December is a really busy month for us! Between Wayne’s finals, gearing up for the holidays and my deadlines, I have very limited extra time. Even so, there were a good handful of memories made this month. (Speaking of busy… our November Monthbook post was published a wee bit later than expected! In case you missed our trip to Tulum and Thanksgiving memories, check it out here!)

The memories began with trying to potty train Ethan again! Major fail and he isn’t mad about it. I also got to see one of my favorite artists, Lany, perform in Tampa at a music festival! Ashley gifted me tickets for my birthday and it was so much fun to dance around, sing and eat hot dogs together.

Soon after that first weekend, Wayne and I left to shoot a wedding on the Disney cruise! We got to bring Ethan along (that Disney daycare came in clutch the day of the wedding!) and it was just such a sweet time seeing him react to the shows and characters. It was also his first time out of the country when we got down to the Bahamas! The best part about a Disney cruise in my opinion are the shows. The performances, stage design and story-lines were Broadway quality, really.

We made Ethan’s first batch of Christmas cookies and he helped mommy decorate (and eat!) them. That same night, we went out as a family to picking out a Christmas tree. He was FULL OF EXCITEMENT clinging to me as we walked through the aisles at Lowe’s. The greatest Ethan memory was watching him perform for two songs at his daycare’s Christmas show. It was so cute to watch him place such meticulous attention to shaking his bells for Jingle Bells. Plus, he looked extra cute with that man-bun… or boy-bun.

Wayne got to watch his best friend, Dave, graduate from PTA school and celebrate with him and his wife, Ashley. So proud of our friend to end the year being top of his class and D-O-N-E! Sadly I couldn’t celebrate, because I was out of town for a wedding with our new associate, Kim!

We found out that we are FINALISTS for Belle Lumiere’s End of Year Awards in film! This is just crazy and such a surprise. I think that I lived in shock for about 3 days. The Lord is so good! I started shooting film almost 2 years ago and this month I became a finalist for Emerging Film Photographer of 2018 and Image of the Year (below). What.

Our team had a Christmas party with yummy treats and a secret Santa gift exchange with our stockings. I love these people so very much. It was a really great time to just BE with each other. Then we got to celebrate Tori’s golden birthday with a party at our home! We had a LEGIT salad bar (salad is her favorite food) and ended the night with her choice of games. I love this girl so much and it was a sweet sight to see her celebrate with all of the other people that love her dearly.

We travelled back to West Palm for Christmas and began the party hopping between families. My family celebrates together on Christmas Eve and party hops until midnight! Christmas morning we had a quiet breakfast with my parents and brother and opened secret Santa gifts. Afterwards, we went over to Wayne’s grandparents’ house and celebrated with the Carney clan there! They had a taco bar!! Way to my heart. Minus the fact that I had an awful sinus infection the entire time, it was a great Christmas!

To celebrate the new year, we started a new tradition of sleeping over on New Year’s Eve Eve at the home of our michrochurch leader’s home. We made a TON of treats and played Catan until we couldn’t stay up anymore. The next day, a dear friend of mine came to stay with us before her big move to India! We became friends together our freshman year at UCF over 13 years ago and here she was sitting in my kitchen playing with our baby boy. Thankful for the kinds of friendships that last through the years and distance. We rang in the new year by making pizza and catching up together in the back porch under the market lights!