It's December.

 Well, here we are in December.  The last month of the year of 2025.  That's crazy.  So much has happened this year!  Matthew and Daisy got married in June.  Mike's youngest brother got married in August.  My grandma, Mommy D., passed away in September.  Our friend Dave died this fall.  So many ups and downs.  Three families from church buried children.  Grief is hard stuff!  And now, here we are.  December is here.  The time of year when we celebrate Jesus' birth!  We buy gifts.  We gather with employees and friends and go to school and church programs.  All of it adds fun and busy to this month!

I found this on Amazon and I wish I would have been able to do this with my grandma!  She would have loved it!  It's an advent puzzle!  You do one puzzle a day leading up to Christmas.  It doesn't take long because the pieces are all already in a small box.  

There was a beautiful rainbow over the sky!  I see you God!

We set the tree in the living room and slowly getting it decorated!

On Tuesday, we had a ladies shopping day in Exton again!  We do this every year!  The only thing was that the kids started with a two hour delay and then no school.  Us moms made quick arrangements and were still able to go just a bit later!  We love eating at First Watch!  Then shopping and ending at Produce Junction!  Such a fun day!

Look who got to go along!  Baby dear did so good!  And the skies cleared up on the way home!

Working on puzzles is stress relief!

Morning walks at the park are still happening when we can!

Found myself a new scrub shopping the other day!  Austin loves it!  Still waiting for a new dishwasher coming this week!

I was wondering if I was gonna get this tree decorated.  I bought lights in town and strung one big box.  With a tree like this you have to string one branch at a time!  It's not the string and tuck in kind of tree.  Then the second box of lights didn't work and I'm thankful that I plugged them in before I started stringing them!  I went back into town and exchanged for another set of lights.  Didn't have enough so I went back to town again for a third box!  Really!  When it was time for ornaments, the kids were ready to decorate!

It looks great!

Mike helped me hang wreaths in church once again!  This is fun but does take time!  I love how it adds Christmas to our sanctuary!

And basketball season has begun!!!!!  Won one, lost one in a tournament.  Austin and I grabbed wings at Wing Stop for our dinner and then watched the game!

This month is going to be full of fun activities!  December ... we hope to celebrate Jesus every single day!

Thanksgiving.

 Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on all of God's goodness to us!  It's the time when I realize how blessed I am to have family and children who love me!  I am very thankful for Jesus who came and died and forgave all my sins.  Mike has been such a blessing in my life!  Number one to be exact!  We've grown over the years together!  All the ups and downs keep us humble.  We are reminded by our children that we parent differently now than we did back when we had our first babies.  Not bad, just different.  Thanksgiving always makes me more thankful for our health, our home, our friends, food and family!

This year, we started out our day with sitting around the dining room table for our annual family meeting.  We are now down to just Ashlyn and Austin here at home.  We talked about some goals we would like to accomplish.  We each wrote down some things we were really grateful for!

Then we gathered at Mike's mom's house for a dinner.  Such good food was served!

We played games and spent the evening trying to win in four up and four down.

Friday we packed up our bags and headed for the cabin!  Grinch lotus and a quick stop at Bass Pro ... and we were on our way!

 

My mom made a thanksgiving meal for us there!  I just love the roast, the sweet potatoes, the cranberry relish and desserts!

The hunters hit the woods on Saturday and the kids loved that my dad shot a buck!

Jeremiah shot a big one and Colson hit a three point!

Mike and I set out to find us a Christmas tree on our property.  I wanted one the was not soft needled this year.  We found a tall tree, cut it down just as it started to rain and snow!  We hoisted it up on top of the truck and drove back to the cabin in hopes that the kids would freak out at the size!  It was over ten feet tall and we knew we would have to cut some off before bringing it home but we wanted them to see this big tree!  

Hadassah, Morgan and Nata made soft pretzels late one night.  The games were loud and the snack was good!

I did a bunch of chocolate covered crackers!  These are a favorite holiday dessert!

Baby was so happy to be with grandpa all weekend!

Dad had all the help he needed dragging in his deer this year!

We came back home on Monday in time for Mike to go to basketball practice.  Life has a way of keeping us busy.  Christmas is on our minds now and we can't wait to decorate for Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

PS.  Dressing in camo for school with cousins is so fun!