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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Christmas 2012

On Christmas Eve, we had dinner at Macayo's and then went out to look at Christmas lights. I thought we had some cinnamon rolls on hand for Santa, but we didn't! Poor Santa had to settle for cookies. But Erin left a note and a nice drawing for him.
We "over-saved" (is that possible?) for our cruise, so we were able to buy a few extra things this year.  We had a pretty good spread on Christmas morning.

 

My parents and my sister came over on Christmas morning and the festivities began! 





After all the presents, we made breakfast and cleaned up the aftermath. We talked to Bob, Sandy, and Annalice in Illinois, and then we went to Rob's parents' house. Both his sisters and their families were there, so we got to spend a lot of time visiting and opening more presents. And there was a nice spread of appetizers & munchies for everyone to graze on.

Since the kids were in school clear up to the 21st, they had two solid weeks to play with all their stuff before going back to school.  Score!

Christmas Concerts

After a couple of weeks of Blogger not allowing me up upload photos, and then having trouble with the format of the videos I want to post, I'm just going to post what I'm able to so I can move on to 2013!

Erin had a piano recital a couple of weeks before Christmas.  She played “Frosty the Snowman”, and she did a great job!


The Friday before Christmas was the kids’ last day of school, and they both had their Christmas concerts that morning.  They were very cute!  They do the concerts by grade, so we got to see 90 first graders and I think about 60 fifth graders.  That's entertainment!

Robbie is on the left in the white shirt in this photo.  The little girl in green in the front row is one of our friends, and she and her brother ride to school with us every morning.  Their mom drives Robbie home in the afternoon.  The little girl in the 2nd row from the top in the light blue shirt was in the Seussical play with us.


As I was going through my photos, it struck me that this is what a group of about 20 first-graders looks like.  It's unfathomable, what the families at Sandy Hook Elementary have been through.  What sweet little kids!

Erin is in the row 2nd from the top in this picture.  The girl behind her with the white headband and the boy to Erin’s left in the Santa hat are twins that we've carpooled with since kindergarten!  They're some of Erin's best friends, and she's happy they're all in the same class this year.

 
Erin was also in elementary choir, so we saw that performance as well.  The elementary choir is extracurricular, so they had practices every Monday before school.  Erin had some interest in trying out for one of the duets, but ultimately decided not to.  She thinks she might go for it next year.