December 2012

Well, I felt like December was a month of joy!  We were finally out of the shock of Hurricane Sandy and how could you not be happy that Christmas was finally here!  However.... to be raw and vulnerable.... this was the first Christmas that I didn't really decorate a lot.  Our beach cottage is so small and there was just not a lot of room/ space to do anything... plus going to storage to dig through to find our Christmas bins in the cold... uhhhhh, No Thank You!  Yes, we did put up a tree and stockings and a few other things but NOTHING like what I normally do.

I work 3 days/ week... I go in extra early (7AM) so that I can be done by 3PM when my kids are finished with school.... so getting up at 5 or 5:30AM requires me to get an X-Large Dunkin Donuts coffee!  I definitely prefer Starbucks BUT they don't have a drive thru here and in the cold, I don't want to get out of my car so I drive through Dunkin Donuts:)

Brendon takes Mondays off so Katelyn stays home with him on Mondays so they can have a daddy/ daughter day while Mommy and Daniel are at school:)

Tuesday mornings are my favorite as that is Katelyn's tap and ballet class!

I was digging around in the garage for something and found a box that had not been cleaned out from Hurricane Sandy and it was a bag of Halloween decorations filled with water.... it really brought back a flood of emotions!

 Wednesday's is chapel day and Daniel's class was leading it so I walked over to see my little man!  There are times I walk around Atlantic Christian School and I am so overwhelmed by this enormous blessing! 

Then Thursday, I got an airplane to visit my bestie in Raleigh, NC!  The best part of this trip is that I got to meet Baby Kingston!!!!  It was SO amazing to see my best friend in the role as a mom... she is totally rockin' the role!

On Sunday afternoon, I told her and Ryan to go have a date and I would hang out with Kingston!  I know first hand (now) how hard it is when you live away from family to find those right people to leave your "living heart" with so you can have a date with your hubby!  

While I was in NC, Katelyn went to the office with Daddy on Friday and had lunch with the elders as they do every Friday...

Then they picked Daniel up from school 

They also went to have Breakfast with Santa

Katelyn wanted NOTHING to do with Santa!  She covered her eyes so she wouldn't be traumatized!

Then they went to a LIVE nativity

Then that evening there was a pre-teen or teen get together that Brendon stopped by for and Katelyn LOVED hanging out with the older girls

I got back to my office after my trip to find that when I had my staff picture taken for my school ID that they printed off this entire package of photos for me... I totally laughed out loud!  As an adult, I got school pictures!  What in the heck am I going to do with these?  Send them to mom!

 Sue DeNick also thought she would have this framed for my office!

The following Wednesday's Chapel we had an author come in who wrote the "Honey Bee" book series... both of my kids were in this chapel and we bought them an autographed book that we still love reading to this day!

When I was visiting Sara Grace, we went to a really cool Specialty Toy Store and I picked up a few fun things for the kids as a special treat for when I got home... one was this cool stuff that turned into "snow!"

 

 Barbara had the kids over to her house when I was gone to Sara Grace's and she had started a "gumdrop" tree with both of them so they worked on finishing it!

 Katelyn also felt it was time to clean the house as we were heading out of town again the next day!

Katelyn inspected the ornaments every single morning!

As I was going through my pics, I was shocked I didn't have more pics but all the elders in our church and their families rented a very large house in the Poconos for a retreat!  WE HAD A GREAT TIME!!!!!!!!!!

 We all carpooled and this was a stop at Starbucks!

 Katelyn had her special Christmas Dance Show!

End of November

Some friends invited us over for dinner on a Sunday evening but Katelyn likes her Sunday afternoon naps... a lot!  This was us trying to wake her up:)

Apparently, this was a tiring time of year for her as she also fell asleep eating and Brendon caught that one:)

She also misses her poppy... she brought this picture to me (my dad and I at my wedding) and said she wanted him:(

 One thing I like about cooler temperatures is how we start spending more time indoors doing "together" activities... lots of cuddle time and bonding time.

Trains!

Grandma and Poppy sent them some treats like a countdown activity to Christmas which was also a countdown until we saw my parents!

 The last day in November, I headed up my first simulcast event for the women at Fusion Church... it was a completely sold out event.  We did a very nice formal, sit down dinner followed by an AMAZING Christmas program that got us ALL into the TRUE Christmas Spirit!

1st order of business that day.... fuel:)

 One thing I LOVE about the East Coast is FRESH BREAD!

 We had a few guys help us out:)

 One of our "dining rooms" ready to go

 The buffet table

 Drink Stations

Cafe Tables

 Overflow "dining room" in our cafe

 Registration Table

 Foyer Christmas Tree

 Entrance

 Men serving the women:)

 

Today we just completed our 3rd simulcast event! 

We have come a long way and learned a lot!