December in Review

Happy New Year!  And a belated Merry Christmas.

December is a BIG month around here.  Advent, Christmas, and this year - for the first time - not just one, but two birthdays (actually, three, but I'll get to that).  A joyous, celebratory month for us, indeed.

Gideon turned 6 on December 13 and, well, that seems impossible.  I can finally see that he's actually not ever going to stop growing up.  My sweet, crazy kindergartner.

As he's wished since the summer, he got a scooter for his birthday and the Saturday after, we celebrated with neighbors and a Star Wars party, complete with Darth Vader pinata.  It was the perfect day for a party - just barely warm enough to make playing outside feasible.

(The cake was chocolate and peanut butter swirl - a delicious recipe I hope to get to make again.  For good measure, I mixed chopped up peanut butter cups into the creamy chocolate frosting the recipe recommends at the end.)

Memaw and Papa B. arrived the next Thursday, spending their second Christmas in a row with us - something we're so grateful for.

During their stay, we had lunch at school with Gideon, joined the neighborhood kids for caroling,

had a backyard hot dog roast, decorated a gingerbread house for the first time,

visited Flat Iron Farm, the local FREE holiday experience - Gideon rode a horse for the second year in a row, attended the children's Christmas Eve Vigil Mass, where Gideon donned a shepherd's costume for the second year in a row, opened presents Christmas morn (of course),

and feasted at noon.

We celebrated Graham's first birthday and Memaw B.'s 71st the day after Christmas,

and visited a local historical landmark - St. Ignatius Church, rumored to be the oldest Catholic church in the 13 colonies - which we followed with a fresh fish lunch at Courtney's.

We watched lots of football (and learned a little about the Aggies),

And we played and played and played.

And at the end of it all - after all the presents had been opened, all the cake eaten, and the special guests gone - even our littlest member had some sort of recollection of the time that brought a smile to his face...