On December 1st we went to Wendy's to get Frosty's (or course I got suckered into also buying kid's meals for all of them). I brought a blank calendar for Dec., tape and lots of pictures of things to do. So we went through the month and taped on pictures of the activities that we wanted to do each day. Some of these included basketball practice, small group, things we already had planned. But the fun part was adding in game nights, baking nights, card/art nights, movie nights, etc. We haven't been completely faithful to the calendar, but it has certainly been fun to have and force us to be more creative with the kids in the evenings instead of getting stuck in a rut.
Part of the reason for all this is because we aren't going to be able to have a "normal" Christmas this year because Pete is going in for jaw surgery on Dec. 22nd. He will have his mouth wired shut and most likely be quite miserable for about 2 weeks. The hope is that this surgery will alleviate some of the pain he has in his head/jaw/ear region. But he will definitely have a rough recovery before we know if the surgery will help take this pain away. And unfortunately all that will be happening right around Christmas. So we've been doing what we can to celebrate throughout the whole month. It's actually been pretty fun and I've liked to re-think how to celebrate. Hopefully we can remember some of these fun things from this year and make them December traditions.
Jordon got his stitches out. He was a trooper and our friend was the doctor on-call that day. So it was to get to see her and have her help us.
This picture also clearly shows Jordon's amazing fashion ideas. He picks out his clothes everyday and comes up with the loudest color combinations I've ever seen. Pete thinks he's really good at fashion and tries to encourage it. I'm not convinced that he's very good at it. The day he wore plaids and stripes to church was not a proud day for me...but of course Pete thought it was awesome!
Brandon's been playing on a basketball league at church and has games many Saturdays. This particular Sat. Gideon grabbed his chair before he got in the car. He carried it into the gym with him and sat a few seats away from the rest of us. It was hilarious to his little independence shine. Of course a few minutes later some other people came in and sat down next to him. He wasn't so into that and found himself on my lap soon after.
Jordon asked him if he could "take a haircut". So I shaved the back and sides a little bit. Then he asked for some gel in his hair. He was so proud of this do! I also can't believe how he's stuck a pose for this picture. This is not at all what is normal for Jordon, but I've seen him do it for pictures some recently. I guess Brandon's love for posing has had a pretty big influence!
