Decemberings

We started to get into the spirit of things the first weekend of December, we went to our old Student Married and new Family Ward's  Christmas parties. 

 Scarlett stepped in as the angel in the little nativity with only sunbeams and older nursery kids.  I was so surprised when she walked on stage all by herself and whispered her line, "Fear Not."  She's getting so brave.

 The next night, at our current ward's Christmas Party (no cooking two night in a row. Merry Christmas to me!) Scarlett joined the primary on stage for Christmas Bells. Before the performance when all was silent Scar announced, "Oh, that was just my fart!"  The three tables around us all heard her confession and most of them laughed; Brian laughed the hardest.  It was a perfect prelude.

Brian's Work Party fell on the evening of my birthday, as it did last year.  Bishop/Dr. Guymon was apologetic, but I think its awesome that someone has planned my party two years in a row.

We received a selfie stick, a spongebob sponge, and a monkey night light in the White Elephant Gift exchange.  Sadly, the selfie stick didn't work with my phone that well so I returned it for $5 to Wal-Mart.  Yay, now I get to go shopping there.

These two were being uncharacteristically adorable towards each other.  Collin and his family moved here the same time as we did, in the same program.  They have a cute family of four as well.

The next weekend we ventured to find Santa.  We found him but decided he wasn't worth the wait, so Brian subbed.

 He did a smashing job too.  The girls LOVED him like family.

 For the first time in my adult life, I actually had room for a real sized Christmas tree. We were gifted one from someone in North Liberty, and I was ecstatic to put it up in the middle of December.

 This was taken the day before our trip to Wisconsin.  We biked to the library, because the weather was so nice, and stopped to enjoy Hurt's Donut Shop.  Scar begged me to go buy a "coconut".  That's how much experience she has with such delicacies.

 And this was from our trip to the Czech Museum in Cedar Rapids.  Apparently, many Czech immigrants settled around our area in the Midwest.  We learned about many of their Christmas traditions, as much as the toddler allowed.