Joy to the World!

We've been getting in the Christmas spirit this month, and have found lots of ways to celebrate the joy of the season.  The weekend after Thanksgiving, we picked out our Christmas tree:

We adore this rustic farm near our church and return there every year to choose our tree:

This photo captures this season of our lives perfectly, face masks and all.  I spy a surly 12 year-old who can't imagine anything worse than taking a selfie with his entire family.  The pleading look in his eyes says it all:

I knew better than to insist that the above grumpy tween pose with his 2020 Christmas ornament that afternoon, but luckily, Leah accommodated me.  Both kids have the same ornament this year, which is a photo of the special handprint plaque that they made:

"When the world moved apart, together was our favorite place."

As L&L placed ornaments on the tree, Millie supervised the entire time, and it was darling.  I'm posting way too many pictures of this event, but each pose seems cuter than the one before:

All that hard work means it's time to curl up for a nap by the tree!

Something else that's given us a lot of joy is dressing up Millie in Winnie's holiday attire.  Last December, Millie was still a small puppy, so this was the first year that she was able to don her big sister's special hand-me-downs.     

Check out our fluffy Santa:

...and an uncertain reindeer:

Here's a busy little elf:

Someone even has Christmas dog toys, because our family loves a good theme:

Millie decided that if she had to wear ridiculous holiday outfits, then her brother and sister should participate too:

Yes, Leah is wearing Millie's Santa dog costume!

These were actually the kids' outfits for Crazy Christmas week for Facetime piano lessons:

Luke's tuba Christmas hat and shirt got a lot of mileage this month.  After attending our community's Joy Tuba World holiday concert last December, Luke decided that he wanted to participate in this year's event.  Due to COVID, the concert was cancelled, but we still found a fun way for this Tuba Dude to listen to joyful Christmas carols played by his favorite instrument:

We found a YouTube video of the 2019 Kennedy Center Tuba Christmas performance, and we all enjoyed watching this beautiful brass concert from the comfort of our couch:

Even Millie loves the tuba now!

We've found joy this month in familiar Christmas traditions, including the drive through light display at Tanglewood Park.  This was a festive, fun evening for all of us, and we wore our pjs and sipped hot chocolate as we drove through the park:

A brand new Christmas event was Winter WonderLights at the outdoor zoo section of the Greensboro Science Center.  There were many different light displays, and this was a neat way to safely celebrate the season as we walked through the various attractions:

Decorating cut out Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses were joyful stay-at-home activities this month.  This year, I was smart and bought kits for both at Trader Joes = Mom Win!

We also celebrated our family Christmas and exchanged gifts with each other the weekend before our holiday travels.  Luke and Leah usually buy presents at their school store, but this year, they went "shopping" in a store that we set up at home.  Items available for purchase were marked with discounted prices/post-it note price tags, and each kid chose an item to buy for their sibling, Mom, Dad, and Millie.  It's one of my favorite parts of Christmas to watch the joy on L&L's faces as they give these carefully selected gifts to their recipients.  

Leah giving Daddy the gift that she chose for him.

Sitting back-to-back to open presents is a Winterhoff family tradition, where you open the gifts at the same time if you are receiving similar items:

One of the kids' back to back presents that made me laugh were their electric toothbrushes.  L&L were so excited when they opened these that they paused our Christmas celebration and ran straight into the bathroom to brush their teeth!

This may be the only time that toothbrushing is a joyful activity! 

There were several new games, toys, and gifts to keep the kids entertained for the rest of the weekend.  This kiddo still loves Legos and this fills my heart with joy:

Leah received an electric scooter from Grandpa and she was SO excited to open this wishlist item:

May the wonder of Christ's birth fill your holiday season with joy!