December Photo Challenge: Holly Jolly

Well, December just flew right by me. Entrepreneur and I try and get most of the gift shopping/shipping done by Thanksgiving so we can enjoy Christmas festivities without a lot of stress…..because we’ve had enough stress the last two months to last a lifetime. We were ready for a little Holly Jolly! And thanks to PJ and his Photo Blogging Challenge, I can show you a little of what we did this month.

Holly Jolly 1
Peanut is in both band and choir at her middle school. They had a combined winter concert in December where parents and friends could attend in person. I don’t have a pic of her band concert for this challenge since she is very short, sits in the back of the orchestra set up and plays the trombone. I did get some awesome shots of the top of her head. Choir was better as she was in the front of the risers.

Holly Jolly 2
Entrepreneur’s mom escaped from the rehab center the first of the month feeling very jolly so we took her on a three-day trip to Branson, MO. Our destination was Sight and Sound Theatre to watch a live production called Jesus. On the way into the theatre, we stopped at the ginormous Christmas tree out front.

Holly Jolly 3
Breakfast with Santa was back on after last year’s pandemic leave of absence. Twix is still fascinated by the jolly ol’ elf and was excited to see him again. Peanut, being 13, kept socially distanced from him despite his best effort to engage her in conversation.

Holly Jolly 4
Every year I try and get “Santa hat” photos of the grand girls. Peanut, (being 13, ya know) was unavailable that particular Saturday so Cabo was volunteered to stand in for her. Getting him to wear the Santa hat was marginally successful.

Holly Jolly 5
Every December we try and get to our church’s Magic Tree on a Friday night. It’s a holly jolly good time with hot chocolate, cookies, kettle corn, holiday music, and other activities like balloons animals and face painting. The tree is an 85-foot Sycamore and is dressed in about 200,000 LED bulbs that span 38 miles of lights. Mercifully, the temps were mild this year and we didn’t freeze to death.

Holly Jolly Bonus
Just a few more pics for the monthly prompt. This is my way of sneaking in more than five “official” pics. The top one is our church on Christmas Eve. Each week during Advent, more lights, candles and trees are added so by Christmas Eve, the stage is fully adorned with the spirit of Christmas. The bottom left is our tree at home and, of course, the bottom right is Cabo sporting his Christmas-y kerchief.

That’s my Holly Jolly five+ for December. A sincere thank you to PJ for hosting this photo challenge every month for those of us who love to feed our shutterbug cravings. Check out other holly jolly December pics from people around the world over at A ‘lil HooHaa around the first of January.

I wish for everyone a safe and happy new year as we take that first step into 2022.