December, as usual, was busy, busy, but we still had time for some fun and some traditions. Edward's class spent time learning about several different winter holidays and brought home a dreidl, which the boys found quite fun. I was amused by the juxtaposition of them spinning it next to the advent wreath!

Daniel has the same Kindergarten teacher Edward had, and her lead-up-to-winter-break traditions include an afternoon of crafts (graham cracker gingerbread houses, bead necklaces, sock snowmen) followed by a pajama day the last day of class. I helped out on the craft afternoon, once again confirming that there is a special place in heaven for Kindergarten teachers and that I was SOOOO right all those years ago when my high school guidance counselor offered me two career options, "Nurse or teacher," and I said, "Neither!"

I should know myself better by now than to attempt anything even vaguely Martha-Stewart-y, but since I did, I might as well document it. Some good friends of ours are working as a family to eliminate sugar from their diet, so a traditional plate of Christmas cookies seemed inappropriate this year. Looking for alternatives, I (foolishly) Googled, "edible wreath" and "edible Christmas craft" and found what looked like a reasonably simple but cute idea for a tree with an apple base, and grapes all around.

 Already we can tell that Martha and her ilk must scour the produce aisle for perfectly straight carrots and grapes of equal diameter. Me--I just flow with the irregular and end up with the leaning tree of Pisa. It was still a nice thought and our friends were appreciative (who knows if they dumped it in the garbage as soon as we left?!) The pineapple star idea was a hit though--slice a whole pineapple horizontally into discs and then use a star cookie cutter to cut the fruit. We ended up using this for Edward's class party and for Daniel's class birthday treat.

On Dec. 5, the boys left their shoes out for St. Nicholas, a tradition we added to our jammed December last year, when Edward learned about it in his Religious Education class. Luckily they are easy to please, though it did require an 11th-hour trip to Kohls for Christmas ornaments (ironically, during Edward's weekly R.E. class!) Helpfully, St. Nick left the rest of the bag of Dove dark chocolate bites hidden in a kitchen cabinet after putting a few pieces in each shoe. I'm pretty sure the metal rack was set up as a sort of trap in hopes that St. Nick would kick it, thereby making enough noise to wake the boys so they could catch him in the act. He's pretty nimble though and maintained his mystery.

Daniel got a guitar ornament;
Edward's is Perry the Platypus

Finally, we continued our December tradition of decorating Will's memory tree and sharing the ornaments with friends and family. This year's ornaments were drums, a nod to Daniel's current affection (obsession?) for the instrument. I like to think Will would have had similar interests to his brothers so it seemed appropriate.