December

Yep. That's what I said- December. 

I don't know how you feel, but in my world December happened three years ago.

My agonizing December/January was caused by the quilt I started (plenty early) for Baby Pearson. After spending the last of December and all January cutting, sewing, unpicking, cutting, sewing, unpicking, unpicking, unpicking, sewing, I realized three things: 1) I was going to fall behind in blogging. 2) I had tweaked the size to make it smaller, but my math (never my best subject) was off and I was making a blanket big enough for a full grown elephant, with no easy way to adjust things. 3) I hated it. I hated all of the colors I'd picked, how it was coming together, and how overwhelmingly busy it looked. Hated. It. 

So after two months of sweating, editing, rethinking, redoing, unpicking, unpicking, unpicking, I finally finished. I'll post the final picture in February, but I think I like it!

The old, too big, too ugly version.

Other than The Quilt, December was a wonderful month. We stayed busy, had lots of visitors, and had a delightful Christmas.

My helpers came, as they do every year, and set up the decorations.

 This is hard work. Snack breaks are important to maintain energy.

Our tree was a little lean-y this year. Pretend you're in Pisa.

Decorating takes a very long time when you want to hear the story of every. single. ornament.

Cute girl.

I instructed my decorating elves to hang the more delicate things up high.

We will soon be joined by several pairs of extra little hands that love to handle, move, and maul anything in reach.

Jack Frost delivered plenty of snow for us all month long.

We sang a few Christmas carols while making a few crafts.

I cut up several sheets of colored paper and suggested the girls turn them into a Christmas tree.

 Apparently, Hailey preferred a more religiously-themed picture. 

Joseph is off looking for the Wise Men.

Makayla's version.

Is it just me, or does Baby Jesus resemble a bumble bee?

Christmas seems to bring out the silly.

Makayla made herself a witch's hat with the leftover paper. Cause, you know, she forgot to make in in October.

Hailey asked me to guess what kind of a hat she made for herself. I guessed moose. She told me with some irritation that those aren't antlers, they are angel wings and she's an angel. Hmm. Wonder why that didn't occur to me?

 We also made some Christmas pretzels.

Nothings says "Christmas" like pretzels.

 We went to the ward's Christmas party.

These girls were shocked when Santa knew their name.

I'm sure it had nothing to do with the Primary President feeding info to Santa.

Great Grandpa made some of his delicious candy, which we ate by the handfuls slowly ate. 

We enjoyed Makayla's school Christmas program.

Complete with synchronized actions.

All four of the first grade classes sang together.  Makayla was considerate enough to grow really blonde hair so that you can spot her in a crowd.

Things just kept getting better as the month went on. First Jessica, Krew, and Myla came, next the Pearsons arrived, then Megan, and finally David.

 Jorden went the other direction, watching the BYU game in Las Vegas with his brother and dad. As you remember, they lost. Jorden, you should have come to Montana where the fun was happening.

Grandpa taught all the kids how to make Monkey Bread,

which took way too long for some people.

These guys decided

 to try out the snow.

Nora, who didn't want to wear gloves, decided snow is stupid. 

These guys lasted about, ummm,

one tenth of the time it took to get them into snow clothes.

Krew would have stayed out longer,

but the Monkey Bread was calling.

We spent a day at the mall, feeding the kids nutritious food and checking out the pre-Christmas sales.

We knew it was time to move on when Myla attached herself to this stranger

and all of the other girls joined in.

 The mall lets you borrow kid movers for the price of an average car payment.

 We moved on to Scheels, where the kids carts were free, and almost big enough to hold two kids.

I'm not sure Brinlee trusts Hailey to be her chauffeur. 

Going to Scheels means riding on the Ferris wheel.

It was fun to watch the cousins enjoying each other's company.

It's wonderful having family come home.

 I loved watching kids make messes that I didn't have to clean up.

 I won't mention how often Nora was named "Queen Spiller".

Grandpa was either sucking his thumb, contemplating the meaning of life, or having a bad RA day. 

More cousin time.

We tried out the Children's Museum, a fun place recently opened in Billings.

It was very reasonably priced,

filled mostly with Jones descendants,

and full of fun for kids of all ages.

The kids stayed happy for several hours there.

 An important note Hailey left for Brinlee one night.

 Myla likes to sleep lying down, Jessica prefers pleasant dreaming sitting up, and Megan goes for the hand-on-chin power nap. Sadly, Jessica and family left for home and Jorden far too soon. I guess that Jess and Jorden have this weird thing about being together on Christmas Day.

Two chefs making one last Sunday meal dessert.

A bit of girl talk.

Hailey, you don't have to eat it all in one bite.

 Jessica, who claims she hasn't had a haircut since 1948, got a nice one from Amy before she headed home.

 Perler beads where predictably popular.

This cute little girl has a definite red hair look. And a definite propensity to borrow shoes. 

I think I had a smile on my face all month long.

 Got milk?

 Sweet little sisters, soon to be big sisters.

 On December 23, we headed over to Great Grandpa's house for the traditional Christmas Eve party.

 Hailey is really growing up.

Makayla spotted someone familiar.

Brinlee was pretty chatty.

 Nora is ok if Brinlee's there.

Hailey asked for a dad and a house and a dog. Not necessarily in that order.

 Grandpa's been a good boy.

 Makayla informed me this was not the Santa that came to our church party.

We got even more snow on Christmas day.

We had our usual calorie-laden breakfast, followed by some opening of gifts.

 Hailey made this extremely cute snowman for her mom.

What is Christmas morning without watching grandkids open presents? It's so fun to have them visit.

Hailey, following clues for the treasure hunt leading her to her last gift.

 I think she likes it!

 Uncle David, patiently putting together a 3,905,343 piece toy for Makayla.

Of course, we had to do our yearly service project. This year we chose one from the JustServe website, which involved buying and donating things for Tumbleweed, the place that helps runaway and homeless teens in town

The family divided into three groups

 and went shopping with a list of potential items. 

We gave out prizes for various categories such as who finished first, who bought the most individual items, who bought the most items that were pink, etc. Team Amy/Hailey got the most prizes.

 Time to try out some of the new Christmas presents,

as well as lots of Grandma's old toys.

Yep, we had plenty of mud pie. It's just not Christmas without Mom's Mud pie.

 Umm....not to be rude, but

 some of us need to cut back on that mud pie.

It's always sad to say good-bye.

Thanks for the memories and the fridge plastered with three inch deep pictures!