December started out with me making a last minute trip to Duke University to stay with Lane. His mom had to go back to work and so Oma was staying with him, but she fell and broke her foot and was no longer any help. I was able to spend the week with Lane taking him to his appointments, eating a lot of Bojangles (which I hadn't had since leaving Virginia), watching lots of Jeopardy and hounding him to take his meds. It made for really long days because he wasn't allowed to really go anywhere. We did made an outing to this beautiful botanical garden. It was even pretty in the dead of winter, I can assume in the Spring that it's just breathtaking.
Aliza's cheer season started out strong with a 1st place win! Watching her cheer is seriously one of my favorite things. When she decided to leave cheer in Virginia due to Sunday meets, it nearly broke my heart because I knew she loved it.
Dallin's class has been learning to play this ukulele and they got to go teach some 1st graders what they had learned. I love that they do ukuleles instead of recorders!
Grandma Bean came to visit for Christmas so David and I took advantage and went on a little get away. My first time to Chicago! What a fun little city. We walked and saw the Bean, some Whirlpool offices, this adorable German Christmas market and the largest Macy's I've ever seen.
And we just had to eat at Michael Jordan's Steak House. Yes, it was incredibly delicious!!
The kids love doing sibling gift exchanges every year. They try their hardest to keep it a secret of who they have, but they always manage to figure it out before Christmas day.
Carmen got Dallin some of his favorite candy and some fun socks.
Dallin got Aliza and "A" initial necklace
Aliza gave Charlotte a toiletry bag, which she complained about on every trip because she didn't have one. Now she finally does.
And Charlotte got Carmen this adorable cow that she fell in love with when we visited Frankenmuth.
Also, it got very chilly...like the coldest I've ever felt.
Our sweet friends the Weimers invited over for Christmas Eve dinner and to act out the nativity. It was such a fun night with their family and even Grandma Bean came along.
And then it was Christmas morning! Hard to tell it was morning because it's still dark outside...
I rarely take pictures on Christmas morning because I just want to be in the moment. But I did take this picture of Charlotte who got a guitar and wants to start taking lessons.
We took Sandy to a hockey game in Grand Rapids.
And then we brought the new year with a cheers and some sparkling grape juice!
I'll just say that this year was filled with a lot of new things. Living in a new state, meeting new people and discovering new places felt like a wonderful adventure this year.
