This year, instead of spending a whole day baking/cooking Christmas goodies all by my lonesome, I had help! Jeremiah had a neighbor, Sevinc, (who's here for a year from Turkey) who was interested in learning to bake. So she came over one Saturday and spent the entire day with me making goodies. Brooklyn pitched in, too, and I mostly just supervised and made sure things were being done right. It was so much fun! And I got a new friend out of the deal as well. 

Kyle and I also took the kids to see the Nutcracker one morning. I found out they do a matinee performance for schools, and they let homeschoolers attend. We had fantastic seats and at a fraction of the cost of the night performances. The kids were enthralled. Even my boys. Dorien still twirls around doing his ballet moves. 

Yeah, it was a little bright outside, but we needed to capture the moment for posterity.

The ballet company also gave tiny Nutcracker ornaments to each child attending.  

On December 19, my sisters and I surprised my mom with a birthday brunch. We provided the food (and the madness of our kids) and enjoyed a few hours together.

Friday, December 20, Kyle and I headed up to Fayetteville to see his family.  We stayed at the Chancellor Hotel, recently renovated, off the Square downtown. A few months before, Kyle had been commissioned by Tobi Fairley (interior designer) to do two art pieces for the suites in the hotel. One for the Chancellor Suite....the piece was of the Chancellor's house.....so we got someone to take us up to those rooms and get a picture of Kyle beside his work! It was pretty cool! And those rooms were really nice. 

The other piece was Old Main for, you guessed it, the Old Main Suite. They looked really amazing in the rooms. Vibrant, edgy...and all done by my talented husband. Go Kyle!

The artist and his work.

And it seems Kyle's artistic abilities have been passed down to our children.

August created these designs all on his own. I love his eye for color.

While in Fayetteville, we spent some time with some of our dearest friends. It had been way too long since we'd seen them. Mia was so grown up! Brooklyn latched on to her right away.

All our kids combined: Brooklyn, an unhappy Wyeth, Mia, August, Gavin, Dorien and Kate. 

There's something sweet about sleeping kids. And in all-white sheets in a hotel, it's even cooler.

Brooklyn and Wyeth all sacked out.

And to continue the bedtime, pj theme, here's Kyle reading "The Night Before Christmas" to our kids on...the night before Christmas.