Christmas 2023- De Jong side.

Merry Christmas! Experiencing Christmas through the eyes of our kids is so fun. We were home for Christmas and had a special mix of celebrating the five of us, and some wonderful time with the De Jong side too. Praying you all could celebrate His birth in a meaningful way too!

My four favorites!

Kley's family plays "hide the pickle" at Christmas, basically hide and seek for a pickle ornament. It was not my year- I didn't win but they had a prize for everyone and the girls were taking turns hiding it so they really wanted to hide it for me. So I was searching by myself at the end and Norah wanted to hide it so high in the Christmas tree that I couldn't even see it (Kley lifted her up), and then they kept shouting "you're so hot!" when I was by the tree as a clue and I couldn't find it and then Kley lifted me up. At least the girls thought this was quite funny. :)

Kley had the first victory in the pickle game. We also played Bingo to pass out gifts!

Cousin pics in Christmas pajamas!

Love whole family shots!

Craft time.

Christmas morning at home. 

Celebrating Christmas eve with Kley's grandma Shirley. 

Everyone was excited to open some new fun things!

Thankful for a sweet Christmas and for the girls to have a break from school!

Christmas dance, piano recital, and church program 2023.

December is filled with lots of activities and fun! Parents were invited to the last part of Norah's dance class to watch a short tap and jazz song they had learned. She did great!

All three played in the Christmas piano recital! It was Lucy and Ellory's first recital. This is Norah's 3rd year taking lessons from Heidi and we love her! I wanted Lucy and Ellory to take from her also, but she unfortunately didn't have room. I'm super thankful I found another teacher for them for their first year from our church, Mel, and she does a great job too! She doesn't do a recital though, so Heidi let Lucy and Ellory join in her recital to play a song. They were all nervous, but handled it well! We prayed for bravery in the car on the way there and they all did such a great job. Proud of them for doing it in spite of fear and trying their best!

Ellory played Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Lucy played Away in a Manger, and Norah played The First Noel and Joy to the World. 

My parents drove up for the day and surprised the girls. Kley's parents came too, and so did the three great grandparents that live close! The recital was at the place where my grandparents live, so that was super special that they could make it to see it. Kley's grandma lives in our town too and she rode with Kley's parents. How wonderful to have such a big cheering section! I am thankful my girls get to know all of their great grandparents and have some of them live close by, what a gift!

The church program was following the piano recital, so that was big day but nice to have both on the same day too. All three did so great! I helped plan the program this year, and Kley played guitar, so all five of us were up front and it was a special night. 

I'm grateful our girls get to participate in activities like this!

So glad my parents could make it and that other local family could join too- the best!

Merry Christmas! Hope your activities can be fun and meaningful- praise God for sending His Son!

Christmas light tour 2023.

Christmas light tour is one of my favorite nights of the year! We unfortunately missed it last year due to bad weather, so I was extra happy to make is this year! Last December was crazy weather wise, and this year it's been very mild. Funny how each year can be so different.

We started off trying a new Italian restaurant in our town, headed to lights, and ended with ice cream. I know our girls wont remember every specific moment, but boy, I sure hope they grow up with warm feelings of special Christmas traditions. Christmas lights are one of my favorites and love doing it with my favorite four!

This one property in a town close to us does an amazing job and it's our favorite!

They had some new displays this year too, which was fun to see it. switched up and compare what we remembered and what was new. They each picked something to take a picture by and Norah picked the carousel.

Thankful for motherhood. :)

Also thankful to be married to Kley! :)

Saying hello to the grinch! Lucy didn't want to be in the picture. He was pretty funny and very interactive!

Ellory picked the Christmas unicorn.

And Lucy picked Christmas Spiderman.

It was a great night!

Christmas cookies 2023.

Making Christmas cutout cookies is a favorite holiday tradition! It basically takes three days- one to cutout and bake, one to decorate, and one to plate up and deliver to neighbors and family/friends. The girls enjoy it! (Mostly, energy fades a tiny bit near the end of all the baking and decorating, but overall they did quite well and were helpful! Especially Lucy, she worked so hard this year!)

It's a special tradition with a tangible way we can show love to those around us! Merry Christmas!

Pioneer Village Christmas Wonderland 2023.

A favorite December tradition is going to the Pioneer Village Christmas Wonderland. It's in a neighboring town and it's set up so pretty! The old fashioned town street is all decorated and there are sleigh rides and Santa. There's a big building all decorated with tons of different Christmas collections, like snowmen, santas, nutcrackers, etc. There's another building with lots of decorated Christmas trees and treats. It's fun to walk around! We also hosted our life group Christmas party in the morning too- a fun celebration with brunch, fellowship, and "guess the Christmas song" and "guess the Christmas movie" games. 

"You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch..." :)

We've taken a picture by Elsa and Olaf for many years now, love it!

So thankful for my three girls! And Kley too!

Popcorn and hot chocolate- glad for a fun night!