Sponseller Family: December

December 1st we woke up to the best surprise! Santa had already been to our house to leave his friend the Elf on the Shelf! What an awesome way to start such a festive month!!

Santa left a note in the first glove to let us know he had been there and to look around for the Elf.

There he is!!

In our tree! With a book all about who he is right underneath. Our first Christmas present was already there!! :)

John and Shannon woke up and saw the book right away and wanted to know all about it.

Reading the book together.

At the end of the book you get to name your Elf, John decided on the name "Woody" just like in Toy Story.

Later that morning I found John whispering to Woody to please tell Santa "I want a monster truck big enough for Mommy to drive, ok?" He was so shy and cute about it.

That night we had a fun dinner with family and ended with a bonfire and s'mores! Yum!

What made December so much fun was the every morning we would wake up and Woody the Elf would be somewhere else, doing something crazy! Here he is on a zip line made with my crochet supplies! Sneaky little Elf!

Aunt Janet invited John over for such a special day! They baked Christmas cookies that were so yummy! And the night before a funny little gingerbread man came and left clues all over the house for John so that he could find little treats here and there. Look in the heart behind John's head - that's one of the notes! ;)

Here are the goodies!

Another day, Woody left John and Shannon a Christmas necklace craft to make.

Then he wound up in our pantry drinking syrup! Crazy Elf!

The next night he made himself a blanket with my yarn, left us a tree topper star all the way from the North Pole and changed our digital frame to a photo of Santa!

He wrote all over our mirror and made a mess. John did not like that at all!

Then Woody enjoyed the bathroom so much, he stayed there and drew himself a marshmallow bath!

He even tried to fish in our bathtub!

We found Woody hanging from the fan too!

Daddy gave John a haircut while Shannon looked on.

Shannon dressed herself

We went on a nice walk around the golf course

Woody made friends in the kitchen

One of my students made John a drawing, so thoughtful, so I thought I would take a photo of it and Shannon photobombed! ;)

We had a nice girls day, baking with Bert, Aunt Toria, Scarlett, Mommy and Shannon. Here were all the supplies for the cookies! Wow!

My crazy girl, ready to bake!

The girls had a little tea party while the grown-ups did all the hard work!

Getting ready for school one morning

John took this one, could you tell?

We enjoyed a fun bonfire one night with a bunch of friends from work.

We got in the car one morning after searching the house for Woody, we were worried he got lost, and there he was! Hanging from the rearview mirror!

One day we heard that Shannon's first teacher ever was coming to visit her at school. Miss Mikaela was Shannon's second Mommy for the first year of her life and we will never forget how special she was for our Shanny-girl. She was even the one to first come up with that nickname for her. We were so happy to reconnect, even if it was just for a little while. I heard that when Shannon saw Mikaela she lit up and recognized her immediately!

It was a special day indeed!

Woody was climbing our mirror one morning!

Well hi there little miss!

Once again, Woody was hanging from another two fans!

Then he was in Shannon's room

John's school invited all of the VPK kid's parents to a nice holiday party. We watched the kids sing and dance and had the chance to make holiday necklaces and eat snacks. It was lovely!

And then we found Woody in our garage hanging from the Ohio State Flag!

Next, Woody stole the necklace I made with John and was back in the tree! This guy kept us on our toes!

Jeff and I had a nice date night out!

Enjoyed a lazy day at home!

Next was Shannon's holiday party!

They had cookies with very blue sugar, yum!

Shannon with all of her teachers! We love you for loving our girl so much!

Playtime with the infamous green cushions.

Mornings at Berts

We had some of the best pizza ever at Mama Mia's!

Then we went downtown for a fun Christmas Parade!

And then we went to visit Santa! We thought we made a good decision of when to go, but we wound up waiting over an hour to meet the Jolly Old Elf. The kids were happy to run around in his workshop while we waited, pointing out all of the toys they wanted to put on their list.

Finally it was our turn to meet Santa! We were so excited! We had talked about it for so so long! So we start walking up and John is cautious, like always, Shannon is leading the way, like always, then at about 2 feet away Shannon started getting nervous. Then she decided she did NOT want to meet Santa, John was quick to change his mind since he didn't like the idea in the first place and then well . . . . this is what happened next . . .

I know this is terrible but I couldn't stop laughing. I tried to lean in to make it better, but poor Santa wasn't making any new friends that night.

We got home, relaxed and found our happy place again. :) (maybe next year???)

Woody was back on a fan, Shanny's room this time!

Then he replaced a photo with THE Santa photo and snuggled up with a reindeer.

Next he was found lounging between frames.

Another cookie making party!!! My friend from work invited our whole team over to decorate Christmas cookies and it was so much fun! It was the kind of controlled chaos that works so well where you just jump in and have fun. John and Shannon had about ten helpers each, I was able to relax and enjoy myself as well, overall it was great fun!

When the kitchen got too full, the kids ran around outside.

Um, Shannon???

Mommy and Shannon enjoyed many, many walks since the weather was so nice out. This will forever be some of my favorite memories and moments I look back on and smile.