Month at a Glance

Before we kiss 2017 goodbye, I want to quickly recap some of the moments in our whirlwind December.

Clark and I took a trip to the Henry Ford museum

where we checked out the giant model train display

and had a chat with the big guy.

We also did a gingerbread house class with friends.

After school one day, Ellie and I made one together too.

Speaking of Ellie, girlfriend lost tooth #3 this month and #4 isn't far behind.

In the same vein of looking like a fight club member, Clark managed to give himself his first black eye.

We enjoyed lots of festiveness thanks to Clark's school

and their annual holiday concert.

I've enjoyed a number of evenings out with friends this month including a wine tasting party

and a mom's night in slumber party.

We celebrated Rosie's 2nd birthday

and had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa.

Clark wasn't in the mood to take a picture with them when they were getting ready to leave, but Grandpa had a solution that worked.

That day, the kids also decided they wanted to do one of their stocking stuffers that day.

Ellie found obsidian in her brick

and Clark had a magnetite rock in his

We've had some bitterly cold weather and lots of snow.  The kids made a snowman one day,

but have had to entertain themselves inside for the most part.

Police officers looking for criminals

Astronauts floating through space

Yesterday, we took them to the Hands on Museum

and got to enjoy a show from Ron the Bubble Man.

And today we ended our year with a movie date to see Star Wars.

Phew.  2017, you've been wonderful, frustrating, exhausting, and above all memorable.  We are excited to see what adventures 2018 has in store for us!

Christmas 2017

Christmas 2017 almost didn't happen.  Not because of the massive amount of snow we got,

but because of the massive amount of attitude we got.  I almost canceled it on Christmas Eve.  I made the children write notes to us and to Santa apologizing and asking to still get presents.  Yeah, it was definitely a high point in my parenting career, but seriously, it was hard to swallow the idea of giving them a bunch of new toys and books after how they were behaving, so I had to do something.  Since they went to bed sad and wondering if their notes would do the trick, I took it upon myself to set out the note and cookies and carrots, as well as their Santa sacks, just in case.

Miracles or miracles, the notes did the trick and Christmas came!

After a yummy breakfast of bacon and pancakes,

I made one more ultimatum - they had to take a nice picture together before they could open any presents, as I have every year in the past. :)

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Then I let them at it.

From the family in Greensboro

They are trying hard to lure us there :)

Rock tumbler from Aunt Mary & Uncle Ryan

From Aunt Rhonda

From Uncle Matt & Aunt Natalie

(she stayed up late that night

making a list of people to

look up to learn more about)

Also from Uncle Matt & Aunt Natalie

(he thinks this book is so funny)

Ellie bought this little guy with her

own money for Clark and he

adores it (naturally)

The kids adore their presents from us, although we may rue the decisions.

And surprise, surprise - Santa came AND gave them actually what they each asked for. :)

Grandma and Grandpa were pretty excited about their gifts too.

After a delicious (if I do say so myself) dinner of glazed ham, sweet potato wedges, and roasted asparagus and a little strange dead bug statue-ing(?)

those little crazy people were carried off to bed,

but not before I was able to get one last obligatory shot for the comparison archives (really, these things are all I actually want for Christmas).

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