December was a whirlwind and I spent most of the month coughing up a lung with a respiratory infection that wouldn't quit. A & L fought it too, but not quite as bad. We tried to make the best of it and we had A LOT of highlights, capping the month off with the wonderful wedding of my brother, Jonathan and his beautiful bride Maggie. I'll save that post for another day as the girls rocked their flower girl duties, but I didn't want to skip a good holiday post. Here, in no particular order are 10 of our holiday memories!
10. A quick stopover at the lake house on the way to the wedding in Lansing, MI. The girls always think it is a special occasion when they get BOTH grandparents in one place...this day was no exception. The weather had been unseasonable warm, so long walks and snuggles in pj's were just the way to spend the day before the wedding festivities began.
9. The loot...they did pretty well this year, Santa was good to them. Some favorites include some new games for their leap pad, new dolls, a horse & carriage for the dolls, lots of learning board games (you can always tell grandma was a teacher with her gifts), pj's, fairy wings, dress-up supplies, craft kits and more.
8. The Indianapolis Children's Museum never disappoints. We ventured down to explore the giant snow slide, winter wonderland exhibit and meet the Mrs! They were so excited because Santa had told them she was at the North Pole baking cookies when they met him this year, so the fact that she was at the museum a week later, was pretty cool!
7. Jeremy & I pushed a favorite holiday memory on our kids. We were so excited to take them out to look at lights and bundled them one night, made hot cocoa and the night was a disaster! They whined and didn't understand why they couldn't get out of the car....they didn't get it...maybe next year! Jeremy & I had to lecture each other on not pushing our own 'favorites' on our kids, we had set our expectations much too high for the night! This was the 'bad'. 
6. The pre-school holiday program was my highlight. The girls sang "Up on the Rooftop" and memorized every word, all 3 verses. They were so confident, so proud! I may try to post the video online during a snowy winter day, but it wouldn't let me during my last attempt. It was a proud mama night!
5. Aunt Cat visited! In preparation for the wedding & the holiday season, she spent 9 days with us. The girls were in 7th heaven, asking one day during breakfast "Aunt Cat, do you live with us now?". They have so much fun when she's around--going for 'carrots' (aka frozen yogurt, but they tell mom they went for carrots), visiting some local kid hot spots and of course going to the movies. They love their Aunt Cat and can't wait until they are 'big' enough for a trip to the nation's capital!
4. Daddy was an elf. Yes, we had a visit from the Elf on the Shelf, but that's not what I'm talking about. Daddy's company had a contest to see which managerial "pod" could raise the most money for their holiday service project. The group that raised the most won the right to dress their boss as an elf....Jeremy lost and this was the outcome. This was the 'ugly'. We had to go to his office to surprise him and see it for ourselves. 
3. The girls baked and daddy baked. But between my coughs and the girls coughs, we threw away a lot of germy cookies! Dad distributed all that were deemed healthy (cooked after bedtime) and the girls ate their fair share over the month. We'll all need to lose a few pounds in January.
2. The night before Christmas, we went to church, gathered at Jeremy's parents, opened gifts, then got in our jammies to write a letter to Santa and read the classic. Always look forward to this tradition each year.
1. Each year, we are honored to host a crew of 25 (give or take) for Christmas dinner. After a rough round of health issues for Great Grandpa Bill & Great Grandma Mickey this fall, Jeremy & I were so grateful Addy & Lilly could see their great-grandparents on Christmas. The girls don't know any different as this is how they have spent all of their holidays, but we count our blessings for this and all our family this holiday season! (This was very good!)
Bill and Mickey also picked blackberries every summer and would make cobblers, pies, and jams that they would can and give enough jars to my parents that would last through the fall. With that said I found a huge batch of blackberry bushes that I have been picking for the last three weeks and freezing. Addy and Lilly have helped several evenings in this adventure. This last Tuesday Aimee and I had our neighbor's kids over for a slumber party. I invited my grandfather Bill and Mickey over to help with our first attempt at making jam. It was a great success. We made two batches. The first was over cooked a little "tough" meaning it doesn't spread very well, but the second was perfect. All four kids had a blast and Bill was instrumental in his passing of the blackberry jam legacy to me and the youngsters. Here's what we did:
