Hello there December!!!

So I find myself in such a dilemma......having not blogged in many many weeks, do I back track to cover all I've not covered to this point?  Do I finish out the summer trip first?  Do I forget all of it and pick up form today and move forward?   I have a feeling I'm going to be bringing back my "flashback Fridays' to blog about a whole lot of stuff!

My biggest hurdle that is keeping me from getting back to the regular blogging is this yearbook deadline looming in the near future.  48 pages due by January 9th and my type A personality tends to make it a slow process....I like to make my own templates!  The other hurdles? Kids, laundry, PTA, Christmas.....

December so far has brought Eric's 10th birthday!  He had an ice skating party all planned and in the 'I can't wait' stage, but his mouth and poor attitude lost that opportunity.  In fact, we had had just about enough of him and told him he had to earn back ANY kind of celebration (so mean, right?).  He earned back a small group of buddies coming over for pizza, a nerf gun fight and the movie Cars 2.  He had fun and it was nice to go low key- 

 The brother's got involved in the nerf gun fight too.  You've not seen a mess until you've had 8 boys shooting orange darts all over the place!!

 I asked Eric if he wanted me to make him a cake or make him cheesecake brownies.....he opted for the brownies!

Despite the forecast of a dry winter around here, we have already had 2 snowstorms!  One hit right before our village starlight Christmas parade........

 And the next one cancelled school for the kids!  L, L and E got one day off while G and J got THREE days off due to heavy ice that kept the buses from running safely.

 That put me behind with all the stuff to get done before the kids were to be home for the Christmas break!  December is a month steeped in tradition for most families and one of our traditions, a new 'must do' is to bake and decorate cookies with our neighbor and friend Aaron!

 Nana and Papa took the kids to fulfill another December tradition......a photo with Santa!  The past 2 years they have visited our friends tree stand because they have an awesome Santa and Mrs. Claus, the photos are free and there's never a wait!!  Thanks Galloping Grace Youth Ranch!

 The boys performed in 2 concerts this past week too!  They did an amazing job performing with their Albuquerque Junior Orchestra group and then 2 days later with their advanced band!!  We are ever so thankful that music is playing such an important part in their lives (ours too!).  And tonight, they are having fun at a boy scout lock in.......I am so curious as to how long they'll last before they crash!  They took the Xbox, Beatles Rock band, movies and plenty of stuff to snack on!  I'm thinkin' mandatory naps tomorrow?

I feel good that the Christmas cards have been mailed, some gifts are finally wrapped with a few under the tree, although we can't put many out because Ruby will cart them off and open them all by herself, and event though the kids will inevitably be on each other's nerves within the next 36 hours, at least I don't have to pack up anyone's lunch and push them out the door on time for 2 weeks!  And I feel even better about finally posting again!!  I'll see how long the good feeling lasts......