Happy Christmas...

November came and left without a warning.  All at once I looked and you were gone.

So I had the best of intentions at getting through my Gratitude postings but once Thanksgiving hit, the gravitational pull of the earth hit and took me with it!  I have been taking pics on my phone of the month here and there so although these are in order, by no means has this been all we've been up to.  Just want to enlighten you with the Stratton/Tallquist December happenings.

I'm thinking I could have already posted this, but maybe not so you may or may not have to be blessed twice.  Andrew's {not only his} Art Reception was held at the Nuveen center the weekend we headed to Traverse City.  {in November} I missed it but still was able to get a shot of the work.  And my kid. ☺ His dad said he did not want his picture taken.  he gets so embarrassed about things.  I'm going to love and kiss on him forever.  He should certainly be used to it by thirteen.

 Is he a talent or what??

 Every year we partake in Advent calendar fun.  When I say FUN I refer to the candy the kids get every morning.  This year I decided to kick it up a notch and add RAK to our daily lives.  Random acts of kindness to remind them us all what it's really all about.  Every day the boys have had to do some random nice thing for someone else...at least one thing!  We've had our misses and near misses but it's all good.

I only have the boys two weekends each month and it is never so apparent than at Christmas.  The first weekend the boys decorated the family room tree.  It is where we hang all the ornaments and reflect on each of them.  This year it was noticed that we kind of stopped buying ornaments shortly after Kyle's arrival.  Every time he pulled out a cool ornament he was crushed to see someone else's name on it.  Poor buddy.  One tradition I clearly bombed.

 The tree is full of sports ornaments and police ornaments. {and Elvis ornaments, but who counts those?}

 Our first card came, like clockwork, the day after Thanksgiving.  Thank you, Lohman family, for always coming through for me.  I count on finding it as the first card in the mailbox every year.

 Another thing I always look forward to is the Old Newsies selling papers on the street corners and them handing me the yearly paper.  I cry every year.  Talk about traditions.  Happy heart. ♥

 This is our last year in the middle school for 5 years and I wanted to put together something extra special for the staff besides the customary Christmas luncheon.  I spouted off to someone how fun it would be to do the Twelve Days of Christmas, whatever that meant, and from there had my jumping off point.  Tomorrow is day eleven and it has been so much fun!  Cannot wait for the twelfth day!!

 Basketball in session means Kyle on the sidelines as water boy.  He was asked for varsity but I think it's a package deal kind of a thing, at least in his mind, because he didn't skip a beat helping out the junior varsity.

 In the midst of my merry shopping, I came across this little gift for myself at one of my ten favorite stores.  The coloring is awful but the colors are great!  Very festive set of four nail colors for the holidays.

The same weekend with the boys, we did a little Christmas Elfing.  It follows suit with Ding Dong Ditch and Booing but for Christmas.  It was one of the occasions where we tried to be kind...it didn't all work out in our favor.  I had to make a call to one house and confess to another family.  It appears my eldest child needs to lift heavier weights so his knocks on doors are heard. ☺

For a science project, Caleb had friends over to bake and decorate cookies.  It was nice to hear the banter in the other room, along with the giggles.  It's hard to imagine that in a few years, the giggles I hear from another room will be from Kyle and his friends.  How the time flies.
Kyle brought home a little envelope addressed to him from school.  it was from his girl Jenna.  Adorably sweet, but after reading it I thought about reconsidering our plans to take Jenna bowling.  After all, Kyle is much too young to date...even with chaperones!

What's a love letter without a response? {and Happy Christmas?  I am in total love with that saying.  Kyle is just so sweet.}

Kyle made a card for the lady at church in charge of the Children's Ministries.  He was worried his tree was not up to par so he remade the card.  I, for one, would not have wanted to rewrite the front. {and Happy Christmas♥}

Yes, these are Mrs. Morningstar's shoulders.  Any other option would not be an option.

Tuesday I spent the morning finishing up Christmas.  I think I forgot something.  I'm sure I'll figure it out Christmas morning!  Oh well.  I spent the early afternoon baking...or my version of baking...no oven required.  Hey, wait...I did bake both cookies and bread so what am I saying here?  I made four different Christmas Barks for the church and the middle school staff.

I also made sweet and salty treats for them too.  later I baked and frosted cookies and baked bread for the lucheon today.  Tomorrow the desserts make their way, along with more than a dozen others, to the school.  Happy Christmas indeed.

Last night was our first cheer competition.  We were not ready but thought it was a good thing to sign the girls up early to get a taste of competition, especially for the girls who have not competed before.  We were out of our league, competing with mainly larger schools, but it was nice to see other teams still in the working stages of their rounds and it was nice to compete against schools not in our conference in order to get the first time jitters out of the way.  We have a long way to go but compete until mid February.  Good job, ladies.  We only go up from here.