December.

Well, it's been nearly a fully three months since any words hit this page. Ha! Lots has been going on and I will begin the catch up by writing about the fun of December and all the Christmas spirit! :)

Last year, I was able to help out at the very end of our Operation Christmas Child's shoe box collection at church. It was a great opportunity to serve and meet Kim who I would eventually be in Bible Study with for a while. This year, I wanted to get in on it from the beginning! We spent a few weeks handing out boxes, answering questions for people who have never put one together before and eventually taking 344 boxes to the drop-of center! We were so excited to see this response from our church body.

A couple weeks later, we had a time slot to go to the big regional packing center here in Denver, to get the boxes ready to ship out all over the world. (You have to sign up in September within the first 10 minutes of the registration opening to get a spot. There are so many people who want to volunteer-it's that wonderful!) It was amazing! Basically this giant warehouse is filled with assembly lines of people sorting through each box, making sure that every single child will get a special Christmas gift. Christmas music is blasting in the background and collectively we were able to sort, fill, pack and scan out for delivery 43,200 boxes! :)

{(L) Emily, Kim's in-laws, (R) Kim}

{Kim's mother-in-law was our box taper...she was a pro!}

{people wrap their own shoe boxes, buy tupperware, or use the boxes that OCC provides. Pretty fun to see the personal touches.}

Matt has been making fires when he comes over during our cold spell. It's been really nice to hear a crackling fire. :)

Have you heard of the TV show called Mythbusters? It's basically where they take common myths and actually create an experiment to see if they are Busted, Plausible or Confirmed. Pretty fun science-oriented information. Well, they had an exhibit that came to the Denver Museum of Natural History, so Matt and I invited Mom and Pa up to see it with us! We had so much fun...it was interactive, interesting and complete with a live presentation.

{This was from the "is it realistic for superheros to get changed that quickly in a telephone booth?" exhibit. Ha! There were two buttons on the outside of the telephone booth: start and stop. You pushed start, hopped in, got dressed, hopped out and hit stop. Ha! It took me 1min 35sec to get outfitted... :\ At least they had a pink cape!}

{Is it plausible to pull a tablecloth out from under a table full of dishes?! Yes! p.s. the dishes were plastic. :)}

{Mom nailed it!}

{Matt might need a little practice...ha. Pa is in the background testing out how long you can hang from a cliff...}

{It's harder than it looks and 15 seconds feels like an ETERNITY!}

{Mom beat us all!}

{Matt still has his feet on the ground...ha. Or maybe that's because he's so tall...}

{Blind driving...this was hysterical. One person is seeing the course on the TV (Matt) while the other person is actually driving the car (me). The person viewing the screen has to talk the other person through the course. We did pretty well when Matt was directing and I was driving...he was very calm in telling me what to do. When we switched roles, it was bananas! "hard left, hard right, oh no, turn, turn, turn...CRASH!" is pretty much how it went-ha!}

Well, getting my house decorated for Christmas is one of my favorite things! I have been obsessed lately with Scandinavian design/style. They use a lot of light woods, felted/knit materials and neutral colors. My tree this year ended up being an animal sanctuary-ha.

{Birch wood tree topper.}

 {Fuzzy owl.}

{Felted penguin.}

{Knit hedgehog...because why not?!}

{And don't forget the llama.}

{Still love my artwork from last year and added some stockings!}

{Saw this on the sidewalk behind the store one day. :)} 

The past few weekends have been filled with all kinds of get together's relating to Christmas! Yesterday was no exception. We came together at a restaurant for a cookie exchange/white elephant. There were so many cookies! We had a great time!

{Tiffany, Sarah and Suz}

{Megan, Megan, Michelle, Emily}

 {Anna, Susan and Megan}

{Carrie, Emily, Becky}

{Mindy and I}

{Emily, Becky, Anna and I}

There's a little ice cream shop in the same neighborhood as the restaurant and it was so festively decorated!

Then last night, some of us went to Cirque Dreams Holidaze. Not actually associated with Cirque du Soleil, it was a similar production of acts all themed around Christmas. It was fanciful, terrifying and amazing all at the same time! {No photos are allowed so you'll have to use your imagination!}

{Downtown Buell Theater was festively lit up!}

{Mindy, Megan, Megan}

{The Emily's}

I hope your December has been full of Christmas cheer and time with friends/family!