DECEMBER

To start off our December right... we went in search of the perfect Christmas tree... and a real, live one at that... something Kara had never done before!!

She wasn't quite sure what to do with this...
Ryan had to cut down the tree!

:)

And we found him!! Alfred, our first and perfect Christmas tree!

Ryan carried him home...

And the boys helped put the tree up

Lights going on...

Claxton made sure Kara put the star on just right!

We had lots of fun with Christmas Celebrations... this is a picture of our homemade invitations to the Church Board Christmas Party we threw for about 20 people at our church.

Before Christmas, we went up to Chicago for a double date with Jonathan and Kate, and had dinner and coffee in the city one night. It was so much fun... and delicious!!

Ryan's favorite cookies are Grandma Kaufman's Gingerbread Men... she shared the recipe with us and Kara made a ton of gingerbread men... and camels and snowmen when she tired of the men! :)

Peppermint Bark was one of our favorites... and Ryan asked for Peanut Butter Balls...
we baked these together and ate most of them Christmas Eve!

Even Claxton got in on the baking... we made him special Breath Busters Dog Treats...

doesn't he look SO excited to try some!?!

Merry Christmas from the Goode Family! :)

One great thing about moving... you're left over with TONS of massive boxes you can hide and disguise tiny gifts in... we had so much fun wrapping and trying not to let the other person guess our presents... Ryan figured out his shop vac, and Kara figured out her plastic stackable drawers, and we each gave each other the same CD... but it was SO much fun!!! :)

After Christmas we spent a day in Michigan with Ryan's family... we had so much fun playing in the snow... especially making snow angels with Caroline!

And then the four of us decided to go sledding together... it was pretty much terrifying!! We headed to the dunes... and found them not covered in snow, lots of hard cold sand to ride down, and the wind blew so fast... Kara went down a little hill that actually had snow on it... but her sled blew away in the wind before she even realized she wasn't holding on to it! Rachel lost both shoes on the way down and her and Brad's sled broke... but all and all it was a great time!! :)

For New Years Eve, Caleb and Anna came to hang out with us for a few days... Anna and Kara had a ton of fun scrapbooking... and Caleb loved hanging out with his pal Claxton. :)

We've loved getting to know some of the people of Canton, and not too long ago, one snowy Sunday, we went sledding with all the teens and another newly married couple from our church, Chris & Sam. We had SO much fun!! And Jolie made us all hot chocolate and cookies afterwards to help us get warmed back up!