Catch up: December

And December. A wonderful, busy month. This is the second year of our 8 years of marriage that we had our own Christmas tree...we were always traveling in the past, or didn't have the money for a fake one. (FLASHBACK STORY: You may ask, "Why not buy a real one?" Well, when Paul was a child, he and his family went to cut down their own Christmas tree. They brought it home, set it up, and once in was warm inside their home, hundreds of spider egg sacks hatched, with thousands of tiny spiders inside. Paul was traumatized by the cloud of spiders in his living room, and swore, at the age of 7 or 8, to NEVER have a real tree in his own house.)

 The girls LOVED decorating it, since the one other time we had a tree they were too small to help.

 The girls did ballet...

 ...and Anna filled my phone with selfies.

Niels got his first haircut. I was just about to whip out my scissors to clear up a few rough spots when Paul said, "Na, we'll just use the trimmers." We immediately regretted it. With his hair, he lost his curls, and his baby-ness. It took me about 3 weeks before I wasn't sad every time I looked at him. I'm used to it now, and am feeling the need to trim it again...just not so short this time.

Best purchase of the year: the snow-blower. This was its inaugural use, but I used it probably a dozen times over the winter. We have a 3 car garage, therefore a wide driveway, and there was no way I could have shoveled it 7 months pregnant with as much snow as we got this winter.

 Paul liked trying to bury the kids more than anything.

 We started a new Christmas Eve tradition: Chinese take-out for dinner (and mac-n-cheese) for the kids. Everyone was pretty happy about it, despite Niels' grouchy face

 Christmas  morning lacked a lot of photos...suffice it to say, everyone was too spoiled, but very happy.

 I made the easiest, and one of the best, apple pies I've ever made...

 ...the girls played with their Frozen castle constantly...

...and Anna and Niels helped themselves to cookies whenever they pleased. This, by the way, is how Niels smiles when you ask him to smile for the camera. I love him. (And don't you agree that his baby-ness went away with his long curly locks?)