December Stuff

Right after Thanksgiving, I knew I had to get this advent calendar made for Jesikah. I knew this would be important to her and I wanted her to have something to do and open each day, so I made her this lightweight foldable advent calendar with clear sheet protectors made for baseball cards. Each day had a scripture and song. In the back, I tucked a chocolate in for each day. It made it to her on time and she loved it!! I was happy how it turned out and how quickly I pulled it together. :)

We got our Christmas tree up!!

The sunrise over Mt St Helens is just breathtaking some mornings! I have so many pictures of it!

I am so fascinated by the fog that settles over the valleys below us at least 1-2 days a week in the winter. That white blanket of clouds behind the house is all covering the Battle Ground valley and it is on the other side of the house too in the Vancouver valley. I don't feel like I can capture it very well on a camera, but it looks like this soft fluffy white blanket covering the valleys. And what's even cooler, is we get the sun while they have the fog!! :) But if we drive into Vancouver or lower elevations, we drive into the fog and clouds. The sky and clouds up here are very intriguing.

Another view looking at the clouds over the Vancouver valley

Again looking at Vancouver valley to the lower left

Cloud cover from our back deck

Micah with his Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer headband he made at school. We got some good chuckles out of this. :)

Tessa's choir performed at the Grotto during the second week of December. Jesikah performed there two years ago with the same choir and I absolutely loved it, so I was really looking forward to going again. It was awesome. The acoustics in that church make the music even more beautiful! This year they performed the entire Vivaldi Gloria with orchestra! It was amazing! The Grotto is a Catholic cathedral in Portland with a really cool grounds and cavelike area. At Christmastime, music groups go and perform each night in the Cathedral and they decorate the grounds with lots and lots of lights and they have a nativity displayed in the cave/grotto area. They also have live animals like donkeys and camels. Eric and I took the boys, and we really enjoyed it.

Jarem, Tessa, and Eric looking at the lights after her concert

Alex flew home directly from Washington DC on Dec 15th. It was nice having him home again. We spent the first day outdoors on our property, cutting down some trees and planting grass and doing outdoor stuff. He loved it after being in the inner city for 4 months. Eric had the whole week off of Dec 17-21 plus the weekends, so we decided to have a staycation and just enjoy having Alex home. The first night for family home evening we all went to a showing of the Sound of Music in the classic Camas Liberty Theater. I just love the Camas downtown area. It is so quaint and so festive for Christmas. It was awesome! It was Alex's first time seeing it (I'm embarrassed to say).

Tessa and Micah were still in school but we had dinners together and played games every night (mostly Bang). During the days, we enjoyed some outdoor time and some down time inside. We went on this beautiful hike one day called Latourell Falls Hike. There was a lower falls at the beginning of the hike and an upper falls that we hiked to. It was very beautiful and refreshing. One day we went to The Grinch movie.

Lower Falls

Upper Falls

It had kind of a cool twisty waterfall

Can you see Jarem and Eric on the other side?

We put a wood burning fireplace into our new house with kind of a wood stove effect that heats really well. We love the warmth and coziness that comes from it. We enjoyed some nice fires in the fireplace in December.