December 2024 Highlights

Here's what we were up to in December 2024!

Not gonna lie, my Christmas spirit was zilch this year so Chris took on the part of decorator.

He set up and fluffed the tree and then he and Jane hung all the ornaments.

Halls are decked!

I was craving some good cookies so after dropping off a return at Whole Foods we went into the bakery and got some caramel cookies and Jane got these festive sugar cookies.

For the first time I can ever remember, our ward Christmas party wasn't in a gym! It was held in a sports complex which we'd never been to before and it was huge and amazing and so cool. We ran into two families that live on our street which was funny.

We even went ice skating!

Fox was still recovering from bonking his chin so he didn't participate in the ice skating portion.

Chris is a pro at ice skating so he held me upright while we made a couple laps.

Chris took Jane on a lap.

LOL.

I make a mean pasta bow hehe.

Got our Christmas cards in the mail.

Fox helped me stamp and address them to send out so we could go to Raising Canes or somewhere for dinner.

We celebrated Tom Evans' birthday at Zane's Italian Restaurant.

One afternoon I was chilling on the couch, Amy hopped on my lap, and I spied on us through the kitty cam :)

We visited the Hazard's Gingerbread House.

Always spectacular to behold.

We go to Kneaders for lunch as often as we can.

Chris's work party was at a cute art studio in downtown Littleton.

My favorite part was the live musician playing Christmas songs on his guitar all night.

Festive details.

For the 6th year in a row we visited the Gaylord Rockies Hotel to see the ICE! exhibit.

Always love the differently decorated trees.

Fun family selfie.

We need these hats.

The theme this year was the Polar Express which I've only seen once, I don't think the kids ever have seen it.

We should have watched it before going, oh well, it was still fun!

Can't believe it's all made from ice!

We rushed through because it's sooooo cold and warmed up with cinnamon rolls.

The main room is back open after renovations. Marvelous!

Then we came home and watched football. The Broncos lost to the Chargers and that made me really sad.

I wrapped Chris's presents and put fun clues on the "from" line. Like "from TikTok" was a watch, from "Bo" and "Nix" were Broncos-themed shirts, "MB" is a Mont Blanc pen, from "there came a big noise" (which is a quote from The Santa Clause) was a sound bar, etc. Fun tradition passed down from my dad!

One Saturday we went to Cherry Cricket for lunch. I started a diet the day before so I got a weird burger bowl. I should have just gotten a burger lol.

Then we went to the Giving Machines to make donations.

We walked through the Christmas Market.

Then we went shopping at the Cherry Creek Mall.

I started walking outside again to get some Vitamin D since tests show I'm deficient.

I counted like 10 different dog blow ups at this house, too cute.

On Christmas Adam we have a tradition - my dad gives each of his 3 kids moola to buy dinner and then we all eat together virtually then read from The Coming of Christ book. I love this tradition and am glad it worked out since we all have busy schedules.

On Christmas Eve I treated myself to a mani/pedi.

Then we sat down and watched the new Nate Bargatze special on Netflix. He is soooo gosh dern stinkin' funny and we can't wait to see him live next year here in Denver.

Then as per tradition we went to Tom & Margi's house for the Nativity in the Barn.

Yummy treats of which I did not partake because I'm trying to fit back into my pants by my 40th birthday in May.

Jane was the angel and Fox was the tax collector.

Nativity in the Barn.

Then we set up for the Bag Game.

We did a Pictionary version this year.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

I woke up around 5:30am to turn on all the lights, feed the bunny, and feed the cats. Then Chris and I opened our stockings. Fox was already awake but we had to wake up little miss sleepy head!

Fox's stocking stuffers.

Christmas morning! I spy Sandy who always wants to be in the mix.

Guess where we're going for Spring Break?! Hawaii!!!! It's been hard to keep this a secret from them for so long.

For Christmas I received these two beautiful floral canvases made by Amy Lockwood all the way in Australia and hung them up outside our closet. For sure I love the placement of the pink one, but the blue one I'm iffy about. They need to be placed together somewhere though, whether here or elsewhere. One thing is for sure though, I LOVE THEM. So gorgeous.

On December 28th Chris and I flew to Santa Ana to go to a concert! We've been to a lot of concerts together this year, it's been so awesome. I've never flown into the John Wayne airport before and it was crazy how close we got to the pretty mountains!

We have our priorities straight: our very first stop was to El Pollo Loco. I really hope we get one here in Highlands Ranch some day because it's so yummy.

We watched the Broncos vs the Bengals game. This is what I texted my parents "In overtime the Bengals doinked their field goal attempt so we got the ball and didn't do anything with it!! 3 and out!!! Bengals got it back and scored. It was stressful and upsetting." Our playoff chances are dwindling but I'm still a BO-liever!

Time for the concert! We Ubered over to the House of Blues in Anaheim.

This was our 2nd time seeing Dayseeker this year, 3rd time seeing Rain City Drive this year, and first time ever seeing Ghost Atlas.

We waited in line for about 45 minutes for the doors to open then got inside the lounge.

We have no interest in moshing and rubbing elbows with strangers lolol, so we got seats.

Sold out show.

Ghost Atlas rarely performs live and I'd never heard of them before but I'm a new fan! They were great! Which reminds me to go check out their stuff.

Then Rain City Drive performed. They were great, as per usual.

RCD and Dayseeker have a song together called Medicate Me and so Rory (the lead singer of Dayseeker) came out when it was his part of the song and it was fantastic to see them perform this song together again live. We're such groupies lol.

And then Dayseeker was up! Such an awesome show. Always is!

The evening ended with bursts of confetti.

Screenshot from Rory's insta.

I can actually see me and Chris up on the balcony on the top right - Chris has his hand out and I have my hand up.

It was quite cold so Chris bought me a Rain City Drive sweatshirt which warmed me right up.

We woke up early the next morning to fly home - a super quick and totally memorable trip. I spy Highlands Ranch! We're already planning to go next year if they do this concert again, only we'll stay 2 nights and go to Disneyland the second day!

Meanwhile back at home, Amy & Sandy decided Jane was a good replacement Paige :)

We watched a lot of movies and shows throughout December, some new, some old.

This made me chuckle. The dumb block-a-rooski was against the Broncos, that was such a heartbreaking loss, I'm still not over it.

The bathroom reno is coming along. The wainscotting got painted - the toilet room is a dark purple.

New glass shower got installed.

The wainscotting in the main bathroom got painted a dark teal.

I spy a mistake in how the shower pan tile was installed and really hope it can be fixed.

The wallpaperers got started and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Hopefully it'll be done by 2026 ;)

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KITTY CATS!

Here are snippets of Amy & Sandy together throughout the month. Sandy follows Amy around like a lemming. I took more photos of my cats than anything else this month I swear.

Sandy Sue being her cute self, paws always dangling off the edges.

She's sooooo floofy and sweet.

Amy up to no good climbing the pink tree lol.

She's my little lovey-love!

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Onto the scrappiness!

I shared 5 layouts, 2 double-page spreads, a coptic book, a 6x8 album, and a bunch of cards in December! YAY!!
Click the links to see them in more detail: