keller, and playing with our cousins from
California. We went to church and
the Cleveland Orchestra Choral Christmas concert together. What fun it was to hear all the
beautiful music! We even
joined in on the “five golden rings” chorus, braving the trip up to the
microphone to sing! After
Christmas Eve service and dinner, we had extra fun running around the house and
outside, making “Rudolph sightings” in the sky, and putting out carrots for
Santa’s team.
In Kenton, we had so much fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa Sturgeon and our Ohio cousins. Christopher had a great time helping Grandma in the kitchen with cornbread and pumpkin pie, and Katharine had extra fun snuggling with Grandma and gaining confidence playing with Cupcake doggie. We had great fun helping deliver gifts for Christmas and playing together with our cousins!
How much we love and miss our families in Ohio! When we arrived home, we took a few
days to recover from a variety of illnesses and unpack from our trip. On a healthier day, we had fun tubing
and riding the train and carousel at Zoolights. We were still recovering on New Year’s Eve, so we spent the
day in our PJ’s working on projects and watching TV. For the big night, we shared a “fancy” toast, complete with
a special dessert and party horns before bed.
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas too! Happy New Year!
Love,
Christopher and Katharine
