We had a wonderful December celebrating Christmas and making sweet memories with our family. 

I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass.”

Welcome to “Moments” here on JoyFoodSunshine. At the end of every month I share a recap of our family’s favorite moments!  So here it is for December 2019!

A few of my favorite things…

Here are a few products and other things I have loved in December!

Le Creuset 12″ Deep Fry Pan

I’ve been needing a new non-stick fry pan forever. I’m not sure why I never just bought one, but I didn’t. So my husband got me  this Le Creuset 12″ fry pan for Christmas and I AM IN LOVE!  It’s deep, which minimized splatter and it truly is non-stick. I highly recommend the Le Creuset non-stick cookware! 

Vitamix Blender

If you’ve been around my blog a while then you know I use my Vitamix blender every day! Well right now they’re having a sale for the New Year (because who doesn’t want to kick off 2020 with some Green Smoothies, homemade salsa, chocolate hummus, etc.)? They are offering up to $125 off blenders! SO RUN and get yours today! If you’re not sure which blender is right for you, check out my Vitamix Buying Guide!

Kids’ Dictionary

This elementary dictionary has been a game-changer this month in our homeschooling! For a few years now, Bethany and Gabe have been using a regular dictionary to look up their English vocabulary words. Most of the time it was a struggle because the dictionaries we own either used the word to define the word (which wasn’t helpful) or used other words my kids didn’t know. I usually ended up having them look up the word in the dictionary (to practice using alphabetical order to find information), and then I would look up a kid-friendly definition on the computer or tell them one I made up that they could understand. 

This dictionary changed all that! Sometimes Gabe still needs a little bit of help, but Bethany totally understands the definitions and it has made vocabulary time so much easier. Even if you don’t homeschool, I’m a firm believer in teaching kids to find answers for themselves. So If they are reading a book, watching a movie, etc. and they come across a word they don’t know, with this dictionary you can have them problem solve and look it up on their own! 

Recipes I’m Making on Repeat

Here are a few recipes we enjoyed in December!

Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

The BEST homemade Cinnamon Rolls!

The BEST dinner Rolls (EVER)

No-Knead Bread

Life with my tribe

We basically celebrated Christmas all month long! From viewing light displays to making cookies to decking the halls, it was as holiday season for the books. 

Keilah 10+ Months

Keilah seems to have grown SO much in the last 10 months! My sweet girl still doesn’t have any teeth (not that this nursing momma is upset about that).  She has started waving, which is so cute I can barely stand it. She also has started mimicking sounds. If I say, “Keilah, say Momma!” She will respond with a sound (usually ya ya LOL). But it’s a step to

I have started venturing into feeding her more finger foods. Chunks of banana, soft-roasted sweet potatoes, graham crackers, even these Greek yogurt pancakes (cut into small pieces)!

Something hilarious about K is that she has an amazing arm. She literally picks things up just to thrown them. And not in the typical baby way, you know, dropping things on the floor so you will pick them up. It’s WAY more measured and intentional than that. And I love it! 

Oh yeah, and THIS happened! She joined the sprout club! 

First Christmas

I remember dreaming last year, what this year would be like with K as a part of our family. Let me tell you, it was the best. No, she didn’t have any idea what was going on. But she made this year so great. Not only did we get to celebrate but I got to soak in those sweet baby snuggles all week long. 🙂 

Skiing Deer Valley

We had the most magical time spending a few days up at Deer Valley Ski Resort in the middle of the month. Our oldest 3 kids took two days of lessons and learned how to SKI! We enjoyed being together as a family, great food and outdoor adventures! Click here: Deer Valley Ski School to read ALL about it! Here are a few snapshots of our trip!

Christmas! 

We keep things LOW key on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. Christmas Eve we go to church then order Chinese food for dinner. We used to go out to eat, but with 5 kids and how busy restaurants are that night, we ordered it ahead of time and Ritch picked it up on his way home (since he’s a pastor we went to church in 2 cars)! Then we slip into our Christmas jammies and try our best to go to sleep!

On Christmas day we let the kids get up at 7 AM. That might seem late, but Naomi and Mara were still sleeping, and we had to wake them up! B and G had, of course, been up for at least a half an hour. But I really think that some of the most magical moments of Christmas are eagerly awaiting being able to get out of your room on Christmas day!

We don’t do Santa with our kids, but that doesn’t mean they are any less excited about the holiday!  PS This is one of my favorite articles about the topic, and perfectly summarizes why we don’t do it: Santa Claus: Harmless Fun or Christmastime Diversion. 

We have cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then just snack for lunch. We had friends over for dinner (I made this balsamic pot roast, these dinner rolls, and these roasted brussels sprouts)! We did a Birthday cake for Jesus and sang to him to conclude our celebration! It was a wonderful day!

This year I finally got my act together and organized the kids’ ornaments. Every year we get each child an ornament and take a picture of them holding it in front of the tree. This year i printed out all the photos and put them in nice ornament boxes with their corresponding ornaments. This way we 1) know which ornament belongs to who and 2) will be able to look at the photos and reminisce about Christmas past every year when we pull them out. 

And that pretty much sums up our month! Lost of yummy food and family time! 🙂 

A few more pics, just for memory’s sake!

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