Christmas concert #1

I know its a little dark. I couldn't get any picture that were any lighter. Daniel is the one in the back with the striped sweater. So he was invited to participate in his school Choir directors church choir. (thats a mouth full!!)There were a select few who were asked out of Honor Choir and he was excited. He loves to sing and be in the choir. They were having an orchestra play as well. All in all it went well. I was a tad disappointed because I thought it would be lots of Christmas songs but half way through they did a little sermon on even passed the collection plate around. It was nice being among others not of our faith who really do love the Lord and want to celebrate his birth. The childrens choir sounded wonderful and were not at all intimidated by the huge number of people on stange from the church choir. They sounded wonderful and I love watching my children perform. He took everything his teacher taught him to heart. YOu could see his little chest rising filling up with air in the end to get ready for the big finale. The little things make them so happy and proud of themselves. The fact that we came to see him and made a big deal of it makes him so happy. We are proud of him.

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Parades are suppose to be calm right?

We went to one of the many Christmas parades that they have around the are. It was chilly and Eliza was sick so unfortunately Tom was at home with Eliza. As it turned out it warmed up a bit and I had wished they had been there. Either way we had a good time. We got there just before they closed the road down. But it still took about 15 minutes for us to see any parade.

So what else would any normal person do while waiting for a parade to start?
Walk on their hands of course!!! Both Sarah and Emma were really good at this.
Then we were so excited to see a friend of our is the parade. The kids shouted with excitement in seeing someone that they knew from church.



Then comes my favorite part of any parade. Some how I realized my chest got a little bigger and I stood a little taller when the band came along. Pride comes out and I start talking about my "glory days" in the band and leading the whole band down the streets during parades in my little town. This one was a little bit smaller than my band but they played with just as much heart as we did.

Last but not least we saw Santa coming down the lane in his big old red chariot. What parade would be complete without Santa!!! Parades are suppose to be calm and exciting and if I could have cocooned my little children then that is what it would have been like. But all around us there were people running out almost getting hit for candy and everyone had this mentality of give me give me more. Yes its fun to get candy thrown at you but I draw the line at fighting with other kids over some little piece of candy. One lady was worse than all the kids. She would walk up to everyone in the parade, say Merry Christmas, and expect them to give her anything they were throwing at the crowd. She on more than one occasion sent her children running down the street to catch someone whom they had missed and get the "things" they were passing out. It made me sad but still somehow I was able to mentally cocoon my children and we all had a good time despite almost being plowed over for candy. Life is changing and it was testament to me that we must continue to be in the world but not of it. I know that my children had a good time and they are still so innocent enough to be oblivious to what happened around us thank goodness. I love the Christmas season and a good parade helps kick of that spirit of Christmas.

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I HEART Cousins!!!!

Kate just loved Eliza. She would go around and kiss her and hug her. She even would try to sit on Eliza's lap alot. We think that maybe she must have done that in the womb with her sister Anna. It was so sweet to watch the two of them together. When my sister first got here with the kids Eliza didn't know what to think about Kate's affection but by the end of the trip(when Kate wasn't feeling good) Eliza was the one to shower the affection.

I know that this isn't a very flattering picture of me but I love how everyone piled around to get into the picture. And it turned out just so cute. If I could add makeup and have my hair done magicly it would be the perfect picture.

After seeing this picture I realized that we don't have even one picture with all of the kids in it. this is the closest that we came to having all the cousins together in one picture that were at my house at one time. All of my kids are in the brown shirts, then there is my mom and dad, and Isabel. We were missing Gabe(who hates taking pictures) and then Anna and Kate (who were at home with their dad who also hates taking pictures. I love the holidays. It is a nice excuse to be around family and eats lots of good food and not have to work and just spend nice time together. We didn't do a whole lot but we still enjoyed one another. We just wished the rest of the family would have been with us too. We miss you all!!

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