Looking back at December and Christmas! (and lots of Jamba Juice)

December has come and gone...and I'm not exactly sure where it went.  Felt like a "blink and you'll miss it" month.  I know it was busy busy with Christmas Christmas Christmas but really...shouldn't we still be about a week after Thanksgiving?  I love Christmas a lot but also get a little relieved when things settle down in January (I'm a homebody, for sure).  But then, Luke will insist on listening to "Jingle Bell Rock" again and I haven't taken the Christmas music off my devices yet and it'll go from "Jingle Bell Rock" to the beginning of Nat King Cole's "Chestnuts" and I get nostalgic for Christmas.  I don't know why that song so specifically makes me think of Christmas Eve, in particular the ones at my parents' when we were all still at home.

So, it's with a little bit of sadness and a little bit of relief we put December behind us.  New Year, let's see where this one goes.

1) Waiting in a long cutting line at Jo-Ann's and Luke found a "cave", before he knocked over a whole shelf of fabric.
2) It wasn't until Luke had spent 12+ hours on these sheets with these jammies that I realized they matched.  We were both pretty entertained by this.
3) Christmas tree all lit and decorated!  For the second time.  After it randomly fell over and needed redone.
4) Luke and his "Matt" dress-up guy both being super heros.
5) December naptime. 
6) Being up and around enough for a sunset through my snowflakes on the porch.
7) So Target had this promo that you could get a free Jamba Juice for a 15 day period in December as long as you had their credit card.  We may have taken FULL advantage of this (see below).  Luke informed me that Lemur likes Jamba Juice too.
8) Under the giant American flag after a wonderful 2 hours spent at a car lot getting our free recall fixed, from what they screwed up the first time.  It was not my favorite 2 hours of the month.
9) STAR WARS.  We went opening night.  It was awesome.  My favorite movie going experience ever, maybe.  People were cheering and clapping and I got happy chills so many times.  Awesome.  The next morning I got Luke up and asked if he knew where Mom & Dad went after he was in bed last night.  I told him Star Wars and he replied "Without me?!?!?".  Hahahaha. 
10) Splashing in puddles.  He loves this.
11) A December Saturday naptime - wrapping presents and watching Christmas episodes of tv shows.
12) This was 2 days before Christmas.  65°.  In December.  In Indiana.  It was crazy and wonderful.
13) Luke got a kid sized real tool set for Christmas and these safety goggles might be his favorite part.  Safety first!
14) Freezing rain and snowflakes.  About the closest we got to snow this Christmas season (see about mentioned 65°.)
15) STAR WARS.  Again.  With our Yoda.  His favorite part might have been when he first saw BB-8, everyone's new favorite droid.  He did pretty great for having to sit for 2 ½ hours!
16) New Years Eve!  We were all sick to some extent here and it was the least exciting New Years I've had since I can remember...but stomach bugs + colds = a lot of couch sitting.

The above mentioned Jamba Juice...we got 13 in 15 days.  One of which I was nice enough to share with my little sister.  The others...yeah...Luke and I had a lot of Jamba Juice.  Matt got about 10 too.  We were at Target A LOT.  But surprisingly, I'd say at least 10 of my 13 stops were just for Jamba, no purchases made! 

BONUS CHRISTMAS:

We had 7 family celebrations in 8 days on stop of our stuff at home with the three of us: adult Christmas party with Matt's side; my Mom's side (74 people!); Christmas Eve lunch out with (some of) my family; Christmas Eve at Matt's parents' with his family; stopping by Matt's parents' on Christmas Day; my parents, little sister, and niece (because she had enough of all her brothers) over for Christmas Day dinner (~10 years of marriage and the first non-breakfast holiday meal we've had at home!); and Boxing Day with my whole family at my parents'.  Along with 3 lunches out in 4 days and Matt's family picture with 54 people AND a lot of celebrating here.  It was a crazy busy week but also wonderful!  Luke got a nap most days and was generally a pretty happy kid.  I mean, presents + Christmas pretty much mean happy but with so much going on he was still a good kid to be around.

1) Singing carols for stockings for my Grandpa.  Long tradition except Luke doesn't know any carols besides "Jingle Bell Rock and Roll!".  He still got his stocking.
2) Getting some Curious George while patiently waiting for Mom and Dad to shower and get around on Christmas morning.  Nice that he didn't really know what he was waiting for!
3) Breakfast Christmas morning! 
4) Our little family together on Christmas morning!  Matt worked 4 of the first 5 Christmases we were married and it's still a lovely treat to get to be home together on Christmas morning.
5) Luke with the gift he so carefully decorated for Dad.
6) Probably Luke's favorite gift - a Millennium Falcon.  #StarWarsChristmas
7) Luke showing off his stocking on Boxing Day - somehow with all our running around on Christmas Eve and Day years ago, it became our tradition to do stockings on the morning of the 26th.
8) My littlest sister, Luke and I all with our Old Navy vests.  I love these.
9) Stockings at my parents'.  Up to 24 of them!!
10) My Mom came up with these masks somewhere and we reenacted the nativity with them.  I got the oh so important job of narrator.  It was a nice way to celebrate the real Reason for the Season but they were a lot of laughs too.

Now looking forward to life settling down a bit in January!  Maybe the reason I can stand this part of winter is because we largely get to be hermits for it.  And I'm perfectly ok with that.