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December started with such a whirlwind. We got sick over Thanksgiving break, and with the later Thanksgiving it really wrecked us. We decided to lay low and say hi to the elves at Gardner Village as soon as December hit to start checking things of our Bucket List and I was so happy we went! No snow when we went made for a fun way to get out of the house!
Holly, Tinsel and Candy Cane (our elves) came back from the North Pole to spend December with us! It was so fun to have them here with us! They were busy with all sorts of fun shenanigans! I always love the first day with a little North Pole breakfast, a few treats for the girls and a build a bear advent calendar (the advent from BAB was new this year)! One of the days I loved was the North Pole dance party! The elves had the lights off and used our dance light, had music going on spotify on the TV, fake snow (batting), paper snowflakes, had a mini boom box (found in THIS kit), and were dancing when we all came down stairs! It was adorable!
If you’d like to invite an elf to come to your house you can HERE and help with activities with THIS fun kit, we’ve loved it this year! It was seriously so helpful! Baby Candy Cane is super special and was found HERE! Holly and Tinsel were found HERE!
About a week of December I was just in my head planning all the things! It was such a busy month and I felt like I just had to wrap my mind around it all. One of the days when I was just planning all the things I felt someone watching me and looked over to little Violet and seriously saw this. She is the sweetest little girl!
We attended a lot of parties in December! One of them was the Reich’s family party, this is for my great grandparents family. It’s so fun to see great aunts and uncles! I got to meet my cousins baby for the first time and she was totally precious! Liv and I were obsessed.
Liv had her very first piano recital and played Up on the Housetop and Away in a Manger (by memory). She started piano lessons in August, the same time as school and I am so proud with how amazing she is doing with everything. It’s a lot for our little lady, but she is rocking it!
Little Olivia also turned 7! in December!! I cannot believe my little lady that made me a mom is growing so darn fast. I wish time would slow down! For birthdays we have a tradition of filling the birthday girls room with balloons, decorating their door with a balloon garland and paper streamers and a number balloon! This balloon pump makes blowing up balloons a breeze.
We also have a few presents and a birthday banner always ready to go right in the morning. Holly, Tinsel and Candy Cane usually have something for Liv because it’s in December too! We gave Liv an LOL Doll and this adorable Barbie Makeup Artist Magazine that she is LOVING!
Liv is all into fashion so she put together a cute outfit for her special day, complete with curled hair and makeup! I also “made” cinnamon rolls for breakfast! I use “made” because my favorite hack for cinnamon rolls is Rhodes frozen cinnamon rolls with heavy whipping cream and it is just so perfect! Trust me!! She was a little late to school and needed to be checked in, but it was her Yes Day so it was ok-at least that’s what she kept saying haha!
Liv chose to go out to dinner on her yes day to get nachos at her favorite Porcupine Pub and Grille, then a stop at Build a Bear for a new bear (did you know you can get a bear for the age your child is turning on their birthday?), and then to ice cream at Nielson’s! I can’t quit the peanut butter brownie concrete it’s just too good!
Dallin and I went to his work party at Luminaria this year at Thanksgiving Point and it was so fun! We loved having a special date night together!
So much party prep!! I felt like I spent a good chunk of December just party prepping for Olivia’s party. Making all the things! Sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, hot chocolate cupcakes, and candy salad to name a few.
Olivia had a Merry Movie Night Birthday Party complete with all of her favorite Christmas movies! We even watched her favorite one at the moment. We had 2 really small parties because they were inside due to weather and they were really fun. We love parties so much and seriously look forward to them all year long!
She loved her gifts so much she got to work on one of them right away! Making a blanket! I looked over at Violet at church one day and found her like this hahaha Still love our little camping chair so much during church!
We love to head to SLC with Grandma to see the windows at Grand America and have dinner at Little America! We use to go to Little America all the time growing up so it’s fun to take my mom now! 🙂
Lots of parties this month! We have lots of birthdays this month a nephew had a fun video game party-Violet is super close with Adam and had to be this close to him the whole time he was opening presents, a niece had a Stitch party-so many fun details!, the Strong holiday party-we took a walk to see the giant inflatable Santa!
The Sunday before Christmas with the girls new Christmas dresses! I try to get them new Christmas dresses every year, I usually get them from Costco-like this year! Such a good price and so cute! Liv lost her smile right before pictures so that was sad. Once we got to church and passed out some candy canes to some older friends and made others smile I noticed she was smiling and I told her hey look you found your smile!
We made some of our classic Christmas treats including Peppermint Bark Brownies!
We had our delicious Raclette dinner that we have every year close to Christmas. A dear friend, Emily, introduced this to me years ago and I had to introduce it to my cheese loving husband. We have made it a tradition that our girls love and we look forward to all year long! You need a Raclette Grill, cheese and all the delicious fixings and get ready to have the most delicious dinner!
Christmas Eve we stumbled on the tradition of always having Rudolph pancakes! So easy and a extra special for Christmas.
Never want to forget how magical Christmas Eve felt in our home with our little ladies. Love my family and how magical it is with them! Had to capture a few spots in our home that we loved this month.
We made chocolates just like Grandma Nelson use to make every Christmas. And an appetizer that I realized I’ve never brought to the Strongs(It’s a Warner classic)!
The elves also brought the Christmas Eve Basket they always do with new items and some classics. We always take pictures before family presents and somehow we always get the best smiles from the girls in the shortest time because they know that presents are coming as soon as we are done! haha
It’s so fun to see everyone open presents from each other. Violet was so cute at the end she looked around and said This is incredible! Merry Christmas everyone!
