Dec. is a blur, but a fun holiday-filled one

I've been busy at the office, more than ever before, but it wasn't really until this month that I realized how much work has taken over my schedule. There are a lot of things I normally do at this time of year with the kids that haven't happened. There just isn't enough time in a day/week/month to meet deadlines at work AND do all the usual Christmas-related family activities as we have in the past.

But then I went through the family calendar for the past six weeks and I'm actually surprised to see how much we have done that has been holiday-related. Of course if you read my blog you're likely to think, as the kids have, that we haven't done much lately. The truth is, I just haven't made time to blog much the past couple of months.

C'est la vie.

But I gathered up a few photos and will offer a retrospective of our last few weeks to remind the kids that they really haven't been missing out on the holiday fun.

School Band Holiday Concert
After being rescheduled due to snow, the band concert went off without a hitch for the girls. It turned out that although the last-minute rescheduling was a challenge for us, there was an upside - not as many people were muscling around for seats and we actually had a little elbow room to sit back and enjoy the music.

Grandpa's Annual Christmas Card
The car ride over to Grandpa's house was more stressful for Lupus the cat this year than usual and I'm not sure why. Given the choice, I would guess Lupus would much rather prefer to wear his Christmas sweater all day than ride in the car (the girls dress up the cats, as well as themselves, for this annual photo shoot at Grandpa's garage). Dulce on the other hand, was the curious one looking out the window. Toddy Cat's sentiments were similar to Lupus' about the car but at least this year he didn't have to spend any more time in it than was absolutely necessary (a couple of years ago he was mistakenly locked in the car - with the keys - for several hours until his rescuer (Fino) came home with a spare set to let him out). Grandpa was happy with the final result this year and was done in no time so everything worked out fine for everyone in the end.

4-H Winterfest

This is an annual event in December for 4-H county-wide awards and a day of recreational fun. It was held at St. Joseph's College Alfond Center and L. took advantage of the facilities to do some rock climbing while she was there. (The kids have been climbing for years and we all love it.)

4-H Banquets
The girls are in several 4-H clubs and we've had formal banquets with two of the clubs this past month. L. volunteered to make decorations for both, which was OK since she used the same table toppers for both. Smart girl.

Soap-making for holiday gifts
This has been a multi-month project, which I will get to sharing about later, that was dreamed up by Fino and L. back in September. The soap, dubbed "Titus Soap," was named in honor of the pig who provided the fat to render and make this lye-based soap.

Christmas Crafts
One of the kids' 4-H clubs had a crafty-type meeting so they had a chance to make Christmas gifts for family and friends. The girls also attend a weekly craft club at our local library so they have been making a bunch of things this month.

G.'s Photography Show
G. takes a black and white photography class and had her end-of-semester show to display her prints earlier this month. This class is one of the highlights of her week (along with her time at the farm) and she's bummed the next session doesn't start until February.

Christmas Tree Decorations
The set-up was again late this year due to our frisky cats and their desire to climb (and knock over) our tree. But the girls took care of the set-up job yesterday and they're working on deterring the cats from getting near it. I'm taking a hands-off approach and letting the girls manage the futility of this task (and insisted the delicate ornaments won't come out until Christmas Eve).

Then there was the Holiday boat parade, general fun in the snow this month, a bit of Christmas shopping (when the kids purchase small items for immediate family members but often end up buying something for themselves too) and all their other regularly scheduled activities that still go on in addition to the special holiday stuff.

What we have not done (yet) is...

* Our Christmas card photo. Plans are in the works to do this after Christmas for a Happy New Year card instead because the time has flown by and sending out cards was a lower priority on my To Do list (although I feel badly because I have so many friends that faithfully send us cards right after Thanksgiving).

* Make gingerbread houses (we're doing that at a 4-H meeting tonight).

* Make Christmas cut-out cookies and general baking for family and friends. I told the girls I had a grace period for the cookies because we just made animal cut-outs last month. We're going to do this during vacation week and will send out Happy New Year packages instead this year.

* Our annual Christmas Lights Car Adventure. This is a math activity I introduced when the girls were little and learning addition/basic statistics that was such a hit, they still want to do it every year. We're going to do this on Christmas Eve, which might be more fun anyhow.

So even though this month flew by and we didn't fit in everything we usually do at this point, by the end of December I think the kids will have crossed out every item on their Holiday To Do list.