December Fun

December flew by in the blink of an eye, but we had a lot of fun along the way.

I don't know what grocery stores are like in the states right now, but I sometimes feel like we're in a depression out here.  I swear our shelves (especially the refrigerated shelves) have been empty for months.  No orange juice, cheese, sour cream, milk, cream,  cream cheese, actually ANY cheese, yogurt, bacon, sausage, & lunchmeat are MIA 90% of the time.  I finally started taking pictures of the shelves because my family didn't believe me.  They keep needing lunchmeat & I have to prove to them that there really isn't any.

Luckily, at the German stores, we can find most things if the American store on base is out.  They have their own versions of yogurt, cream cheese, milk, sour cream, etc.  They don't always taste the same, but they work.  I only drink German milk now because it's SO good.  Their cream cheese is good, but doesn't set up in baking/cooking like American cream cheese does.  The sour cream is really sour in Germany & the kids hate it so I miss sour cream.  Germans don't eat bacon (which is odd because they live off of schwein [pig]), & they do NOT do cheddar here.  So all my mexican food has been sprinkled with gouda & swiss cheese & my kids are DYING.  ha ha ha.

Occassionally the base store gets things in stock, but then everybody hoards what is in stock & we're empty again.  Oh well.  I'm very happy shopping on the economy.  We are fine.  I just find it interesting because I've never seen consistently empty shelves in a store before.

December is the month of gingerbread houses & Christmas decorations.  The kids built a team gingerbread house at a youth activity, but then started eating it on the way home.  It was destroyed by the time I could get a picture of it.

Bladen & Trek put up the Christmas lights outside this year.  Bladen is such a great helper.  I love the young man he is becoming.  He is so sweet & strong & willing to help out.  I just love him so much.

Lorien is best friends with 3 Germans here.  They do everything together & I just love those kids.  There are some things that Germans can't get here (that we can get on base).  This is what Lorien gave them for Christmas this year . . . 

18 packs of Reeses PB Cups (each)

& a big pack of Gatorade.

They were in HEAVEN.

Canyon cracks me up.  He plays so hard that he doesn't know when to stop.  I find him asleep all over the place these days because he wears himself completely out.

My friend Nancy sent Craiger a beautiful galaxy sucker because she knows he loves space.  It was almost too pretty to eat.

The highlight of December was getting to go see 

"Spiderman No-Way-Home"

in the theater.  Trek & I went on a date with 2 friends & loved.  It was definitely the best movie of the year.  Afterward, we went out to a nice dinner together.  It was a great date night.

Lorien started up a prank war with some friends the entire month of December.  We took turns ding dong ditching silly things on each other's doorsteps all month long.

They totally won by dropping this beauty off on Christmas Eve.

It's a "Chris Pine!"

How funny is that?!?

My baby came home for Christmas!!!

I was so happy to have Cadence home for 2 whole weeks over the holidays.  She was happy to get a break from school craziness & we were all just ecstatic to love on her while she was here.

Though, Bladen & Taya are now BOTH taller than Cadence (she's on tippy toes here!)

She even went on a 20 mile bike ride with Trek which made him SO happy.

. . . and made her SO dirty!

On New Year's Eve, Trek did a marathon with our friends.  Gideon had a goal of running a marathon in 2021 so they decided to do it together.  Trek ran the first 8 miles with him, then hopped on his bike for the remaining 20 miles.  They had a blast.

 It was a magical month & a wonderful end to another wonderful year.