This years family gifts included: Olivia to Violet-a puppy and carrier stuffy and play dough set, Violet to Olivia-a cat and carrier stuffy and Sally figurine. We give them a 10 dollar limit at 5 below for each other and they were so sweet to think about what their sister loves! To both girls from Mom and Dad we got the new Cookeez for each girl. Liv got the Cookeez Makery Hello Kitty and Friends Oven and Violet got the Cookeez Makery Freezy Cakez Mix & Decorate. They absolutely loved making them together, it was so fun to see their reactions, especially Violet’s! We also gave them a Yummiland Lipgloss Doll, Liv got Bianca Bubblegum and Violet got Maya Watermelon. These two toys were the best activities for Christmas Eve! I loved that we opened our family presents earlier in the day so the girls could enjoy them a little longer! The girls gave me a few Lush Bath Bombs-my favorite!, Liv gave me Just Dance! she loves to dance and play video games so it was perfect. Dallin gave me an Amazon gift card so I could get some things on my wishlist!! I got Dallin a few engineering books he was wanting HERE and HERE and a Bonsai Starter Kit because he’s always wanted to grow a bonsai tree! Liv gave Dallin some new pants that he has been needing. We got him THESE and THESE, and she wanted to make sure he got some Pokemon cards. Violet got him a big container of popcorn and a small baby Luigi figurine because she loves popcorn too and he would always get her popcorn at Disneyland and she loves babies and he loves Mario!
After presents we made Santa’s chocolate chip cookies with M&Ms of course!
On our way up to my parents house we visited my Dad’s gravesite to give him a little Christmas present. The holidays are especially hard without him there. Part of my family is literally missing from every family celebration and it’s awful. We were walking up to the spot and Liv said I wonder what Papa is doing? and I said I do too. She said I think Papa is crying. 🙁 We always meet on Christmas Eve with the Warner family on Christmas Eve so I’m sure he misses us as much as we missed him.
A sweet, dear friend of our family always comes by our house on Christmas Eve and we have a Gift Exchange. She is so thoughtful and gives all the kids gifts! The kids can’t wait for Linda to come! It’s so cute!! She always gives the most fun and thoughtful presents. Linda also makes her Rocky Road fudge for our whole family and it’s seriously such a highlight of the holiday for me! Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year!!
Grandma Warner gave Violet this adorable Melissa & Doug Mixer Set that Violet loves! I love Melissa & Doug products!
The most special gifts of Christmas came from my mom and my mom’s neighbor! My mom gave us a gave each of us kids a pillow of my Dad’s work shirt for each of his kids and her neighbors worked on a quilt of my Dad’s shirts and quilters it with the cutest little cars! Another one has tools on it! They are so so special to us and we will treasure them forever!
After Grandma gave her gifts to the grandkids it was time for the sibling gifts and family gifts! Brittany gave these cute snacks gifts to all the girls and kids, Courtney and Brandon gave each family a loaf of delicious sour dough bread a bread knife and my grandma’s raspberry jam! Zach and Cody gave me the best duo of serum for my hair and the best s’more kit! I gave everyone their favorite treats from the store and for the girls I gave some Milk chocolate bars from Trader Joe’s they can eat later and a cute cat eye mask! For each family they were able to fill a bag of chocolates like my grandma made at Christmas, from our little family, Dougy was so cute sneaking them on Christmas Day! haha!!
We headed home and got ready for Christmas! We sprinkled Magic Reindeer Food on the lawn, set out cookies and milk, took some pictures by the tree, gave last hugs and kisses to the elves till next Christmas and Dallin read the Night Before Christmas to the girls.
Christmas morning comes so quick! Santa leaves a little present under the girls tree in their rooms each year and they love it!
Top toys from Santa this year include: Liv- LOL claw machine, Nightmare Before Christmas Stuffies, LOL Candy Maker Surprise, (Santa gave one to each girl and Liv loved them so much she asked V if she could make her candy too, Liv also loved the claw machine so much she took it everywhere the first week and was constantly playing it! She also loves stuffies and always is playing with the mini nightmare before christmas stuffs she got she is currently loving all things jack and sally!), Violet- Ghost Spider costume, Live Pet’s Duck and Ducklings, Crayola Crayon Bandaids, Melissa & Doug Nail Salon, Melissa & Doug Pet Vet,–Violet paints her nails and plays doctor multiple times a day! RuthAnne-Acrylic Makeup organizer, jewelry organizer, Dallin-running lights, and he really wanted these headphones and was so excited to get them!
Grandma and Grandpa Strong gave Liv and Violet there Christmas presents too and Liv has been LOVING it! (we we scored it on major sale and were so happy about it!) She got Disney Dreamlight Valley and LOVES it (Shh… so does Dallin! haha)
After Christmas morning at home we went to my Mom’s to give her the stocking we’ve loved to fill for her and have brunch with her! She use to always make this for us kids when we were growing up and I love making it for her now! I think she likes it too!
The day after Christmas I had a doctor appointment I’ve had scheduled for months it was so far booked out. It went well but boy. I’ll never get use to all the doctors appointments.
We went to Taste in Provo to have our Christmas Afternoon Tea and it was just as delicious and fun as we remember! We had such a good time! Violet didn’t miss it one bit! She stayed with Grandma and loved every minute of it haha
We rang in the new year with cousins and Grandma and loved all the fun activities that Brittany planned! Dallin and I made fondue and root beer floats too! We had such a fun holiday season! I feel like I’m finally starting to think clearly and it’s January 15th hahaha That was a doozy but so much fun! I love life with these cuties!