December happenings

The month of December is full of fun for the O'Dell 4.  I love every minute of it.  It's always busy, especially in years past, but this year I really worked with our December schedule to try and keep it balanced.  We love our cozy, at home movie nights as well as being out and about enjoying the season.  We're enjoying it so much.  

This is our first year to welcome an elf on the shelf to our home.  Clemmy arrived on the first of December and has brought a lot of fun each morning.  She is an ornery elf!

We saw a Christmas play with some good friends from church called "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."  It's the sweetest story.  We enjoyed it so much we're reading the book now.  It makes us all laugh.

I love this picture because when we bought our mini van, this is exactly what I pictured in my mind.  A van full of our kids and their friends.  Makes me smile 😊

We visited Santa and I'm in love with this picture they took.  So sweet.

I took my little ballerina to see The Nutcracker while the boys went to the movies to see the Good Dinasoar.

This is a new tradition for us.  I called it the Christmas Light Express.  We got the kids all ready and tucked into bed then gave them a ticket for a hot chocolate and a ride to look at Christmas lights in our jammies.  This picture is the 4 of us in Starbucks in pjs.  I honestly don't think I've ever seen our kids so surprised and excited.  It was a really fun night and a tradition that we'll continue.

This is a house in our city that we visit every year.  It's unbelievable how many lights they have!

A local church has a drive through, living nativity that we visit each year.  I love seeing the story of Jesus birth come to life in our kid's eyes.  It gives us great opportunities to talk to them about why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. I want them to know and understand the true meaning of Christmas more than anything.  

I took Cooper to pick out a gift for Lainey.  They love shopping for each other and Cooper wanted to wrap it all by himself.  I think he's worked himself into a job!  I could use some help getting things wrapped.  I'm way behind 😁

So we have 10 days until Christmas and have some fun things planned.  I'm so excited to continue celebrating this wonderful season!