December recap (yes, I'm fully aware that I'm late, but here ya go regardless)


Wherein Chloe resurfaces from an unofficial hiatus.

Accurate depiction of me when I realised I overslept this morning

So December hit me so hard and so fast, that I don't remember even half of it. Unlike normal, I was not able to write this up throughout the month, so it'll be a little rough this time.



Stats (basically just pageviews now):

Goodness, who was in Russia?

But lemme say this real quick. I hit over 30,000 pageviews!

Happenings:

1. Christmas. Obviously.

2. Mom took all of us, plus Nana, out ice skating. Mia has definitely improved since last year's trying-to-walk-on-the-ice-in-the-skates-instead-of-glide. Gabe had a bunch of fun zipping around and wiping out. Ava is cautiously going out into the middle more. Christian is pretty much the same as Gabe, except not falling as much. I can go pretty fast, but I like to stay close the the rail, but even then I fell twice. Lydia is still trying to figure out how to skate backwards. And Mom and Nana stayed off the ice completely, drinking hot chocolate and talking and sharing feelings.

3. I pretty much drowned in cinnamon rolls (48 pans, to be exact).

4. I started alpha reading/critiquing for a writer buddy. AND HER STORY IS AWESOME OK. *bites fingernails in anticipation of the next chapters*


5. Mom had Lydia and I come up with a skit for The Twelve Days of Christmas. No, we cannot sing. No, we are not the best dancers or actors. And yes, we had to perform it more than once (one time for our church small group, once for Dad's side of the family, and once for Mom's side of the family). And yes, it has been recorded. Maybe it'll see the light of day. Pfft. Nevermind, here it is. Go wild.

No, my back was not sore afterwards. 
Yes we're thinking we will do something like this every year.
The goal is that I'll be eventually jumping on Gabe's back instead of the other way around.
I think the best version was the one we did for small group. Shhh.
Yes, we have added a couple different lines since then. 
Mainly, "It's the Final Countdown!" right before "on the 12th day" *ahem*

6. I updated the family blog look. *cringes over the past one* DO NOT ask me how many tries it took to get the header to blend with the background. *pouts at Lydia for taking down gfc*

7. We had Christmas with Dad's side on the 18th at Gramma's house, and then had Gramma and Grandpa out to our house again on the next Wednesday.

8. I house sat for the people who rent from Mom and Dad, mostly just to check on the animals and let their dog out every few hours. It was only for the second half of Christmas eve, and for Christmas morning. Their dog though. He's so adorable! He's a shepherd-boxer mix, and definitely not small, but so sweet! (plus I got to to watch the first to episodes of When Calls the Heart, so that was fun.)

9. We had Mom's parents over for the late afternoon/evening/dinner Christmas day.

10. Mom and Dad planned a surprise for everyone, but they had to tell me so that I could get everyone younger than me out of the house for an hour or two so they could get it started. Then, the Friday before Christmas, they needed all of us out of the house, so Nana and Grandfather took the younger three to the mint, and I drove Lydia, Christian, and into Denton to drop off our recycle at the landfill and to go see Sing (cute movie, btw). Then, I had just pulled into the driveway, and I saw a pickup truck still in the driveway, so I slammed the breaks and threw the car into park, no easy feat when one driving the big family suv, but I *did* manage it. Because Lydia and Christian weren't in on it yet, I didn't know if we could come into the house yet or not. So I asked, and was given the go ahead.

The surprise: Dad had asked Gabe's gymnastics coach if it was at all possible to build some equipment in our bonus room (the room over our garage that wasn't originally supposed to be there. We treat it like some people might treat a basement. It's still not finished, so it's not a place to hang out in the summer). The first time we had to leave, the coach was coming to scope out and see if it would even work. It did work, so then Mom and Dad pretty much threw all of us out of the house (they kinda paid us off by buying the movie tickets and giving us a couple extra dollars for food if we wanted it. Chickfila peppermint milkshakes anyone?) on Friday. So then Christmas morning, the younger three got to go into the bonus room and see what was built. One of Gabe's first reactions: here.

