Day 332 through 356

 December 1st

Our Elf on the Shelf arrives.  We hadn't done this fun little game before this year. I can't believe we haven't.  Cole and Charlotte loved it- coming down to see what the elf had done each morning.  They named him Christmas Light first, told him that the first day and then the second day decided to switch the name to Cake.  Don't ask. Who knows?! :)  However, I told them his magic had already started and his name had stuck so they went with Christmas Light.  

 December 3rd

Christmas Light is found reading the letters to Santa.

 December 4th

Originally Abby, Dianna and I were looking into signing the younger kids up for a cookie decorating class but we couldn't find a time that worked for all of us. So Dianna (and Jake!) had us all over with the Hynds to do some cookie decorating there.  Such a great afternoon. Love this bunch of people!

 December 9th

Decorating the gingerbread house. Once or twice I'd catch Charlotte taking a candy from the house days or weeks later. Yuck!

 December 10th

First day of basketball.  Cole enjoys it but I wouldn't say he loves it like he did soccer or baseball. Dribbling is tricky and he's still working on it. 

 December 11th

Trying to steal some of my red velvet brownie and cheesecake bars that sneaky elf! Charlotte and Cole had the hardest time finding him and then went to get the milk for breakfast and they burst out laughing.  I posted this on FB and someone asked if the Elf Mafia broke his legs. That made ME laugh. I don't know why I didn't just sit him down but I was tired!

 December 12th

Pinterest, how I love thee. Let me count thy ways!  Easy decorating tip...ribbons and candy canes!

 December 13th

Visions of sugar plums...

 December 14th

Watching Prep and Landing for the upteenth time.

 December 15th 

Reflection bokeh

 December 16th

I stayed home with Charlotte that Friday.  We did lots of things together while Cole was at school. It was so nice to relax and play.  We did crafts for awhile. Actually Charlotte did them for at least an hour. 

 December 18th

Happy Boy

I took this photo in the bath for a matching one I took of Charlotte a couple months ago. I might frame them and put them in the...yup, you guessed...bathroom.

 December 19th

Elf and Bokeh. :)

 December 20th

Manually focused bokeh.  

 December 22nd

We piled the kids in the car and drove really slowly around the entire neighborhood to see all of the Christmas lights.  

 December 23rd

Every year for the past three years five of my closest childhood friends and I have a reunion.  This is one of the reasons Facebook rocks! I never would have reconnected with these girls (well, except for Robyn of course who I have remained BFFs with!) if FB didn't exist.  These girls (plus a missing Jess who couldn't make it at the last moment) were integral to my childhood.  Robyn and I were always best friends but Holly, Melissa, Holly (same name, different girl!) and Jess along with a couple others were my rocks. We were in girl scouts together, softball, soccer, went to dances, slept over, birthday parties, worried over boyfriends and loved each other fiercely.  I am so thankful I grew up with these core friends and I wish we hadn't grown apart over the years!  They are all the same but grown up and I still love them!  

December 24th

Same beautiful family photo as on the family blog but edited differently. So thankful that I have a wonderful husband and two equally wonderful children!

Last batch of 2011 365 project to be posted shortly!

I am toying with the idea of doing another 365 this year.  I didn't want to because I felt it got to be too much work but then I spent an hour last night going through all of my photos and captions on this blog and I am so glad that I preserved each and every one of these memories and thoughts.  It is hard not to worry about perfection with each photo so we'll see.  I really tried hard to create a photo for the first quarter of this past year. It took a lot of my time and I couldn't do it anymore so I switched the focus to just capturing the day.  I wish there could be a balance of both.  We'll see. I'll make my decision this week!