You know, December is amazing...and so very busy! Here are some of the things we were up to during the second and third weeks of the month:
*Scott played the piano in a Stake Youth Variety Show at an elder care facility. The pianos there were pretty terrible, but he did a great job on Jon Schmidt's "Waterfall."
*Ben performed in the DMCO Christmas concert as well as our stake's Feast of Carols concert. I miss singing with the stake, but with the visits and meetings for my new calling, and with church ending at 5:30 pm and practices starting at 6:00, sometimes you have to get to stay home and be mom. These pictures are from last year, from a sister who just sent them to me!
(Emma didn't sing this year.)
*I got to do my favorite PTA activity so far--help with the Christmas toy drive our school district organized! All the schools collected specific toys/clothes/gift cards, etc. for specific kids, and on one day they delivered them all to one school, where I helped to put them in a grid on the gym floor so the families could find them and pick them up easily.
*I had an eye doctor appointment. Since we'd be driving to Utah later in December, I wanted to have glasses for night driving.
*Gracie had a couple evening tennis tournaments, on some of the coldest days of the year so far! We were unprepared. She is in a class with mostly 7th graders, so playing 8th graders from other schools was a tough learning experience.
*Emma had a Christmas choir concert, but look! I found a picture from her earlier concert, too!
Here's the Christmas one. She loves being part of the choir! (Sorry so fuzzy. These were taken while I was also recording.)
*I took Caytie to a GI to see what they can do about her persistent stomach aches. They were more concerned about her lack of growth and weight gain for the last year, so we got some calorie packing instructions and a host of lab tests ordered.
*Gracie and a friend had to do a weather forecast project, and they did a great job--take one was the winner!
*My ministering sister invited our family over to make and eat homemade pasta! It was so very delicious! (But don't ask Benson. He opted for a peanut butter and honey sandwich--again.) We had to eat quickly, though, because...
*Scott had his percussion concert! (My ministering sister's husband is Scott's Priest Quorum Advisor, so they came along, too.)
I had to get this picture, because at Scott's very first Christmas band concert, way back in 6th grade, he started everyone out with the jingle bells. At first I was wondering why he didn't get to play the marimba with the others, but his band teacher said he needed Scott's steady beat. Guess what instrument Scott played in his last song in his last percussion Christmas concert? The jingle bells!
Oh, my goodness--I found the picture from 2012!
*We had the missionaries over for dinner! The Light the World challenge for that week was to light your community. We had made cookies on Monday to decorate and give to neighbors, but we ran out of time, and with tennis, mutual, and choir and band concerts, it was Friday and they were still undecorated! So we and the missionaries decorated them, and they took them with them on their evening visits.
*We had a ward Christmas breakfast, which was supposed to be followed by a Christmas recital for my kids, but their teacher got sick, so we had another surprise free Saturday afternoon. We did shopping for sibling gifts instead! They love doing that, and I love Five Below, which makes it fun and affordable.
*We had choir practice at our house each Sunday. We have four wards in our building, and church starting at 2:30, so the building is full all day. It made for some hectic mornings of cleaning, but it was a blessing in other ways.
*We went to Tithing Settlement! We have a good bishop. He gave us honey. ☺
*I picked up band uniforms to wash. I also had to undo the hems in the pantlegs and shoulder straps so they'd be ready for next year. It's the one band service I am willing to do.
*I learned that when you're Relief Society President, people who want to remain anonymous give you things to give to others at Christmas. I had to take a day to make deliveries of gift baskets, potatoes, and Christmas centerpieces to those that I thought would need/appreciate them the most. It was actually a really great way to spend a day, but I did not have time to deliver everything. (We have a really big ward boundary!)
*I had my 43rd birthday! Ben had a couple surprises up his sleeve, including giving me a subscription for a snack box from different countries (one a month for six months), Mary Kay Satin Hands and lip gloss, my very own and first Lego set, and a chocolate mint Bundt cake which was amazing. I was spoiled!
*That night Ben and I went on a date to Scott's Christmas jazz concert! (Yes, with his regular band Christmas concert back on the 6th of December, that makes 3 concerts this month for him.)
Being the pianist usually means you don't have much equipment to haul around, but that's not always the case...
*I went to the dentist! And I dropped off a crock po
t of mashed potatoes at Gracie's school for the teachers' lunch.
*Tessa went to Austin with the 4th Graders in her school! Early morning for us. She was in her teacher's group, so I got more pictures than I usually do, so--enjoy!
*Also on that day, I had my preschool Christmas program. Wow, this could have really gone poorly, based on the practices we attempted with my class full of wiggle worms, but we were super surprised and pleased that they pulled it off. Whew!
*Also on that day, Emma had a brace check and x-rays, and Ben was willing and able to take her, since I had the preschool show. She's doing all right, though they always want her to wear it more than she does.
*Also on that day, Gracie played "Christmas Eve Sarajevo" by Tran Siberian Orchestra on the piano in her school's talent show. Neither Ben or I could be there, so I didn't get any pictures, but they posted it on Facebook, so I got to watch it that way. She did a great job. ☺
*Friday was a half day of school, and Caytie's school had their awards assembly. She got the A honor roll award again, and I got to hand out the Reflections awards to our winning students. (Oh, that was another thing I did during the month, since our Reflections chair was going through some tough stuff and dropped out. I had to find judges, coordinate when they had the entries to judge them, prepare the entries for the district judging, and make sure all qualifying entrants were PTA members before they could move on. And make certificates for our winners to hand out at the assembly. I only got one name wrong...)
*We helped to clean the church. Tessa thought the backpack vacuum was awesome, but it proved to be a bit heavy for her to use. We also had choir practice that morning, for our ward's Christmas service the next day.
*I began my Lego project. Can you guess what is it?
Did you guess?
It's a ship in a bottle! It was actually really fun to put together.
All this, along with the normal every day stuff of life, and doing our best to bring the true Spirit of Christmas into our family...meant we were very ready for Christmas break to begin!
