As predicted, December has been busy! No complaints here though – we have managed to stay pretty healthy (mostly) and had lots of fun things going on. We are now officially on winter break from school though my job continues to be extra busy.
On my last highlights post, I had just celebrated my birthday. My boss kept the party going by having cake and flowers for me when I got to work the following Monday. Yay!
Unfortunately, it was very icy that day and on my walk to work, I slipped, fell, and bashed up my face pretty well. Not too fun to show up to work with a still bleeding nose. Boo!
Speaking of ice, we had the first Snow Day of the school year. Well, a half snow day. Our school district is pretty spread out and the weather can vary hugely from one neighbourhood to the next. Lots of kids take the school bus and plenty of families live in rural areas with roads that are hard to drive on in bad weather. This means it can be difficulty for the school district to know when to call a snow day. And sometimes we get a snow day when there isn’t actually that much snow in our area. This time they tried something new by calling a delayed start to the school day. We had an extra hour and half in the morning and for our family it was pretty great. The kids had time to play outside in the fresh snow. They came in, warmed up with hot chocolate, and then had a fun afternoon at school. (The 3rd picture below is a snow cat made by Pearl.)
School is officially on Winter Break now. Yay! The girls’ school did such a fun job of spirit days and celebrations and special things throughout the month. Here are Pearl and Rose on Wacky Hair Day:
There was also an Elf Day, a Pyjama Day, a field trip for Pearl, and a Winter Concert. This was the first concert for both girls (not possible in the past 2 years due to Covid) and such a treat for us as parents to get to see. Peter and I were those keen parents who snagged seats in the very front row. I think my favourite part was watching all the kids walk in and search the audience for their grown-ups. Those searching eyes and then huge smiles when they spotted their loved ones were so wonderful to witness.
In early December I got to spend an afternoon baking Christmas cookies with two friends. In the evening, our family attended the town’s annual Christmas parade. This year, for the first time ever, we also joined in to make crafts and watch the official turning on of the lights.
One of our other favourite Christmas traditions took place last year when we went out and found a Christmas tree! The girls also chose, chopped down, and carried a smaller tree to have in their room.
Our house is looking pretty festive now and we are counting down the days to Christmas Day!
Karissa Reads Books 
Your photos are very Christmassy! We haven’t had any snow yet (though most of the UK has – my area very rarely gets snow) but the whole of last week the temperature barely got above freezing during the day and fell to around -5 at night, so we had a week of very hard frosts which made it look quite festive.
We’ve just had two more days of snow since I wrote this post and this morning it’s looking very much like a winter wonderland out there! I’d say it’s unusual for our region to get this much snow in December but we got lots last year too. Our winters are definitely colder than they were when I was a kid.
Oh, your poor face! I knew a nun in her 80s who slipped off a curb and face planted on a bumper. Fortunately, you do not look like that. What a nice boss you have for those lovely gifts. I realized something; I don’t think I ever see anything in your posts, including the birthday cake and flowers, that look like it was haphazardly grabbed at a grocery store immediate beforehand. Everything always looks so cared for and carefully selected. There’s something magic about the photos of your life that gives me a dreamy feel.
I was upset at first but later realized how lucky I was. I could have broken my nose or chipped a tooth. Or fractured my wrist because I landed awkwardly on that too and it was sore for a while. I got off pretty easy.
My boss is really lovely. She’s a huge supporter of local business and she knows everybody in town so she always choose beautiful things made by some artist – even if it’s a cake or flowers. I’m sure if you came to my house you’d see plenty of haphazard things but I have been inspired to try and choose what I surround myself with care.