Christmas program

Another thing that was back this year (after a year of doing it virtually), was the church Christmas program.  I played piano for the songs, and Norah participated by being a reader and singing the songs with the other kids.  My parents were able to make it up to watch.  All of the kids did a great job!

Band concert

Abby's middle school band put on a winter concert, which was our first school event since before covid.  Abby warned us that they wouldn't sound great (they've had a wonky couple of years in band with distance learning/hybrid/masks, etc.), but we thought they sounded wonderful!

For King & Country

I had the opportunity to go to the For King & Country Christmas concert with my friends Kaysie and Gretchen.  I've seen them in concert before with the kids and friends, but the Christmas concert was also amazing--I loved that there were Christmas songs mixed in with some of my other favorite For King & Country songs.  Such a great night!

 

Santa visit

This year, we found Santa at the hardware store in town.  Even though they are getting older, they still enjoyed the scavenger hunt and photo booth.  Abby asked Santa for a horse barn for her American Girl dolls, and Norah asked for a guitar.

Gingerbread houses

This year, we were able to decorate gingerbread houses with Dave's parents in person again, which was so much more fun than last year's virtual experience.  This is a tradition the girls (and Dave's mom and dad) always look forward to!

This year, we found a great Black Friday deal at Target on an artificial tree for upstairs--something Dave has been wanting, since we've been putting our big tree in the basement and we don't always hang out down there.  It was a pretty addition to our decorations upstairs:

Of course, the girls wanted to spend the night by the tree after we got it decorated:

Amazing weather for the end of November!

The Elf on the Shelf came a couple of days early, bringing pajamas for the girls and Sadie, too!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my parents and sister in Rochester.  Instead of a typical turkey dinner, my dad grilled steaks (of course, Sadie couldn't miss out on the action--she loves to be nearby when anyone is grilling):

The girls did some skating with my dad and had so much fun:

We came home on Saturday to get our Christmas tree and set up the little Christmas village that my parents started the girls on--while in Rochester, they had given the girls a new piece for this year:

 

Connor's memorial

My aunt and uncle used some of the memorial money from my cousin Connor to put in a kayak launch at a lake nearby their home.  Their hope is to have a memorial gathering each year at this spot.  The launch wasn't scheduled to be completed until spring, but they rented out the pavilion area at the state park anyway, and had a beautiful day for gathering.  To everyone's amazement, because of the nice weather, the kayak launch and dock ended up being installed that day--pretty amazing timing.  My brother flew in from Texas and came down with us, and it was so nice to have the day with family.

Caleb, Abby, Norah, and Gavin down by the dock and kayak launch

The beautiful lake

This was a day full of emotions, and it hit Norah hard at the end of the day

Extra time at Mara and Bryan's that night was a bonus, and Greg's Oculus was a fun distraction:

Dave was deer hunting over the weekend, so unfortunately had to miss out on going to Iowa.  He also unfortunately had to go to the hospital due to heart issues (he ended up being okay), but I was thankful Greg was around to take advantage of the nice weather and hang Christmas lights: