More December --post Christmas.

My pictures didn't load in the order I expected them to... I haven't done this in a while!

Emma was SO excited to get these two stuffed unicorns for Christmas! She has slept with them every night since and always asks if she can take them places!

On Christmas Day we saw that Sea World was going to be open in the afternoon. The weather was perfect so we headed out after we had lunch! They had reindeer! Emma was in heaven and announced that it was Vixen that we saw!

One of Emma's favorite things about school has been learning how to read and write. She was so excited to tell me that last week she read a "level c" book to her teacher and did really well. She loves to write notes to people, and her favorite thing to write is I love you. We find love notes from Emma all over the house. She loved when mom & dad were her sight words a few weeks ago so now she totally knows how to spell them!

Right around Christmas our washer started tripping the breaker every time we ran a load. It was pretty annoying and our clothes were not getting so clean. SO... we did a few things to try to fix it before realizing it was time to just replace our washer and dryer. They were 8.5 years old and the dryer wasn't drying very well anyway... these beauties were delivered a few weeks ago and oh my goodness, they are fabulous! Our clothes get cleaner and dryer in less time now!

I guess this should've been at the top. The day of Emma's Christmas party I went back to the foot doctor and got this awesome boot. I've been wearing it most of the day most days since getting it. It's a little annoying, but my foot doesn't hurt. It's almost time for me to get back to the doctor and see if I'm ready to start physical therapy. I am looking forward to being able to walk without pain and without the boot.

This was the funniest. As we were cleaning up our Christmas decor Emma took the Christmas tree skirt and ran to her room. She came back out to the playroom wearing it like a dress. She thought she was so funny, and so did we!

December Highlights for Emma

Emma had such a fun month in December-- minus when she had strep and missed 3 days of school. Her teacher did so many fun things in their classroom for the holidays. They had an Elf on the Shelf, a pickle that was moved around the classroom, a big Christmas breakfast with all the kinder classes and some cute songs that they performed. They made these cute reindeer shirts that they got to wear to their Christmas party.

A year or two ago we got this fabulous advent calendar that was a labor of love from Chris's mom, sister and grandma. I *think* they said grandma did most of the work, but I honestly don't remember so we'll give credit to all of them.

On Christmas Eve we went to the movies and saw The Grinch! Emma LOVED it and Chris fell asleep during it. Emma loves to go to the movies and was pretty excited that we got popcorn! She's already asked if the movie is out yet so we can watch it again at home. 

Journey!

Every December USAA (where Chris works) has a huge Christmas party for all of their employees. There is normally some great performer (we've seen Earth Wind & Fire, Huey Lewis and the News, Train) and this year... the headliner was JOURNEY! We were SO excited to go this year! Chris was able to get a killer parking spot since he has a permanent handicapped spot at work so we got to go through a special side entrance and were some of the first people into the room at the Convention Center. We had a great meal and loved when Journey came out. I don't know if they will ever be able to top Journey, but I can't wait to see what happens this year!