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!!

So on Sunday morning we took it easy when we woke up, starting with yummy snowman pancakes that Daddy made for Finn!