Christmas!

 -Audra put in her mission papers last Sunday. I was at Deseret Book and saw a missionary necklace of the world with a saying, "And off she went to change the world" and had to buy it. I cried when I saw it, cried when she opened it, and am crying now thinking about it. But this girl...she's matured a lot in her few months at college. Instead of being scared and anxious, she is confident and...brilliant. Simply brilliant. She's ready.

-Claire got a Spider-man poster and carry on luggage, which she is VERY excited about

-Camille finally got a decent phone, so now she can make calls/texts when she's not at home. She is thrilled

-Audra got some Converse, sweaters, books, and the necklace mentioned above. Camille also was super sweet and put together a "sister scrapbook" for her with lots of sister pictures and stories in it

-I am stocked up on reading material for the next year and Camille made me a Disney poster with pictures from our last Disney trip

-I got Ben the Pirate's shirt he wanted for the next time we go to Disney

-Traditional aebelskivers for Christmas breakfast to honor our Swedish heritage

It was 70 degrees again so we went on another walk. Then went to Mac and Ann's for a wonderful evening with delicious food, wonderful family visit, and just a perfect ending to a perfect day.

Christmas Eve!

 

The annual pajama opening!

 

It's Almost Feeling A Lot Like Christmas

Lots of Christmas Happenings.

Filled with grief at Matt's passing last year, I was not in the mood to celebrate Christmas at all last year. The girls wanted to do Christmas baking last year, so we did a little, but not much. This year, while still living in grief, we went all in on baking, on eating all the different treats, and at celebrating. This is about half of the goodie plates we made and delivered this year. Oh, and Audra is home!!!

We went to see Studio C which was fantastic! We love their comedy sketch show, and the original cast came into town which was fabulous! Claire couldn't go because of basketball, sadly.

They did a Harry Potter/Wicked skit that was incredible. I mean, simply incredible! 

We will definitely buy tickets  for their show every time they are in town! Such an awesome night!

Sans Ben, we went and watched Wicked: For Good. I LOVED the movie!

Audra, Ben, and I went to the Ricks' annual sing along which was wonderful! Ben admitted it is the must-do event of the year.

And then to look at Christmas lights. Of course, the famous gingerbread house, but then we also found a new gem- the Candy Cane House. I think it's my new favorite.

We saw one with Little Debbie blow ups, so Claire insisted on getting a picture of me in them. I thought that was really sweet as we remembered Matt's favorite treat.

Got some frozen hot chocolate from Twisted Sugar- this was really yummy!

And the Twisted Sugar and Crumbl holiday flavors:

On Christmas Eve Day it was 72 degrees so we went on a short hike. 

It's a lovely Florida December.

Now on to the final celebrations!

Christmas!

 Here's the girls in their matching pajamas on Christmas Eve:

Christmas was a lot of clothes and items for college this year. Everyone seemed happy with their loot.

A friend was very sweet and brought over breakfast casseroles for us. She's been very sweet as she lost her mom a few years back so she understands what I'm going through. We still did traditional aebelskivers, but we did them on the 26th instead of the 25th.