Caroling & Catch Up

Growing up we always went caroling for Christmas.  We'd sing for our friends, for the leaders of the ward or stake & we always ended in Grandma & Grandpa Dunn's neighborhood.  It was something that at the time didn't seem that special or got frustrating during our pre-performance practice sessions ("Kimberly, you're changing keys!" "I don't know what that means so shut it, la la la LA!"), but now looking back, it was actually very special for our family.

But it wasn't just us, everyone else did it too & the years that my dad was the Bishop or in other leadership positions we'd get dozens of carolers.

So imagine my shock when I grew up & discovered that most people don't carol.  Even down here in the south where there's loads of Christians & warm weather to do it in!  I want to continue the tradition, even if we aren't the best singers, because as a family we have a blast doing it & all of the people we visited this year looked thrilled to have us.

The goodies this year - chocolate candy cane cookies, cranberry-chocolate-walnut cookies, & egg nog biscotti (oh my gosh, new fav right there!):

 My caroling crew:

 Some pics from the stop at the Brown's house:

Since we aren't amazing singers, we went for pep over holiness (get in, get it sung, get out) - we sang Jingle Bells and the best part was that Caleb sang it too!  He did a great job on the chorus & many people congratulated him on his fine singing.

So, when I went to upload these pics, I found some other old ones that haven't made it on the blog yet... decking the halls with bows of babies, fa la la la la, la la la la:

 "Must eat light... nom nom."

 Play dough + spaghetti noodles = free time for mom! Thank you pinterest for the idea! Caleb loved this cereal challenge:

 Caleb's doing amazing with the potty, & is getting pretty good about getting his undies back on too. Pants have proven trickier this last week.

 So now we've labeled the waist the "In" and the leg holes the "Outs" to help Caleb remember which side is for in & which is for out - though watching him put pants on upside down is pretty fun.

Oh, and Elise has 5 teeth now. Another one on the top popped through.  Phew! I think that's everything for now. : )