Jeff, Tiffany, and Their 3 Little Baers: December happenings

December was a busy month, as always, but the kids had a lot of fun with Christmas decorations and the anticipation of Christmas. We started attending our new church building in Windsor, which is so wonderful to have close! It is right on the lake in a great location and it's a beautiful building. Our ward has grown so much in the past year that for our Christmas party there was not an inch of space in the cultural hall, we filled it to capacity. The kids and Jeff helped clean the church before the open house and dedication. I spent some time at the open house in the Primary and Relief Society rooms answering questions. The dedication was nice and people shared their journey of getting a chapel of their own in Windor. It sounded like people had been to a lot of different buildings over the years so it's a big deal to have one in town. Apparently there was a lot of resistance, but after the tornado, or hurricane (I forget), the Mormon Helping hands made such an impact in the community that people rememered that when it was time to vote on the building project. Before the vote someone on the board expressed gratitude to the members and then the vote was unanimous. How wonderful that blessings can come so unexpectedly, even amidst disasters.

We had a special sharing time before Christmas where we did a nativity and the kids liked it a lot. We had the stake president, members of the bishopric, and the missionaries, among others, participate. We also watched some Mormon messages throughout and put Christmas lights up. It was a bit of work, but a nice way to precede Christmas. Lily was so sad to have to say goodbye to Sister Packard since she would no longer be her teacher, so she wrote her a thank you note. It was very sweet and she said things like she loved her, she was her best teacher ever, and that she likes flowers. Sister Packard was so touched and said several times how much she loves Lily Baer. Lily is pretty sweet. We made a big deal about Ryan's new nursery teachers and he loves them, Sister Hopkins and Sister Curry. We talk about them and when Sister Hopkins was sick we prayed for her. Ryan told this to her daughter and when her daughter relayed it to her mom, she said she cried.

Jeff helped put together a wonderful Christmas program at church and I was even able to sing in the choir. Lisa came up for the day before and the day of so it was great that she could sit with the kids. The kids even did really well during rehearsal. Ryan just spent time running back and forth to me and Sister Hess (who was sitting helping out with Max) saying, "Mommy, I have to tell you something, we love Max." Then he'd run to Sister Hess and say, "I have to tell Mommy something, or I just told Mommy somthing, we love Max." It was cute and it kept him busy.

Lounging about. It was very cold so we didn't go out much

The kids found ways to enteratin themselves though

Lily is such a good helper with Max. For about a week that crown was part of her outfit every day

The kids loved the tree and the ornaments. The ornaments often got moved around, it kept Ryan occupied a lot.

Lily singing at the ward Christmas party

Happy to see Santa!

Making and eating the gingerbread house

Ryan knows what it's all about

Lily's Christmas program at school. She sometimes would turn around to the boys and tell them to pay attention. She got really into the dance moves and knew all the words, it was very cute.