The Zorio Family: December 2021

We had a WONDERFUL December! The month was packed full, that’s for sure, but it was all fun!

We started the month decorating for Christmas. I always like to document our decorations in our home so here are our trees…

White and silver tree in living room

Our family tree with fun lights and fun ornaments in the bonus room.

Stockings

The kids were thrilled that Duke had a stocking this year too!

Decorated the dog even! Ha!

Duke is such a patient pup

Red and white tree in the office

I love that you can see this one from the street at night

Along with the bonus room tree as well

We made ginger bread houses twice this month.

This was the first time.

Charlie the Elf arrived on schedule on December 1st!

Along with an Advent gift (gingerbread house kit!)

Everyone had fun finding Charlie the Elf all month!

Gingerbread house construction

We had our annual Tour De Christmas (progressive dinner to our friends the Waye’s and Hough’s houses as well as our own). This year we got to do desserts. This was the best picture we got…propped my phone up on the coffee table to try to get us all in. Lighting was weird but we were happy to have one with all of us in it.

We attended the Athens Christmas Parade! It’s such a great parade.

The 5 of us watched the parade….

And Dawson walked in the parade with his scout troop!

We went to the Laser Light Show at Bridgestreet.

And we stood/played in the blown fake snow after the laser light show. So fun!

All of Dawson’s hard work on his project based learning got to be shared with parents this month! The made and designed a zoo. This incorporated all four subjects and had lots and lots of parts that they worked on all first semester. Here is his group!

The model of the zoo

They were all so proud of their hard work that they happily explained infrastructure, the math, the science, and all the parts that went into it that you couldn’t just see by looking at the model.

They also had their Animal Farm Timelines on display which was a fun addition to get to see while there

Lastly, we also go to view the other project based learning project from the first 9 weeks which was the design and research of their biome. Dawson’s group had desert. I guess I didn’t get a picture of it.

I was impressed with Dawson and his team and all their hard work!

We got our Christmas pjs!!

Waaay back in June I decided I was finally going to register, train, and run for a full marathon. So at the end of June I signed up. I ran almost 300 miles as my training. I learned a lot about distance running that’s for sure. On Friday night I went to pick up my bib and take a few pictures like this one…unfortunately the next morning there were tornadoes and the marathon was totally canceled. I felt way more disappointed about it than I thought I would. I’ve been trying to find another full marathon that’s not too far away but I haven’t had much luck yet. So as of now I trained for a marathon but still haven’t run it. It’s hard to stay ready, so if I don’t find one soon I may have to let it go and go back down to half marathons. With 4 kids that have busy schedules it’s really hard to find time to get in the long runs (ex 20 miles) to stay ready for a full.

The upside was the that kid’s marathon was the night before my full was supposed to be, so it didn’t get canceled! I was SO proud of these kids. They ran 25.2 miles over the past couple of months and then ran the final mile at the race for a total of 26.2 miles! Wow!

Super impressed by Dawson who had a 5:48 mile at the race! WOW

They were all so proud of their medals.

I was ready for my marathon

My runners!!!

Clayton had his first basketball game EVER this month! He did great! He plays great and is even a little scrappy. Love watching him play.

Here he is in the middle of things!

Always with he hands up

We went to Downtown Huntsville to view the Tinsel Trail. So fun!

Then we found these swinging benches on the street in downtown. They were a big hit.

We ate at a tiny burger joint downtown after looking at the Tinsel Trail. It was delicious.

Dawson played in the middle school Christmas Band Concert!

We were beyond impressed with how great they sounded!

Dawson with the band director.

Dawson advanced to the rank of Second Class in Boy Scouts this month!!

He also earned 2 more merit badges!

Dawson and I enjoyed a date of lunch at Cash and Jacks

And then a walk along Swan Creek Trail.

Dawson helped with he 4-H fundraiser

Clayton was one of the students from elementary awarded the Superhero Award from this semester!

So proud of our sweet kindergartener.

The last day of school before Christmas break was pj day for elementary. We didn’t know it but the school surprised the parents with sweet professional pics of our kids reading Christmas stories in their pjs as a thank you for parent support.

I just loved this!

They even thought to get a sibling picture!

We made 98 sugar cookies to decorate at our Jingle and Mingle Party

We hosted our annual Jingle and Mingle Party. I think we ended up with 9 kids and 16 adults. A great crowd. We played games, ate lots of delicious food, decorated cookies, and enjoyed visiting!

It was warm weather so the kids did the sprinkles for the sugar cookies on the patio-picture above!

We hosted another party this month too that I didn’t get any pictures of. We had John’s coworkers over for dinner and Christmas themed games. It was a lot of fun. I love hosting a party!

The weekend before Christmas Lolly came to visit. We packed A TON of fun things into her visit.

First up, she got to watch Carter play in a basketball game where he scored a few baskets and their team won! Then she got to watch Clayton play in a basketball game…they also won!

This girl’s too cool for basketball.

Lolly and NK at basketball

Dawson and Lolly-the braces buddies-at basketball.

Then we went home and decorated a TON of Christmas cookies.

Then we drove to downtown Athens where Clayton showed us all and Lolly the tree that his class decorated at Big Springs Park. We even found the ornament he made on it.

We also went to a drive through nativity at a local church while we were out!

Pretty full first day with Lolly.

Then the next day we had a big Christmas lunch, then opened presents, the kids gave a concert-NK on recorder, Carter on guitar, and Dawson on trumpet for Lolly. And Clayton told jokes! After that we drove to Downtown Huntsville because we had tickets to see The Living Christmas Tree. It was fantastic!