11. We made half a bagillian Christmas cookies/treats one Saturday. I seriously would not be surprised if we counted all that we made and it was close to or over a thousand. We made seven (I think) batches of cream cheese cookies, two cookie sheets of toffee (made on Friday, but not broken into pieces until Saturday), two batches of pecan sandies, dozens of butterfingers, fudge (also made Friday), two batches of a sort of chocolate cookie dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with crushed peppermints, peppermint bark (not as much as I would have liked, but we were running out of peppermints), and I can't remember if we did chocolate covered pretzels or not this year. I didn't make any of the dough, but I did a lot of moving to cooling racks, dipping into chocolate, washing dishes, and forming the pecan sandies and covering them in powdered sugar. Funny thing is, Mom avoids the kitchen whenever we bake Christmas cookies. She helps plan what we make, and she goes out and buys everything, but Dad spearheads the entire operation. Mom does pass by every now and then to tell us we are doing a good job. She usually wraps presents while we annihilate the kitchen.

12. Mom and Dad got the 1959 almost four hour version of Ben-Hur for us all to watch, thinking we would all be completely fine since it was only rated G. We watched until the intermission, then took a break for a couple days and finished it, and all decided that it was definitely not G. Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful cinematic adventure, but not for children. The chariot horses are my favorite characters.

13. I ALMOST FORGOT. Wait for it.
Lydia almost got herself, Christian, and me in a car wreck.
We were on our way home from church, right after where we would turn into our neighborhood there
is a large curve. Now, we can see most of the curve, so there's no issue about when to time your turn into the neighborhood if there's a car coming. So we're about to turn into our neighborhood and there's a car coming around that curve. Lydia thought it was turning because it had its turn signal on (there is also a turn into a different neighborhood just before our turn and on the opposite side of the road). BUT IT WASN'T TURNING. So Lydia floored the gas pedal and we barely escaped with our lives. And I did the ceremonial sisterly-yelling-of-disbelief-and-fright. You'll never guess what happened the next week on the way home from church. *gives away the secret* A car came around that curve and I yelled for Lydia not to turn bc I was legit having a flashback.

14. Christy invited Lydia, Christian, and I to a shindig hosted by a family she knows, but Lydia couldn't make it, which was rather unfortunate as we actually ended up being one girl short when we decided to dance (savor this moment, my child, as we will never have more guys than girls at a dance ever again). -hang on, there's gotta be a gif for this-


There actually did not end up being a whole lot of people there. Christian and I went, as did Christy and her older sister (Emily) and younger brother (Joe), then the family had three guys, two girls (one of which was married and so her husband was there as well), and one more guy. The girls were in high demand while we danced for two hours. And no, I did not just dance with Christian and Joe (quite the contrary, actually) Lydia was mildly shocked when I texted and told her on the way home (Emily had driven us all). The only dance I knew was the posties jig, and we did that very first. All the other ones were square dances and very fun, also very fast.

15. Ava turned 12, thus ending our birthdays until June.

16. Mom, Lydia, Ava, and I watched When Calls the Heart through episode seven in one sitting.

Awkward:

1. I'm pretty sure I accidentally scared the pastor when I was going into church. I had driven alone and left first, because I had needed to deliver a pan of cinnamon rolls. Now, it had been in the 60's when I left the house, so OF COURSE I didn't bring a coat with me. However, by the time I got to church, it was in the low 20's, but with windchill it felt like 12 degrees. So because I was early anyways, I spent a few minutes mentally bracing myself for the dash into the church. And of course, because it's December, it was already pretty dark outside, meaning that with the reflection of the lights inside, there was no way to see through to the outside, but I can see inside. So I'm speed-walking to the door and I see the pastor also about to open the door. I'm measuring time in my head because it's freezing and I want to get inside as quickly as possible and I know that as soon as he opens the door, he's gonna see me and then come out first then hold the door open for me, which will take about five seconds. Whereas if I got to the door first, it would only take about two seconds. So I run the last few steps to the door, and yank it open, and he does that half-step back with a very surprised look on  his face. Then I rush to the ladies room (which was thankfully empty) and attempt to not explode into laughter.

2. *still has not changed blog look to be winter*

3. Internally freaking out during the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church bc my candle WOULD NOT stop blowing all over the place and narrowly missing lighting the paper that was supposed to protect my hands from the dripping wax (of course the first drip missed the paper entirely and slid down until it hit my fingers).

Who had a #candlelightservice? Anyone else think this? -@gmx0 #BaptistMemes:

4. Yelling at a truck that was coming up behind me on a curve waaaayyyyy too fast. I can't remember if I gave him a thumbs up or not, but the advised speed for the curve was 30 mph, I was going 45, and he made me go 50.

5. Almost falling at the end of a little spin, more of a turn actually. And then again while someone was spinning me super hard.

Awesome:

1. The ice rink was not very crowded at all.

2, Spending time with family.

