December was a great month for our family. I always find myself mildly overwhelmed, but craving the chaos at the same time. I wish I would have been more diligent about taking pictures, but for reasons previously mentioned, I wasn't.


Jess had her 2nd dance performance. Unfortunately I couldn't get any good pictures with the camera but she made us proud. She's taking a break from dance and will be doing karate for the next couple of months. A little blonde ninja in the making...

We went to one of our favorite parades in Keizer. It was cold, but we dressed warm and filled up on hot chocolate while the kids waited for Santa to pass by.
We did our annual cookie "stocking" with the Fullers. The delivery of our tasty treats was one of our most thrilling years yet, including a dog sniffing us out.
We attended our first Ugly Sweater Party at the Johnson's house. Sadly our last minute pick of sweaters on the way to their house weren't as hideous as we'd hoped. We were very impressed by the picks of our friends though. I thought Jessie's sweater was pretty nasty, but I couldn't for the life of me get her out of it. With some bribing we finally peeled it off of her.


The kids had fun on Christmas day and we got a kick out of the result of the girls dressing themselves.
We made the rounds on Christmas day to Tom's family and my family. Here's the newlyweds my sister Rachel and her husband Jeremy.

After Christmas we made our trek to the Hathaway's house once again to enjoy the New Year. The dry weather allowed us to go hiking one day with the kids.


The young kids celebrated their New Year at 9:00 pm banging pots and pans and probably confusing the neighbors.
This is most of the kids waiting for Tom's famous Blue Man Story. Gotta love that blue man.

We got to finish our break by watching the Ducks take the Rose Bowl with friends. I can't think of a better way to end it. We were sad to have it all come to an end and were quickly growing accustomed to our new life free of much responsibility. It didn't help that today when I went to work I was unpleasantly surprised with mouse droppings in my file cabinet. Well, speaking of real life, it's time to end this and make my shopping list because our fridge is EMPTY. Happy New Year!