There's No Place Like Home: Celebrating Birthdays

December is always a fun and busy month for us. We have Victoria's birthday on the 3rd. She turned eleven years old on Saturday. She has had a birthday party most years, but this year we are going to go to a tea house with just her, myself and Grandma Cynthia. Victoria celebrated her birthday on the first day of Bethany Church's Christmas Joy performance which she is singing and dancing in. They performed last weekend and again this weekend on December 10th & 11th at 3:30pm and 7pm. Anyway is welcome to go. She plays a hangtown kid and they sing and dance to many songs. She also gets to dress up in a sheep costume which she wasn't too happy dancing in. But doesn't she and her friend look adorable. We celebrated her birthday during breakfast time with cinnamon rolls, eggs, and pineapple. I decorated our dining room with streamers and signs. I have no pictures of her on her birthday because I left my camera at my in-laws the previous weekend. She was very excited to get some Paris-themed items as her birthday present since we are in the process of redoing her room in that theme. Paris is one of the places on her bucket list that she says she will be visiting or living one day. Victoria is a wonderful young girl. She is a sweet and loving daughter and sister. She is growing up ever so quickly. She still wants to sit on our lap or snuggle really close to us. I try to really take advantage of that time and not hurry to do something else because one day she may not want to sit next to me. Allan stops what he is doing whenever she wants to talk and he just listens. I love watching him joke around with her.

On Monday, the 5th, we celebrated Allan's birthday. Victoria & Nicholas helped me make a chocolate chocolate cake from scratch and boy was it DELICIOUS!!! You can see it in the photo and it doesn't look that pretty, but it sure tasted good. We never finish cake around here and I think there may be one slice left for Allan's dessert tomorrow. Nicholas and Victoria have never really decorated a cake before and I am not a cake decorator myself, but Allan loved it anyways! All of us made him a card and he really seemed to enjoy his time with just us. I have to say he is an amazing man. He is so humble and kind! He really cares for us and I am fortunate to have him as my husband and as a father to our four children.