Hard to believe it’s December 31st…
Dom 
Where to start? December has been a fun month as we prepared for Santa’s visit. Our Elf on the Shelf, Henry, joined us again after Thanksgiving. Dom enjoyed reading his story multiple times the first week or so after his arrival (it was a required book during our bedtime reading during that time). Every morning he’d say “Where Henry?” so of course, we’d look for him and he always loved finding him. He got so excited about all of the Christmas lights and decorations everywhere and often asked to go to Depot (Home Depot – a home improvement store for those of you unfamiliar) to see everything set up in the store. Our town does a tree-lighting on December 1st and it’s walking distance from our house so we went for the first time, and he loved it. They also had a petting zoo and he was happy to see a “Dommy Donkey” (Dominic the Donkey, you know, that Italian Christmas song? I’m pretty sure I mentioned that he loved that song in another post). He loved celebrating Christmas with his cousins and we all had a really nice day.
In the way of development, he no longer calls a helicopter a “cocka”, but now calls it a “hellacoppa”, so we’re getting closer. He also can say, without prompting, the whole alphabet & count from 1-12 then says 14, 16, eleventeen. He started triggering our Amazon Echo dot when he says “Awexa” (Alexa) and tries to ask for songs to dance to (“play ‘magine dragons” was the first thing he asked for .. and she shuffled songs by Imagine Dragons, haha!). He’s getting better at saying “thank you” without prompting and also started saying “you’re welcome” and “excuse me” more regularly.
He’s had 2 ear infections this month (currently going through the second one, for which he has to take Augmentin and it’s the only medicine he doesn’t like, so it’s a bit of a challenge at times to give it to him). This makes the 5th or 6th ear infection this year, but no talk of tubes yet. Related to this, he’s still having some really crappy sleep (in the last 2 weeks I can confirm definitely 1 night that he slept all the way through, but honestly can’t remember if there have been any others)
Lastly (to try to keep this post at a digestible length), he loves watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (with Gene Wilder), especially the Violet Beauregard scene. One night at dinner he turned to me and said, “I got a blueberry for a daughter.” — completely unrelated to what we were talking about. He also asks me to sing the Oompa Loompa songs at bedtime. Silly boy.
Oh and one more thing, this morning, without prompting, he leaned into me and said, “I love you, mumma.” 
Books/Reading 
Books completed: 2
Books in progress: 3
Year Goal: 26/24 (Completed in November)
Historical Fiction Challenge: 7/5 (Completed in August)
What’s in a Name Challenge: 2/6
I met my Goodreads challenge in November and am planning to set a goal of 30 books for next year. I joined a Beat the Backlist challenge for the year, which I recently posted about here. I have a page set up to track the books that I read for this. There’s also an Instagram challenge with weekly prompts that I’ll attempt to do.
Crafts 
Sewing
Sewing projects completed: 3
Sewing projects in progress: 1
It was another productive month for sewing! I made 1 more initial pillow and gave all but 2 to the recipients (haven’t seen the other 2 yet) and they all loved them. The “B” pillow (picture in November’s post) was a big hit as my nephew put his head right on it after he opened it. So cute! And as mentioned in recent posts, I made the fabric basket and a pin cushion for my #stitchingsanta parcel.
The one item in progress is my Rita muslin, and I’m actually so very close to finishing! I just need to stitch the elastics and hem it. (I decided to remove the Sorbetto from my “in progress” count above since I haven’t done anything with it.)
Knitting
Knitting projects completed: 0
Knitting projects in progress: 1
Haven’t touched the hat for my friend’s baby. Hoping to wrap that up within the next few days, too.
I’ll be making a post for #makenine2018, something I haven’t done before, so be on the lookout for that.
All in all, 2017 has been a good year. I really look forward to what 2018 has in store for us! (And I’ll be posting a look ahead soon)
Happy New Year, everyone! Wishing you a year of fun, laughter, happiness, good health, and love with all your loved ones!
