We are a week into winter break, and so far it's been so good! We started the break with a night out with some of Sara's best friends to celebrate her birthday. They were a fun group!
Lots of laughs and pizza ...
... followed by ice cream. It was fun to watch Sara with her friends. One has been a friend since 1st grade, a couple others came along last year in middle school, and another is new this year. I love watching her find her place and her people!
We followed up that fun night out with an all-day soccer tournament in the middle of nowhere. It was freezing with high winds ... made for an interesting day. Worth it to watch this team play one last time before Christmas!
Of course we've had plenty of baking going on. You can see how excited Emma was to have Sara helping her with the gingerbread dough.
They managed to figure it out though. This year I realized they really didn't need me for any part of the cookie making or decorating process. Not sure how to feel about that.
The girls had been asking to go ice skating again, so we hit up free skate earlier this week!
More baking for Emma ... she wanted to make peppermint candy cane cookies, so she set up the recipe on her tablet and got to work!
We also made a trip to see Santa, which Emma had been asking about but then didn't have much to say to him once we got there. She said this Santa was wearing too much green and had too many brown hairs in his beard. Oh, well. Sara humored me for a cute picture!
The big change so far over break is Sara's new braces! We didn't go into the break knowing this was in the plans, but after a check-up early in the week, the orthodontist said it was time for round two. She said Sara would probably need to wear them for about sixteen months, so after some quick math, Sara opted to go ahead and get them ASAP so she can be done before high school (hopefully even by the end of 8th grade)!
Turning all that dough into cookies ...
We spent a fun Christmas Eve with the Brittains, and then Christmas morning got going around 7:30 am - not too bad! Everyone was excited to see what Santa brought!
Sara got all sorts of things she wanted. This year she sent me direct links so I bought the right items ... but I was still able to surprise her with a few things!
Emma had been asking for a ukulele, which arrived from G&G. She spent much of yesterday practicing, and she's getting the hang of it!
We thought our pickle present shirts were pretty good!
It was a good Christmas. It always comes in such a whirlwind, and then it's over just like that ... but it's been a really good season. Having the last week to unwind and settle the stress a little bit really helped, and we've been enjoying our winter break as a family. Still more to come; we aren't going to push it ... we'll see what comes up and what sounds good, and do those things!
