December, The Whirlwind.

Mr. Elf returned on December 1st.  The kids have loved looking for him every morning.

Patrick's nephew signed a scholarship to play baseball.  We went to his signing party.  It was so much fun and the kids had a blast.  They love Tripp so much and he's such a good role model for them.  

We went to a fun birthday party where the kids got to hold this huge snake.

Maybe the most exciting news of 2019!  We finally paid off all our consumer debt.  We still have a mortgage but Dave doesn't count that.  Patrick has worked his you know what off to pay everything off.  He's worked 12-15 hours days at two jobs and it paid off.  It is so freeing to not be paying half of our income every month to debt.  This year the Christmas season has been so nice because we haven't been stressed about how we're going to pay for everything.

This sweet girl never wants her picture made so when she asked my to take it I had to act fast!

 

They had dress up days at school for Christmas.  I'm not sure who made this a thing but I've got a few words for them.  One day was dress like your favorite Christmas character.  So AveryAnn wore a white tutu dress and a gold halo. Boom, angel.

We got to visit Santa and it was so magical.

Both kids were so excited and so sweet.  They are at such sweet ages.  They both are all in on the magic and I want to freeze time.

I made Patrick take this picture because the below picture was on my timehop that day.

We haven't aged a bit.

We had to go back to the arcade so I could defend my high score.

I beat it.

Barrett had his first basketball game.  It was so much fun.  He loves it and his little team has already improved so much.  I love watching them get better each week.

The same weekend as the basketball games he had the Christmas program church.  He was a shepard.  We had to hurry from there to a basketball game but it was all fun.

Barrett brought this tree home he made at school. We have laughed, and laughed, and laughed at the boob tree.  It's my most favorite thing he's ever made and i'm going to keep it forever and ever.

AveryAnn had her Studio Performance at dance so we could see what all she's learned this year.  It was so much fun.  She loves dance so much!

We also got a huge kick out of this all the other kids said "I've been really good this year"  not our girl.  She's been really sleepy.  

Daddy went to her Christmas party because I had to work.  They were both really happy about it.

Friday was Barrett's class party.  I was there to help and it was so much fun!

They loved playing the reindeer ring toss!

After Barrett's party we picked up AveryAnn and headed downtown to meet Aunt Elizabeth.  We needed to finish some Christmas shopping so we did that really quick and then we went to much at Pizitz food hall.  It was pretty enough we ate outside with the trees and mini Vulcan.  We always have so much fun with Aunt Elizabeth.

After lunch, we snuck over to the McWane Center to use our membership again before it expires.  

While we were at McWane I asked the kids if they wanted to walk over to the Alabama Theatre and see if there were any tickets to see Home Alone.  We'd been telling Barrett we would go to a Christmas movie and all the shows we wanted to go to were sold out so I assumed this one probably was too.

We walked over and I asked the security guard if there were any tickets left for the show.  He was like "you need tickets?  How many?"  I told him 3 and he was like "come with me"  We walked over to the box office and they handed me three tickets free of charge because a sweet lady had donated them back since she wasn't using them.  It was one of those magical holiday moments that make you have to hold back the ugly cry.

I've taken the kids to the Alabama Theatre for the summer movie but it's been a while, AveryAnn didn't remember.  She was in awe because it is so beautiful!  Her dance recital is going to be there in May and we can't wait!

AveryAnn didn't want her picture made but I told her we couldn't do any more fun Christmas things if she didn't cooperate.  Ha!  

It was a magical afternoon to kick off the Christmas break.  We're looking forward to all the festivities!