december has been eventful!

the month is half over. 

the christmas shopping is done, the cards have been sent (probably my favorite ones to date!), the class projects/parties/caroling is completed, the ward and work parties are over, and winter break starts tomorrow. 

time is flying by!

we had to celebrate International Day of Root Beer on the 4th because we basically have that stuff flowing through our veins. 

don't mistaken this for National Root Beer Float Day, which is in august. this has to be celebrated with straight up root beer. we made a guessing game out of it with 8 different brands of root beer. jack and chris tied with the most correct guesses. it was pretty fun! 

i love this picture because that face ellie is making, that is not her being silly, that is pure excitement!

and because we dont drink soda very often, having 8 bottles of root beer in the fridge made dinner very exciting for a few nights :)

we have been working hard to make this year's Light the World experience just that, an experience. we hope the kids will remember service as a major part of their christmas traditions and Light the World is a great way to do that. one of the days challenges a couple weeks ago was to reach out to the neighbors. we decided i would make our homemade caramels while the kids were at school and then when dad got home from work we would deliver them to half a dozen neighbors. this was kind of a big deal because only one of our neighbors has ever talked with us. we wave at all of the others and say hi and if they return the hello it's very reluctantly.

well, we stopped by the nice neighbors first and then hit up the cat lady at the end of the cul de sac. she sits in her driveway up to a picnic table with a cigarette all day long, talking to her cats. sometimes she waters her plants. she's never waved back when we've said hello. well, we walked up and handed her the bag of treats and you could see the corners of her eyes and mouth instantly soften. she is from germany and her name is rose. she was visibly touched by our gesture and spoke to us for  a little while. two nights ago around bedtime we had a knock on the door. it was rose with a big gift and a very kind thank you for reaching out to her. she handed us the gift and said it was "from all of us". i looked at her confused and she said "oh! me and the cats!". we had a good laugh. she gave us several bars of german chocolate and a box of games. the kids have been playing chutes and ladders and chess solidly since. 

we've done a lot of other little services here and there each day, but this one has made the biggest impact on me this season because i did it grudgingly, thinking our neighbors would continue to be scrooges, but have seen the difference it makes in other peoples lives when we go out of our comfort zone to be kind. 

and that caramel was absolutely divine! we gave most of it away and it broke our hearts, so last monday i taught ellie and jack how to make it... complete with an ice bath to show them the various stages of candy making. they thought that was pretty cool. we then dipped them in milk chocolate and sprinkled it with sea salt. they didn't last long around here!

basketball season is under way and ellie is still as aggressive as ever!

her team isn't necessarily the greatest and i think after that first game (which they lost) her coaches realized she is a main player for them and put her in as point guard for the entire game last saturday.

man, last saturday's game was an emotional rollercoaster. 

we went in to the game thinking the girls would have a good chance of winning. well, they were down by several points most of the game. that was visibly frustrating for the girls. 

then somehow we managed to tie it up at the last minute! 

so we went into a three minute over time, and kept it tied up. we then did a shoot out and the other team went first and pulled it up by 3. that was significant because our girls are lucky to get one out of 6 free throws during half time (they let each girl shoot a free throw at half time to allow a chance for more points). 

but somehow, we managed to get our last 3 shots in, ellie making one of them! 

i loved watching the team as their teammates were shooting their free throws, it usually looked something like this:

so they went into sudden death, and cassidy got her first shot, winning the game!!! it was so intense!

 everyone was going nuts. because we had gone into overtime, the next game's teams and families were all there so it was a full house and it just added to the excitement because everyone was invested in the game by that point. i even heard one of the other coaches say to a parent near by that he'd been coaching for three years and hadn't ever seen a game like this one. definitely one we will remember forever and one that ellie keeps talking about! she was on a high for about two days after that!!!

speaking of winners:

owen's accessory of choice as of late is totally winning!