(These pics are out of order)

After the Living Christmas Tree.

Dawson on trumpet

Nora Kate on recorder

Opening presents with Lolly! The kids were thrilled she is giving them a trip to Atlanta this winter to visit the aquarium and more! And, Clayton’s favorite part, to stay in a hotel.

Giving Lolly a gift.

Oh, forgot to mention we also got in a little walk and fishing time on Saturday with Lolly too.

Carter on guitar

Opening art supplies from Lolly

We had a great visit with Lolly. Then we were in the final countdown to Christmas. We did lots of Christmas activities for the next week.

Duke in a scarf. I’m not sure if Nora Kate or John is to blame for this.

Made more gingerbread houses. Clearly I’ve lost my mind to get out more candy and sprinkles

On Christmas Eve we went to church. Then we went to see Sing 2. After that dinner at a Japanese Steak House. The kids love watching them cook hibachi in front of us.

Here we are in the theater on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning.

Gifts are waiting on the kids to wake up.

I ALWAYS wake up before the kids on Christmas-haha

Gifts under the red and white tree

Santa came!

John opening his new fire table!

I got several wonderful gifts from John and the kids. John remains the best gift-giver.

Clayton got a new faster dirt bike that’s actually and Indian motorcycle!!

Dawson was super excited for his Lego Technic set. He has now already built it and mastered controlling it to drive it from his phone.

Clayton loved ALLL the legos.

Nora Kate LOVES her Kiki (ride on scooter/moped)

The kids did a fantastic job giving each other gifts this year. It was so sweet. Here NK is watching Carter open the gift from her.

The sweet mess of Christmas morning.

Opening gifts and stockings

I think the highlights of Christmas gifts for each child were as follows

Dawson-kayak, scouting gear, trash panda gear, books, LEGO technic set, Apple Watch, Pictionary air

Carter-go pro camera, cozy chair for reading, trash panda gear, books, lego set, dueling set that’s inflatable

NK-her ride on Kiki moped, books, trash panda gear, an Alexa that is all hers that she doesn’t have to share with the boys (haha), new pearl earrings, Birkenstock sandals

Clayton-Legos and more legos, the giant Paw Patrol set he wanted, squishy guys, his new fast dirt bike of course, trash panda gear, a new candy land

She loves it

Christmas pjs-check

Dirt Bike-checck

Don’t mind us, just riding the neighborhood in our Christmas pjs at 8am on Christmas morning

Cozy Carter in his chair

Dawson let Carter try out his kayak

More rides

Nana and Grandad drove down on Christmas day for a visit and spent the night. I did a terrible job of taking pictures. But we had a great visit and the kids were thrilled with their gifts-here they are trying on their snow boots from Nana and Grandad…and since I’m typing this about 2 weeks post Christmas I happen to know that they have already gotten to wear them once already!

John got a turkey for me to make on Christmas. I didn’t realize just how big it was…17 pounds!

We are all enjoying John’s fire table!

Dawson absolutely loves the kayak we got him!

Nora Kate got this bracelet maker from Nana and Grandad which is really neat. She loves it.

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas with the kids and with family. It was perfect!

The Wednesday after Christmas we had asked for Lolly to come back down to visit us and to stay with the kids so John and I could travel. We spend Wednesday-Friday in Nashville. We arrived Wednesday night and enjoyed a late dinner at Ted’s Montana Grill. It was delicious, and a late dinner date always feels like such a treat because we never do late dinners with the kids. Then Thursday morning I enjoyed a quick 3 mile run around downtown Nashville-I ran through Vanderbilt’s campus which was neat to see and around Centennial Park and the Parthenon. Then we got ready to head out to cheer on Tennessee at the Music City Bowl. Here we are ready to head out to the game!

Arriving to the stadium

We had a great time at the game even though Tennessee lost.

But we did get to see some friends.

This was the view from our balcony at the hotel.

Nashville trip

(And wearing my new Christmas earrings)

Music City Bowl

We returned home to the kids on Friday. They had had a fun time with Lolly!

That night was New Year’s Eve and we had the best little family New Year’s Eve party. We popped a balloon every hour on the hour for six hours from 6:00 until midnight. Inside the balloon we had put an activity for the hour. These pictures are not in order.

One hour was minute to win it games. The kids LOVE these and get SO competitive. This one involved stacking chocolate chip cookies on your forehead. It was called chocolate unicorn.

Big boys getting silly

The balloons ready to be popped for each hour of the New Years Eve countdown!

Duke was very concerned about why we would be stacking delicious food on our faces and hung out very nearby in case anything were to hit the ground!

The kids had made these great decorations for New Years while we were in Nashville!

Here are the activities we put in each balloon:

We learned to play Pictionary AIR that Dawson got for Christmas and it was a lot of fun!

We made homemade bouncy balls which turned out surprisingly well.

An hour of minute to win it games!

All 6 of us tie died shirts which was messy but fun.

The next hour was recapping our favorite things from the year and telling what we wanted to do in the coming year.

Then we watched the movie Rons Gone Wrong and to be honest we were all getting pretty sleepy by this point but we were almost at midnight and people in our neighborhood had also started shooting off really good fireworks so we stopped to watch those too!

Then at midnight we watched the tv where they were ringing in the New Year in Nashville (same time zone as us) and Dawson played Auld Lang Syne on trumpet and Carter played it on guitar to ring in the New Year.

Then we all went to bed!