December Fun - Baking, Crafting, Lights, and Parties (OH MY!)

December is always full of fun and traditions, and this year was no exception. This is some of the fun stuff we've been up to this month.

As we usually do, we took one Saturday and had a baking day.

Ready to get our baking on!

We always begin with sugar cookies . . . the kids are getting to where they need very little help to roll out their cookies. It's nice in a lot of ways, but also a little bittersweet. 

Bren put his apron on and discovered that he'd grown this year . . . a lot! This apron matches Daddy's, so it's sad that Bren has outgrown it.

Having no apron didn't stop Bren from participating in the cookie making, though!

Cute 'lil bakers!

Brianna could pretty much lead this activity by herself!

Happy baking day!

Baking day is so much more enjoyable for us now . . . less chaos but still so much fun!

Our cookies turned out cute and interesting. I'm not sure where the brown frosting came from, but it made for a unique look, haha!

Baking day is always a MESS! Always, always! Brooke wasn't too impressed to be on clean-up duty :-).

After cookies, Chris made a batch of cinnamon candy.

We gave these containers of cinnamon candy to our Bible class teachers.

While Chris (and some of the kids) did cinnamon candy, almond bark pretzels, and puppy chow, I decided to try my hand at glass etching. This was the first plate I did for our neighbor, and it turned out better than I expected!

So, I made one for my parents, too!

After the cookies were frosted, we decided to put a few on the plates I made and hand deliver them. We agreed ahead of time that when Mrs. Mooney answered her door, we would sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to her. She was so surprised and happy that she covered her mouth and let out the biggest laugh. It was the best reaction! In fact, her reaction was so good that we decided to carol to my parents, too!

We make a lot of our edible goodies in time to take them to our December church luncheon. I love the tradition of having a "photo booth" at the luncheon!

The following week, I decided to make some gifts for Brooke and Brecklyn's teachers at school. We also did some things for a few others. This cookie jar turned out so cute! Of course, we included a gift card along with it and gave it to the school secretary. 

For each of the girls' teachers, I pressed Baking Spirits Bright onto an oven mitt and filled it with cookie mix, a spoon, and a gift card. We tied the mitt to a personalized glass plate, and the girls each helped me make an ornament to attach, as well. 

This was my first time to try ornaments like this.

I didn't love the metal look, so for myself I made an ornament out of an acrylic disc. It sparkles and looks perfect on my upstairs tree!

Because all that wasn't enough, I also decided to glass etch ornaments for a few friends. The Lewellen's sent me this photo of the ornament I made on their tree. 

I also decided to try to vinyl ornaments instead of glass etch them. I made about five of these for family. Lisa sent me this photo of the one I made for them. 

We always enjoy going to look at Christmas lights, but this year we went to Oologah Lake to see a new display that is being done out there. It was cute and hopefully it will grow as time goes on!

Another new thing this year was a light display being put on by the City of Claremore at Claremore Lake. It's so fun to have this in our backyard! And, the plan is for it to grow every year for the next ten years, so we're excited to see where it goes! We stopped by the Lake after church one Sunday evening, and Mom and Dad went out there with us.

The Nutcrackers were my favorite!

The bridge looked great!

Love my little crew!

I loved the idea of establishing some family traditions back when Chris and I were growing our family, and we've got some pretty great ones in my opinion. I'm always grateful for our time together. 

December Fun!

As usual, this month has been full of fun activities that are unique to December . . . some are traditions while others are new things we decided to try this year!

The first weekend of the month brought with it Will's Country Christmas held out at Will Rogers's Birthplace and Ranch in Oologah. We've never attended this event before, so we thought it would be fun to try it out. We had a great time and think it may be a new yearly thing for us!

Meeting Santa

Brecklyn always loves looking at the animals!

Cutie Crew

The kids were watching some live music while we waited for a stagecoach ride.

This is the same stagecoach that the twins got to ride in during Cowboy Camp.

We rarely buy food at these sorts of events, but we broke our rule this time. I had chocolate covered cheesecake. I was expecting it to taste better than it did. Ah well. 

There was a shooting activity that Bren really wanted to do, so while he and Chris waited in line I took the girls to look at some of the displays. 

Brianna, Brecklyn, and Brooke

Truck display - Brooke, Brianna, and Brecklyn

Unfortunately, the shooting activity was malfunctioning and after waiting in line for almost an hour, Bren didn't end up getting to do it at all. He was pretty disappointed, but he took it well. Brianna ran into her friend, Abi, while we were there, so she ended up running around with her part of the time. It was a strange feeling to have a kid taking off with other kids, but we are getting to that stage. Overall, we had a fun night!

The first grade teachers are one of the most fun teams in the building at our local elementary school, so I wasn't at all surprised when they decided to set up a little photo booth for all the first graders to have holidays photos made this year. I so appreciate that they even took a few of Brecklyn and Brooke together! They turned out so cute!

As you can see, this was right when Brooke was going through the mess with her broken finger.

Sweet Brecks (wearing one of my favorite holiday dresses ever)

Darling Brooke

As we've done for the past several years (since 2018, I think), we took a Friday night and visited the Botanical Garden of Lights with friends. This year, they were still doing "entry times", so we went to eat at the downtown location of Albert G's before our entry time. 

Caroline, Brecklyn, Sadie, and Brooke at Albert G's

The Botanical Garden of Lights is one of my personal favorite holiday activities. It's just so magical!

Chloe, Bri, Bren, Brecks, Brooke, Caroline, and Sadie

Chloe and Bri

Chelle and Chris

Chris and Russ

Tia and her girls

Brecklyn

This year, some of the Frozen characters were there. The little girls were excited about this, for sure!

The big girls didn't want to show it, but I'm pretty sure they weren't sad :-).

Brooke wanted a photo with them all by herself. Because of course!

Momma and Bren

Taking photos in dim lighting is never easy . . . but I still love my crew!

Magic.

Forever friends: Tia, Lisa, and Chelle

The morning after we visited the Garden of Lights, we decided to have our traditional baking day. 

Ready to bake up those goodies!

Mixing our sugar cookies

My bigs are pros at this now!

Daddy and Brecklyn

Momma and Brooke

I didn't take any photos of the finished goods, but they turned out great! We made sugar cookies, cinnamon candy, puppy chow, and almond bark pretzels.

We always have our baking day in time for our annual Christmas luncheon at church. The white elephant gift exchange keeps us laughing, and it's always a privilege to spend time with our spiritual family. 

Photo booth at our annual church holiday luncheon

Brianna, Chloe, Bren, Hayden, and Avery - the big kids

Of course, there were lots of fun activities and parties going on at school before Christmas break. Sadly, during the last week of school before break, Brecklyn got really sick and missed four of the last five days. Then, Brooke got sick and missed the last two days. One of the staff members at school sent me these pics of Brooke having fun since I wasn't able to be there for any of the festivities because I was home with Brecklyn. 

My sweet, silly girl!

Mrs. Claus

Brooke's class in front of the Christmas tree in the lobby of the school building

I wrote here about how things feel a little turned upside down right now. Thankfully, we are still appreciating our time together and the blessing that it is to have each other. We truly enjoy our December traditions and are happy to be continuing them despite our change in circumstances!