December_2011

December the joyful month of family, lights, cookies, candy and Christmas.

This month the Jewell's were very excited as it was C's first Christmas and a very exciting time for L. She was beginning to understand the concept of Santa and was getting more and more excited as the time to open gifts came closer.

So as L is still going to school she was over joyed that arts and craft was the majority of what she did this month. She has come home with candy cane pictures, ornaments for our tree and many items to add to her list for Santa each day. Taylor and Rachel took her to the mall to write a letter to Santa  an put it in his mail box at Barnes and Nobles, which she loved.

Christmas morning:

well it went as well as everyone else. Rachel woke up early to make breakfast as not soon after she got the muffins in the oven L came storming out of her room. Since Taylor wanted to catch everything on camera Rachel promptly made her turn around before she saw any gifts, luckily she to groggy to really understand what was going on. Rachel made her wait till Taylor was ready with the camera and she had C ready before entering the living room. L went straight for the castle that Santa brought her and immediately started playing. Then she proceeded to open every gift in sight even if they weren't hers. C obviously had no idea what was going on but was entertained with watching the festivities. After the presents and breakfast it was off to church then back home to make the Christmas dinner.

Christmas with family Part I:Taylor's mother and brother safely arrived late in the afternoon, where another horde of presents were brought in. So for the next few hours L and Taylor tore into not only their own but C's gifts as well. Once everyone was finished with their gifts Christmas dinner was underway. Everything turned out delicious, Rachel's ham and turkey were just as good as they were last year. And of course Taylor's potatoes were great. It was a very exciting day and by the end of the night L and Rachel were both exhausted. In all Christmas Part I went off without a hitch.

Christmas with the family Part II:

On December 28th Rachel's parents came down with the last load of Christmas. It was another completely overwhelming time. This time L ended up with the most gifts and was ripping away for a few hours. Since she was so excited with all those gifts coming she was going wild. Once she was finished everyone else was able to open their gifts. Since Rachel made enough food to feed a small army there were more than enough leftovers  for a second Christmas dinner. She planned this in advance since it went so well that way last year. It was a great holiday that went by smoothly. Needless to say this year everyone got what they wanted and more. It was a great visit with Rachel's parents and she was very sad to see them go.

New Years Eve:

On the eve of the new year Rachel's parents went back home. Meanwhile everyone decided to get out of the house and find some awesome bean bag chairs to rock in the new year. As the day went on Rachel and Taylor lounged around with the kiddos waiting for their friend Danielle and her son Sky to come over. Once they got there dinner,shrimp Alfredo (thanks Danielle!), was under way.  Sky and L had a blast playing Once Upon a Monster  while the adults got a huge kick of watching all of the dogs take bones from each other. Yes it sounds lame but it was pretty fun. Obviously the kids didn't make it till midnight, so while they were all sleeping the adults played Qulfs to pass the time. With Fox News on at eleven and a great game of Qulfs going before we knew it there were two minutes left in 2011. Of course there was a count down as the ball dropped. And It was a great new years eve!

Stay tuned to see what happened after the ball dropped!