Monthly Archives: December 2015

December 20, 2015

Remember how Finn wrote his letter to Santa? Well, this week he got a letter FROM Santa! He was so excited! He giggled and gasped and did a little dance. He enjoyed hearing daddy read the letter.

And here is Finn with his cousins after the NPCA Christmas Program. Finn’s class doesn’t participate, but he joined all of us to watch Rowan!

We also had fun one evening making chocolate caramel pretzel treats thanks to the bag of caramel hershey kisses from Grandma Armstrong. Finn was a champ – he unwrapped almost every kiss himself, and put each one of the pretzel. Then after they were in the oven he topped each with the m and m.

All Aboard – It’s the Polar Express! We had a really fun weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein’s house with a couple of overnights, yummy meals, and of course the awesome treat of our Polar Express Adventure! We were on the Saturday afternoon train ride along with the Bethune, Kessler, and Manning crews. It was a 2 hour train ride with a short stop at the North Pole where we saw Santa and waved as he drove by on his sleigh. Later on, however, Santa came through our train car and talked to each of the kids. It was a nice and sunny afternoon and everyone enjoyed a cup of hot cocoa and a chocolate chip cookie (amongst other treats too, lol).

And on Sunday we went to church and got to hear Grandma play her flute! Then we had some after church shenanigans with Grandpa.

December 13, 2015

Leave a reply

This was birthday week at the Armstrong house! We celebrated Kevin’s birthday on Friday night with a small crowd of family and friends, and pizza and cupcakes. He opened some prezzies and Finn helped him blow out his birthday candles. Earlier in the afternoon we donned the party hat on Cameron to celebrate her 14th birthday. She got a vanilla cupcake :). Our old girl has good days and bad days. It’s really pretty hard to see her struggle so much to get up, to be so still, and to lay in the same corner of the room all the time. I can remember the days when she would barrel through the house and blast right into Hailey or Lily. Or how she had the crazy ability to catch any ball. She is still in good spirits, and honestly can drive a person nuts some days banging her tail to hard on the wood floor,
On Saturday morning, Kevin’s actual birthday, we headed to COSI for a showing of the Polar Express of the huge theater screen! Finn was able to meet the conductor on the way in, and we got hot cocoa and a cookie too. He did pretty well during the movie, but there were a few spots that were pretty dramatic and he was a bit scared. In the end he says he loved it, and we’re glad as we have a surprise in store for him for next weekend! After the movie he played at COSI for a bit, made some art, and then we headed home. Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong came up to watch Finn for the evening while Kevin and I headed out on date night to Bonefish Grill to celebrate his birthday. Afterward, we changed wardrobes and headed to a friends “Tackiest Christmas” Party, where we won the best couple award. We’ve got quite the string going….we’ve one a couples award at each of the three parties we’ve gone to in 2015! Lots to live up to next year I suppose. This one is a bit fuzzy, but you get the full effect of our outfits, and our awards that we are holding – mini-champagnes clothed in ugly sweaters! It’s been so warm this week we’ve been able to play outside too. Just crazy for December!Finn wrote a letter to Santa this week too, with Debbie’s help! She, Sam, and Finn took the letters to Santa’s mailbox at the Powell Municipal Building. We’re hoping he may write back!

December 6, 2015

Leave a reply

December has arrived and we are in full holiday mode, as you can see. We’ve been busy with all kinds of activities from decorating our tree, to Finn’s first movie in a theater, baking, and having our yearly tradition “candy making party” at our house with family and friends. The days are ever-so-busy and seem to pass faster than I would like!

First things first, this year we have an Advent Calendar! We got a fun one with animals, wisemen, Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus so that Finn can help put them on each day. We found a printable “advent calendar” that had a verse for each day telling the story of Jesus’ birth. The Angel was the first one on the calendar this year and Finn put it in the perfect spot.
We took Finn to his first movie in a theater this week, to see A Christmas Story. He really seemed to enjoy it and didn’t make a peep the entire time. We went to a theater that serves food (and a ginormous bucket of popcorn!) during the show so we enjoyed some dinner during the movie. We are blessed with this little guy. We decorated our tree one evening in preparation for our candy party. Finn loved helping us and looking at all of the ornaments. We all love having such a tall tree! Sadly, we had one tragedy as the ornament that Kevin gave me in December 2011 when we first began dating fell to the floor as Finn and I were putting it up. It was a glass snow globe and unfortunately it shattered :(. Kevin snapped a photo though for memories sake. Kind of at the last minute on Friday I asked Finn if he wanted to make some cookies. We made chocolate chip first, and then I figured it would be fun to make the cookie press cookies so he could help with the dough gun and then decorate them. It was fun (and messy)! We awoke on Saturday morning and got right to party prep – making the peanut butter mixture that we would use later in the afternoon to make buckeyes! Finn is excellent at dumping. We have a pretty good system in place where I measure and he dumps. He’s also really good at turning on the mixer (!). Our friends and family began arriving around noon for our yearly tradition of making Hard Tack Candy and Buckeyes. Our flavors this year were cherry, black licorice, peppermint, sassafras, lemon, and cinnamon. And new this year, we made chocolate truffles too (chocolate/orange and chocolate/vanilla). We enjoyed the company of Mom and Dad, Amy, Andy, and the kids, the Mannings, Conrads, and part of the Kessler, Ryan, and Lewis families. We had a good sized crowd of 12 adults and 14 kiddos. Once again, Mom and Amy did a few crafts with the kids in the basement too, making Christmas ornaments – but somehow I didn’t get a photo of any! Lots of deliciousness by the end of the afternoon! Whew. That was lots of work!!