December was a busy month full of a lot of family, a lot of traveling, and a lot of celebrating!
Dance Fall 2020
By a miracle, we managed to attend in-person dance class for the entire fall! Things are slightly different than years’ past though. We had to drop the kids off instead of take them into dance, we then returned to pick them up an hour later, and masks were highly recommended. But Melody had so much fun!
Buffalo Chicken Bites
These buffalo chicken bites are a great fix if you are wanting to eat healthy, but miss things like buffalo wings. I found these on the Noom app, and I adjusted the recipe to fit our preferences.
Family Pictures 2020
Back in November, we decided to take some fall family picture while visiting my aunt for our Santa pictures. Not only did we do some of the three of us, we also took some of my entire immediate family.
Melody's Fall 2020 School Pictures
WE FINALLY GOT A SMILE! This is Melody’s third year of preschool, and I think her 4th or 5th school pictures. She has always refused to smile. There were even sometimes she claimed she smiled but never did. This year she smiled! It turned out so cute and adorable!
Christmas 2020
With 2020 being such a depressing year, we started decorating for Christmas as soon as Halloween was over. We tried to decorate as much as we could and enjoy it all as long as possible. Even though COVID has happened, we still managed to stay busy this holiday season. Follow along below!
Garlic Asparagus
This is another recipe I found on Noom. It isn’t that much different than our ordinary asparagus, but it does add a little bit of change.
O-FISH-ALLY ONE BANNER
So this was a really cute banner I made for Emily’s youngest’s first birthday. It was a fishing themed party, and he is O-FISH-ally ONE! The saying was also mentioned on his birthday party invite. With the way we did the font, there was not a good way to add the dashes, but I still think with the spacing it was adorable. I used a bobber for the “o” in one, and she decorated the wall with blue balloons to go along with the theme. This is also where he ate his smash cake!
Teacher Gifts
This year I opted for a less “handmade” teacher fits for Melody’s dance and preschool teachers. As you may know, I have become obsessed with Simplified over the last year or so. I bought a bunch of cute Simplified products when I bought my 2020-2021 planner in April earlier this year.
Christmas Decor Galore
I love decorating for Christmas. Last year I even was able to buy my dream 12 foot tree for our foyer on clearance after Christmas. So today I wanted to share all of our decor this year! Next year we will need to add some new things as well as replace some of our current things (more on that below).
Old Bay Shrimp
So I found this recipe on the Noom app. It has become one of our favorite recipes to make when the weather is nice enough to grill. If you like shrimp, you will like this!
Candy Cane Place Cards
We recently celebrated Christmas with Emily, Justin, and their little ones last weekend. I hosted this year, and I wanted to make it fancy-ish. We decided to do breakfast for dinner (which was fun and different), and I made his place setting as cute as I could without getting out the fine china plates and silverware (I did use our fine china glasses). Well I also decided to make some cute and easy place card holders. They are super easy and cheap too!
Christmas Tree Ice Cream Cones
While in Food Therapy last week, our therapist suggested we make Christmas tree ice cream cones as a sort of food play. Melody hates getting things on her fingers, so it will help with her playing with the icing. I made one too, and we will probably make more this week. They turned out cute, so I thought I would share.
Santa Pictures 2020
This year we still decided to meet Santa. My aunt is a photographer, so we at least kept away from the mall version, ha. Melody was still a bit hesitant and didn’t want to talk to him. She even had a few moments that she almost cried. But we still managed to get a few cute pictures.
Strawberries and Cream Smoothie
I found this recipe during one of my lessons on Noom. It is quite simple, and I should have thought of it sooner to be honest. I make this several times a week. It is all green on the Noom system and it is so quick.
Galaxy of Lights 2020
Back in November, we attended the walking nights at Galaxy of Lights. Based on what I had read, we thought it would be a COVID friendly outdoor Christmas event. And while a good portion of the event was COVID friendly because it was outside and *most* people spaced out, there were parts of the event that were poorly managed and felt very unsafe. We tried to be cautious during those moments though. Melody has not stopped talking about those lights either.
November Fun
November was filled with traveling, food, family, celebrations, and fun!
Melody's Big Girl Bed
After Melody outgrew her crib, we converted her crib into a toddler bed. We intentionally asked for this crib because of its conversion abilities. She would have this crib forever basically. We bought the full size bed conversion kit when we got the crib so that we knew we would have it when the time came to transition her. While we were having no issues with her in her toddler bed, we knew it was a matter of time until she would outgrow it. So in early November, we decide to take the plunge and convert it to a full size bed.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
As I have mentioned many times, Melody loves chocolate chip cookies, but she hates any I ever make. So anytime I see a new, good looking recipe to try, I try it. These were by far my favorite of all that I have made. They are HUGE. But Melody still prefers Chips Ahoy!
Pandemic Legacy Season Two Late September
Since we lost September to start with, we now get another chance at winning the month.