Girl Scouts in December

Our Girl Scout troop was able to make a connection with a local cake decorating shop to go in and learn about baking and running a food business. (Step 1 of a badge they are working on!)

Carol's Cake Designs.  

Carol was sooooo welcoming and awesome about teaching the girls some fun and super cute ways to decorate cookies and make holiday treats.

They had a BLAST!!!!

These were little mice made out of a cherry dipped in chocolate, a Hershey kiss and almond slices for ears.  So cute!!!

Little Christmas trees made out of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and a kiss on top.

Elf donuts....

We had such a great afternoon!!!

And lots of YUMMY treats to eat after!

Our service unit took a spot caroling at our local grocery store.

For every hour caroling, the store donated a $50 gift card to the food bank.

There weren't a lot of girls (only half of our own troop could make it) so they were pretty quiet....but they sang the whole hour and did their best!!!  Nice job girls!!

Getting Ready For Christmas

The first couple weeks of December we spent getting into the Christmas spirit!

We worked hard on the new decorations both inside....

 And outside...

The girls thought it would be fun to make gingerbread houses, too.

We found a kit that would help us out.

Avery's was a village.....

Annalise chose the house....

They really took their time!!

And they turned out great!!

The next day we had just enough time after a birthday party to make it to the Olde Fashioned Christmas.  I think this was our quickest trip yet (about 40 minutes), but luckily we knew which buildings were our favorites and HAD to stop for.

First the school house to write a letter to Santa....

A quick stop at the Post Office to mail them and then on to the Jenny House.

The girls got their cookies baking....

Then we explored the house.

These reindeer were having a party in the dining room....

We went upstairs for some dancing then came back down to get the fresh baked cookies!

It was too cold for the horse drawn carriage rides this year, 

but we still got to visit the big draft horses in the barn.

Next it was off to make some applesauce and see Santa!!

Annalise was READY for Santa!

She had clipped a picture out of a catalog of the doll wheelchair and crutches set she was asking him for.  That way there was NO confusion on his part!

Avery was quick and to the point.

Didn't want to have to sit there for long....

 

It's all so festive....love that Christmas-y feeling!!

We were off to the church for some caroling.

And finally....

cookies and hot cocoa.

Yes!  We did it all just in time before they were shutting down for the year.  Phew!

Can't imagine getting ready for Christmas without having been to the Olde Fashioned Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for.

Our family always tops the list.

Even with our family on the other side of the state...there isn't a day that we don't think about them.

Lucky for us, Grandma and Grandpa came to our house for Thanksgiving this year!

There was a lot of game playing.....

 And lots of cooking and eating.....

We had a great Thanksgiving FEAST!!!

It can get a little chilly in our basement.

Luckily, we have a great collection of blankets down there to snuggle with.

Grandpa discovered the SNUGGIE!!!

The day after Thanksgiving we followed tradition and went and cut down our Christmas tree!

Luckily the weather was great!!  Just a little cold!!

After our trek out to the tree farm, we came home and wrapped up our Christmas books.

We store the books in a tub each year until Christmas.  Then, we wrap 25 of them.

Each night beginning December 1st the girls take turns unwrapping and reading one of them.

It's become a fun tradition....and we now have way more than 25 Christmas books to choose from!

Thanks for helping us wrap them up Grandma!

We had a great visit.....we are thankful we can spend time together.

Soooooo EXCITED!!!!!!!!!

Each of the girls ended their soccer season with a team party.

Annalise knew that she was going to be getting a trophy for participating and she COULD NOT wait!!!  She was sooooooo excited!!!!  Her very first trophy!!!!!

I failed MISERABLY at capturing her excitement on film.

Here's what I got....

She was moving SO fast!

And she was SO excited!

Way to go Annalise!!!!