MK to Ryan: "Daddy, all of my veggie pockets are full in my stomach.  Can I have some chocolate?"

Our week began with the decorating of the trees....

 from our youngest....

 to our oldest....they each have their own flare.  With eight hands doing the work, I am thinking this was our fastest decorating yet!

 Matthew the Elf made his much anticipated debut on December 1.  When this little guy appeared several years ago, he simply hid in a different spot each night.  Fast forward several years and now Mr. Matthew is up to quite a lot of antics.  MK was a bit stressed out when Matthew took down all of our stockings and put hers on Santa's head....and then one night he used silly string to decorate our rocking bear....he found the girls bookshelf and took each book off in order to make himself a cozy bed....he was up drinking Elf Juice aka green milk and eating candy one morning.....one just never knows what Matthew is going to do next!

 On the eve of December 5 each year, we set our shoes out to see what St. Nicklaus will fill them with - it is a German tradition and one that our children quickly decided they liked!  

 And Big C....Thursday evening he had his first Christmas semi-formal dance.  He is participating in a group called Social, Inc. where he is learning all kinds of dances - note that his parents each were born with two left feet so it is important that he learn how to dance from an instructor as his parents will not be good at teaching him in this area:)

 Social was not something C was totally onboard with in the beginning.  However, it has grown on him and he is thoroughly enjoying his time spent on the floor with his friends, new and old.  His partner's twin sister is the partner of a good friend from C's school days.  The four of them have had a terrific time together!  

 Annual Christmas cookie decorating with our adoption friends....the littles all decided playing was more fun at first, so in came the big boys to make their creations.

 While P actually ate his cookies, there were some that had more fun decorating and creating thus leaving the eating part out:)

 Eventually the word spread throughout our home and the littles decided they must decorate a cookie too!

 A sprinkle here....

 and some candy there....

 and a sneaky one too!  Little Miss Pearl's mom took her eyes off of her for one millisecond and she came back to a plate full of cookies and one little girl eating her heart out!

 These girls had such fun together playing and decorating!  So thankful for each of them!  

 And these brothers are quite the crew as well....there was football and more football and food and more football!

 Post decorating, it was off to C's basketball game.  Sadly, their team is not thriving this year and he is most upset over this.  

 Despite their losing streak, C is on the court each week practicing his heart out and striving to do his best.  We are hoping for a win soon!

 And when our week was said and done, our little one found her way back to the tree.  From the looks of things, one might think she was simply adding on an ornament that had fallen off of the tree.  However, she is simply trying to hang a rubber band that was once in her hair on the tree!  Never a dull moment!