December has been really chill. The first two weeks of December had amazing warm weather and so we were able to spend a lot of time outside during the day and it made the short days so much more bearable. We continue to do some fun and favorite traditions – including going to the giving machines in Denver, doing touchup paint in the weekends, spending time with friends, going to see local Light, and just enjoying the longer nights at home.
The big thing is the London did her Nutcracker performance. This was her first time as a lead snowflake for this production. She dutifully attended all the rehearsals with no complaints. She even had a few really long days - but she loved it.
We were able to see her perform and she loved it! Dance has really become such a wonderful activity for her.
London also had her choir concert at BHMS. Sydney finished out the semester with great projects. She did some fun YM activities like mini golfing, ginger bread house making and just hanging out with friends.
As a family we visited the Giving Machines. We got chickens, pet treats, service dog animals, bedding for refuges. It's always such a great experience.
The girls continued their Mathnasium classes and love them. We attended the ward Christmas party that was themed "WhoVille" and it was really cute.
Christmas Eve we had "favorites night" with the Rogers, the Hiltons and the Halatakoas. We played game, ate yummy food and enjoyed good company. The party was perfect and everyone left at 8 PM - which is perfect.
We got home, girls went to bed and we did our final Christmas prep and hid all the presents. We were in bed by 1030 PM.
Christmas day was really relaxed and so chill. We opened our stockings and presents. We hungout. We even invited one of Tysons co workers to come watch a football game. I took a nap. Then it started raining and we took a family walk with umbrellas. It was just a really wonderful and chill day. Its funny how the girls favorite activity is still us hiding all the gifts. This year they even gave us a numbered checklist so we can "take notes" of where we hid things that were really hard to find. They spent an hour looking at gifts.
We opened gifts, hung out, cleaned up and just relaxed. The next few days were filled with work and getting ready for our Florida trip. We made it on Sunday and took the midnight flight to Florida. That flight is always tough, but we made it through.
We arrived on 12/30 and got our rental car. Then we drove to meet up with the Gerbers as we took the 3 hour drive to Key West. We stopped by for breakfast at a place called Docs. Then we stopped by some cute shops with a big lobster.
We made down to Key West and did a Conch Tour were they took us to fun place - like Hemmingways house, famous most southwestern point in America, we saw famous Key Lime Pie places ... it was really fun.
We got some Key Lime Pie at Caroline's, and it was SO yummy. Then we drove back and had Subway for Dinner. We finally made it to our hotel that night around 9 pm and we were SO tired. So we all showered and all crashed in bed. The hotel that Debbie booked was so cute! small and our family got a two bedrooms. The next day we stayed there and just hung out. Girls went swimming, paddle boarding. we went to Starbucks for breakfast. We stopped at the Store called "Sandal Factory" and the girls got each a sweater. Then we came back and went to a beach called "Sombrero". the girls loved the looking for crawfish and shells.
We had dinner at the Conch restaurant and I loved having a salad.
The next day, everyone went fishing, while Sydney and I went to the "Theater of the Sea". Sydney got to feed Henry to turtle, we watched a bunch of shows. Then we took naps in our cars, ate ice cream and went back to the Theater of the Sea again. We watched more shows and fed some fishes in the wadding section.
We met up at the fishing company and saw everyone show up their fish. Sydney was so tired .. she napped in the car. Then we drove to "Hog Food" and had dinner by the ocean. Then we drove back 3 hours back to Ft. Launderdale. It was exhausting but we did it. We got back, took quick showers and quickly went to bed.
