Longing for December

I miss December. I miss family, friends, lights, my tree, time off of work, the spirit of Christmas, shopping for gifts - all of it. So to make myself feel a little better today I am going to post A LOT about December. Ellie misses December too. Yesterday she told my mom she wished it was Christmas Eve. Maybe after this post I'll be ready to move on to January.

When I was young and we lived in Salt Lake, my mom started the tradition of taking me to the Nutcracker Ballet at the Capital Theatre. We then moved to Cedar City and the tradition faded away. This year I wanted to do the same for Ellie but my mom beat me to it. She took both of us to the Nutcracker. It took a while to get started and Ellie kept asking when it was going to begin. When it finally did Ellie watched anxiously - a few minutes in she said, "But when is it REALLY going to start?" I laughed and told her it had - that unlike the Nutcracker movie or other plays - a ballet has no talking and that the story is told through dance. She understood, but I don't think she liked that idea very well. This is a picture of us before we left for the Nutcracker. It was the same day as our family Christmas party so we had a jam packed day of December greatness!

Some good friends of mine told me last year about The Polar Express in Heber. So on the first Friday in December we got in our PJ's and took the trip to the North Pole. The ride was incredible with Mrs. Claus, cookies, hot cocoa, Santa's Elves (Snickers & Giggles) and their great jokes, singing, The Polar Express story, and a stop in the North Pole to pick up Santa. Before we started Ellie had mentioned that we weren't really going to the North Pole. It was so incredible - on the ride home after the amazing journey Ellie said, "Mom, I think we really went to the North Pole." I think we did too.

Ellie and I like to know when things are happening. We like to know how many days until something is coming. Like how many nights until cousin Mason comes to town - or of course in December - how many nights until Christmas. Every year we do the traditional Christmas chain. We draw pictures on each one and then link them all together. Here are the links before we stapled them and then Ellie muscling the stapler.

We always make Gingerbread houses in December. We do them at Grandma's and this year we left them at her house for display. Every time we went over Ellie would eat the candy off of them. I noticed that some of the decorations were missing from one and Ellie told me that they should be for eating - and that is what she did!

Another great part of December is visiting with our favorite people and eating at our favorite places. This year we had fun visits and food with The Nissons, Danny & Colleen, and of course "my cousin Mason" (which also includes Levi, Robin and Logan.) Can you all please come back?

I love that in December I get to attend programs. First it was Ellie's school winter program where they sing, recite a poem, and present their parents with something they have created in the year. Then it was Ellie's dance program. Both were so unbelievably cute - and Ellie was so excited about both of them. She loves that other people in her family come to see her. I wish I could go every day. Here is a little piece of it for you.

I realize for anyone reading that this is a long ace post. But I warned you at the first I would be posting A LOT about December. It's just so fun and SO much goes on.

The last thing we did in November was write a letter to Santa. So the last thing (besides Christmas) I will post about December is that we went to the post box in early December to find that Santa had returned a letter to Ellie. She was so excited.



This was the same day we did our snowman craft.

This is why I love and miss December. So magical and fun. The irony of this post is that while I am creating this post - Ellie is watching Frosty the Snowman in the other room. We can't wait for next December!

(Stay tuned for a Christmas post as it is the GREATEST part of December- then we can officially move on.)