In the middle of the Christmas preparations, normal life continued on, and the month began with musical auditions.  Actually, they started the week after Thanksgiving, with Derek having auditions for Suessical after school on Tuesday through Thursday.  Derek was super well prepared, and not a bit nervous, so that was great.  And then last week, Lily had her auditions for Les Miserables on Monday through Wednesday.  

And so it begins, my constant running to the school and waiting to pick up kids – mostly in the dark.  Happily, they both made it into their shows, and even if it means that life will be a little extra busy and hectic until the end of April, I am excited for them both.  And hey, it should make the next five months go faster.  (Derek’s show starts rehearsals this week, with his show the end of February, and Lily’s show starts rehearsing after Christmas break, and is performed the 3rd week of April.)

We also have had some fun YW’s activities lately.  One night, I taught the girls how to make cake mix cookies, and I had six different things they could use as a mix-in.  The recipe was so simple, that they did it all themselves and had a great time.

And then last week, to finish off the year, we went to Adreniline Trampoline park for our combined activity. The kids had a blast, and us leaders got to sit and talk, and watch the kids bounce and climb around like crazy.

And last night, there was a special surprise for the girls.  Kat, one of our Presidency, has a Lularoe business, and she generously let each girl pick a dress from her inventory.  They had a blast trying on dresses and picking out their favorite – and the best part was that all six of our girls were there.

We have also had random things break – like our front door handle.  One day it was fine, and the next, the handle fell off anytime someone opened or closed the door.  It was so obnoxious, and I searched for a screw or pin at Lowes to get it to stay on, but nothing worked, and so I finally gave up and bought a new door handle.  And I figured, I may as well get one that I liked better, since we were having to change it out.  The blessing in all of this, was that my friend Ashley’s husband, Ryan, came over and installed it for me.  I am so grateful that he did, because it was much harder than it seemed.  He even was able to rekey it for me so we can use our original house keys with it.  And it is so pretty.

We had another random broken thing – a string on Derek’s guitar.  I had no idea how to restring it, and neither did Derek, and so Kevin told us to have him use Kevin’s guitar to practice on, and then have Derek’s guitar teacher teach him how to restring it at his next lesson.  Because of this, I got the view of Derek practicing with Kevin’s guitar, and it always tugged a little on my heart, since the first time I saw Kevin play this guitar, he was a teenager.  Now our almost a teenager son was playing it.

In spite of it being December, and the season of Christmas music, we have been listening non-stop to the “The Greatest Showman Reimagined” album.  It is so good, with fantastic covers of the songs done by other artists.  Some of them are better than others, but most are fabulous.

On Thursday night, we finally had an evening where we didn’t have some sort of meeting/activity going on.  We had had some after school stuff – guitar and the dentist – and so I picked up Little Caesers pizza for dinner, and so we ate pizza and watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  It was fabulous, and is one of my very favorite parts of the Christmas season.

In all of these other things going on, I was sneaking in time for editing a portrait session that I did on last Monday.  It was a baby session at my house, followed by a family session outside.  It was a lot to get done, but somehow I managed to get it in.

Saturday was a pretty busy day, but luckily it mostly good.  There was a special event for the youth at York College, which meant that Derek  and Lily got to rock climb.  They had a blast, and Derek even made it to the top of the wall twice.

While Lily and Derek were busy climbing walls, Arthur and I went to downtown York because I had an errand there.  The store was right by the Central Market, and so Arthur and I snuck in and got a super yummy donut to share.  We also parked right by a church that looks like a medieval castle, which Arthur thought was the coolest thing ever.  Then he and I went to Target so he could “pick-out” my stocking stuffers – good times.

Saturday evening, was our ward Christmas party, and we had a dinner and small program.  It was great to see friends and was a lot of fun, but unfortunately, Arthur was on one, and it was one of those times I sure wished that I had Kevin there to help me contain him.  Oh well.  

In all the business of normal life, I have been trying to take time for myself as well, to help keep me sane and be a better mother. I have had lunches with friends, went to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie with a friend, and even have a brunch with some of my neighbors planned, as well as a girl’s night with a friend.  It definitely helps refill my bucket, and helps me have the mental energy to do what I need to do each day.  But the biggest part of our daily life that keeps me going, are my daily emails from Kevin, our family prayer with Kevin via FaceTime each morning, and conversations via FaceTime with Kevin almost every afternoon.  These are the blessings and little bits of life that keep us all going.