3. This thing happened and gave me a warm fuzzy spot.


4. Not needing to go anywhere for Christmas.

5. All the amazing smells!

6. Dancing for two hours. GUYS. Those dances have been stuck in my head for like, the past four days. I want to dance again so badly.

Urg:

1. Being turned away from a job I really wanted because I couldn't work full time. I had gone in to apply for the same job (it's a dog groomer) when I was sixteen, but was told I couldn't work because I wasn't eighteen yet (something about insurance). So when Mom told me that the owner was hiring a few days ago, I rushed out to go apply and even made it very clear that I was within the age requirement. And yeah. Was told no. And tbh, I was a mess driving home. The small part of me that has feelings was taking it personally, and the rest of me was beating the feeling part over the head for feeling that way.

But I am able to joke about it now. Maybe the third time will be the charm, or maybe God is telling me not to pursue that job.

Ohey, nobody noticed that I haven't done a  'Revelations' since October

Aaaaannnnnnnd you're not getting one this month either because if I had any revelations, I can't remember a single one of them now.

Or a 'Blast from the past' since September

This, my friends, is why I have my archives visible.

Music:

*opens Spotify* *gulps* Even fewer songs than last month. *goes to find more songs*


May We All- OK OK OK. GUYS. THIS SONG THO. Lydia was looking for swing dancing music (I think anyway) and she came across this. And instead of looking for a lyric video (can't be too careful with music videos, especially when you're watching it on the tv in the living room with children present), she just went ahead and clicked on the actual music video. So we're watching it (it follows two friends racing cars on a dirt track, one of which has a family), and then we get towards the end. I won't spoil it, but we were all yelling at it (the song is clean).

Obligatory Christmas music.

Dawne Dni (Once Upon a December- Because it's December, obviously. Also, it's really pretty.

A Little Fall of Rain- Can we all appreciate that little "no!" from Marius just after Eponine dies?

Hallelujah- It's been in the back of my mind this entire month.

I'm Still Standing- Turned out to be my favorite song from Sing.

And even though it's not listed, yes. I did listen to The Hunchback of Notre Dame. *tries to hide* ilikeitok?

Then because we danced, I resolved to find as many of the songs I remembered as I could and listen to them.

I also listened to this playlist quite a few times.


Snippets:

Hahahahaha haaaaa..... Writing? In December? Why on earth would I do that?


Instead of doing this:


I'm pretty sure this happened instead:


*hasn't even written 200 words this month*

The words I did write, you will have absolutely no context for. 😑

*is very pleased with the new 'insert special characters' button*

(snippets from November are coming, I promise)


How was your December?
Ready for a new year?
What's your favorite song to dance to?
Favorite Christmas Tradition?

Comments

  1. This was awesome! XD
    That part where you rush with in from of your pastor was comical.
    (and nice job with the thumbs up.) Sounds like you had a busy and awesome December. Now we begin 2017!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, it was very funny.
      Mhm. *nods sagely* such busy, very events.

      Delete
  2. *comes onto your blog* *starts singing Frozen* FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOREVEEERRRRR XD
    Okay so I promise I read the post but honestly I just have to know if that's a bird on your head in the new pic of you. XD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. *yells back with Tangled* I'VE GOT A DREAM thatsomedayiwillactuallybuckledowntoaschedule.

      *cough* Yes. That is a bird on my head. Her idea entirely. *reminds self to change picture* *ahem*

      Delete
  3. Wow you had a crazy December!! And the video of you all doing the 12 days of Christmas... that's just priceless. Happy 2017!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ooh, I like the new header! (Or have I just not been around as long as you have?)

    Your recaps are my favorite!! (and also ALL THE GIFS. I HEARTILY APPROVE)

    And also, my candle was doing that weird thing too, where it dripped EVERYWHERE BUT THE PAPER. Yup.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mmm. The header is newish, maybe a month or two old? I forget.

      Aw, thanks!

      Gotta love them candles, amiright?

      Delete
  5. Sounds like you had a great December! Oh and ice skating is so fun! My favorite part is going as fast as I can and hitting the wall of the ring! I have to ask what is "Revelations"? Let's see my favorite songs to dance too... Ummm.. I guess it depends on what mood I'm in. But I like hip-hop and Celtic the best

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup, very fun and very full.
      Yeah, Gabe loves to bang into the wall to stop for some reason.

      "Revelations" used to be a section that I did that chronicled the discoveries I made throughout the month. E.g. "Sometimes the grass just needs water, sometimes it needs to be cut, and at times it has to be burned before it can grow back green."

      Delete

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