Decem-brrr

Question: How did we possibly fit in sooooo many things this week?
Answer: December.

Is it just me or does December hold special powers that allows us to somehow cram in an inordinate number of activities into each and every single day? Each one is wonderful and joyful and I don't want to cut them out. I just wish I could wheel my bed to each of them because I'm really tired.

So here's this past week:

I know I said we were done with adding things to the yard, but Dan's mom caught the spirit and sent us a "Santa's bag" for the sleigh. For FHE last week, the girls had a friend over and we crumpled up old newspapers and stuffed the bag so that it would appear full. And then it rained and snowed and we realized that we probably should have stuffed the bag with old plastic bags instead of newsprint. I still haven't gone out to check how the inside of that bag fared, and as per usual, I am enjoying my blissful ignorance.

Dan is still pushing for a spotlight and a few other yard things but I'm holding strong that this is my absolute limit for this year. I know that people probably don't think I'm the type of person to have limits on my yard decor, but I'm actually a pretty classy broad.

Disney Day at school:

There's a special holiday in the Jolley home after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. It doesn't have an official name, but after consulting with my sister, we've decided "Turkey Dan Day" suits it perfectly.

You see, about a week or 10 days after Thanksgiving is over, Dan gets really sad that Thanksgiving is over. His favorite leftovers--turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing--are all gone. And turkeys are really cheap at the store at this time.

So Dan always buys a turkey (or asks me to) and makes an entire second Thanksgiving dinner. This year, he cooked the turkey Wednesday after work, and he was up until midnight.

I do most of the cooking, but Dan loves to get involved around the holidays because, unfortunately, I am a very functional cook. I cut corners and leave things out to make my life easier. Dan is a much better cook than I am.

Thursday, he threw together his famous mashed potatoes and some stuffing, and we have been feasting on Thanksgiving food ever since.

We also wrote letters to Santa this week. I enjoyed playing scribe as Gwen and June dictated the following thoughts:

 And a pic of June's latest obsession--Frosty--on the back:

And then a quick trip to the community center to mail everything off!

I hate to bring it up, but June's bumcrack is like another member of our family--always present.

Early Saturday morning, June made an announcement: MOM, IT'S MY FAVORITE SEASON AND ALSO THE SEASON YOU HATE.

She was watching it snow outside.

'Tis true. I do not love winter. I do not love snow.

Correction: I do love snow when I'm inside and everything is canceled and we are watching movies and drinking hot cocoa.

Mostly, I just really love when things are canceled. I should never be on a committee that has to make the call whether to cancel events based on weather conditions because my answer is always YESSSSSSSS LET'S CANCEL AND NEVER GO ANYWHERE.

But I'm outnumbered. Everyone else in this crew loves snow and wants to marry it.

So we bundled up the kids.

And Dan took them sledding and they also built a snowman.

 And I stayed inside with Harris and made hot chocolate and listened to Christmas music.

They played for a long time until they were soaked-through and miserable and all came in screaming and bawled their faces off while I peeled frozen wet clothes from their bright red frozen skin.

Ahh winter. I can see why everyone loves you.

Really though--I do hope we have a white Christmas. I do think the snow is beautiful. I'm just more of a one-month-of-snow-gee-that-was-fun-and-now-it's-over kinda gal. By February, I feel like winter has sucked my soul out.

Saturday night was our Christmas party at church, and I tried to pull out all the stops and do something festive with the girls' hair.

On the way to the party, June asked me "Where are we going again?"

To which I replied, "A Christmas party at church?"

To which she replied, "Mom, are we really invited?"

And Sunday after church, we took everyone caroling. This is a Beck family tradition that we have chosen to carry on. I think we've done it every year except one since June was born.

Ready to sing our selected song of the year (and every year for three years now. If you keep moving, you don't have to learn new material!), Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer:

And then this morning, as I took out June's bun from last night and brushed through her hair, all of this fell out:

I started screaming for Dan to come quick. I started freaking out that by leaving her hair in an elastic overnight I must have let her hair break. But that didn't quite make sense.

At which point, I asked June a question. 

"June, did you cut your hair?"

"Yep!"

"When?"

"When you were sleeping!!"

That child.

Dan could see I was fuming and jumped in. "June, we are SO PROUD of you for telling us the truth."

I just looked at him like he was the mayor of Crazytown.

That's going to be fun to grow out.

When she could see I was upset, June attempted to fix the situation.

Perfect.

Anyway, we shall carry on in the December craziness and try to catch a nap here and then. I even found Gwen taking a nap in a December-y position this week. We'll call this one "Snow Angel Nap."

The End.