Books and cookies, movies and hot chocolate (with peppermint schnapps of course), crafts and gifts: We’ve been hard at work Elving over here, and doing our best to hit all the traditions of the season.  There has been a LOT of sewing, from ornaments to gifts and even a few things in between for sweet children to have (although I sadly didn’t take pictures of most of it).  Ashton has been up day and night working on personalized artistic gifts for all of us.  We’ve been shopping and ordering things for the kids, of course, because Matt thinks it just ain’t Christmas without lots of wrapped things.  Santa came to the neighborhood, and we’ve been to parties and concerts and several other holiday events, including seeing Matt play in the Navy Band concert (wahoo!).  We made our favorite advent calendar, Cedar made homemade ice cream in a bag, Ashton sewed me a lovely present (more on that later), and I’ve been strengthening my “witch” skills by making herbal tinctures.  There has been so much more than what is photographed here, but the rest will stay in our memories.  It’s been up and down, with Matt having an extra wild schedule and a lot of feeling busy… But when I look at the photos I took, I remember that we have so much to be grateful for right now.