Christmas Eve

We go to my Dad and Suzy's house in Phoenix every year for Christmas Eve. We love getting together with all of our family. The kids love that and all the presents.

Suzy let them open one each when they got there. It's like torture making them wait for 6 hours.


We all sat down to a delicious lasanga dinner that Suzy made. And in walked my big surprise. Let me rewinde about 40 years.

In 1972, my parents bought a house on Paradise Drive. We had great neighbors. Our neighbors next door, the Oakes, were like family. I spent most of my days with their youngest daughter Liz. She was a sister to me. Their family moved away in the late 80's. In any case, Liz got hit by a car and died in 1991. We saw all of the Oakes at Liz's funeral and it's been 21 years since we've seen them. We can say lots of negative things about the internet, but in this case, it helped rejoin a "family". Through Facebook, I've been in touch with one of the daughters Katie. Her family and her Dad came by my Dad's house for a visit.

My Dad was surprised to say the least.

Here's Katie.

And Dave and my sister.

Here's our whole group.

It was a great day to reconnect with loved ones, and I feel so very blessed to be in this family.

After dinner, we played some games. The boys were happy to sit with my Dad.

The kids got tons of gifts. Way too much as always. We drove back home and got ready for Santa.

The kids left out Oreos and carrots for each reindeer.

Ben's note:

Emily's note:

We were all set. The kids went to sleep while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads...

Crazy Christmastime

The past week has been a whirlwind of activity. I'm going to break it down in several posts. I wish I would've had time to write along the way, but I was having too much fun.

The kids have 16 days off of Christmas. They got right to work playing.

By playing, I mean destroying the house.

Seriously, it looks like a tornado came through.

We decided to get them out of the house and we went to Sedona to see the Christmas lights. We drove up and over the mountain that is right by our house. It's been years since we've ben up there and the kids thought it was awesome to look down on the top of trees. Only 15 minutes away up the mountain and there was snow.

We should go sledding up there sometime, but it's scary if the roads aren't plowed well.

In any case, we got to Sedona as the sun was going down.

Sedona really is beautiful. We went out for dinner and the kids got to see Snoopy Rock. The rocks all kind of look like something, so they get nicknames. Snoopy Rock is dead center in the photo. Like he's laying on his back, head to the left. There is even a little Woodstock on his nose. See it?

Ben could not make it out, so I had to zoom the photo in on the camera and he finally got it.

We had a great dinner. My kids shared a chicken ceasar salad. It was their first time at Wildflower Bread Company, which is one of my favorite places.

We got all bundled up and went to see the lights.

It's a resort/timeshare and residents decorate their yards in different themes. I think there was 25 or so displays. It's really neat.
There was a Jungle Book theme.

An Angry Birds theme which was Ben's favorite.

Madagascar

Disney

Penguins

And The Grinch. Ben was impersonating him.


Noah wanted a turn.

Then we made the 75 minute drive home. Well, after we stopped to go to the bathroom at Circle K and bought a Big Hunk. It was a great ending to a great evening.

Emily's Concert

Emily had her school concert on Thursday night. It's 3-6th grades. Her pretty dress is certainly getting it's use this year. She looked beautiful.

You have to get there 30 minutes early if you want a seat. So, Ben played Angry Birds and Noah played Blah to pass the time. Well, it's not called blah, but that' what he calls it.

Emily on stage waiting to perform.

Here are the videos from her peformance:



Emily's music teacher is great. He reminds me of Jack Black in School of Rock. He definitely gets the kids excited about music. He plays every instrument. I thought this was classic. He played an accordian for one of the 4th grade songs.

At the end, they did a mass number with all 4 grades. I don't think they will ever do this again as it was chaos to get that many kids back up on stage. A big group singing Feliz Navidad.

It was another great night of music and fun! They had a few solo performances in between with kids singing or playing piano. I told Emily she should do that next year. Wouldn't that be fun!

Ben's Concert

I'm thrilled this week is over. We had so much stuff to do and things going on at the kids' school. It's been super busy and super fun.

This is a recap of Wednesday night which was Ben's Christmas concert at school. They do K-2 grades one night and 3-6 the next night. So, we get to go both nights.

Ben got dressed up and looked super handsome.

Here he is with some of his best buds.

And the videos, of course:



In an attempt to keep people there through the whole performance, they did a mass group number with all three grades. I don't think they will do this again as it was chaos, but it's great to know that so many kids enjoy coming to this concert and singing.

After, we took a drive through the Valley of Lights which is an annual thing they do up here with great light displays.

I've learned to not even bother taking photos and just enjoy it, but I took one of the holly as Ben said it was one of his favorites and it came out all trippy because we weren't stopped.

It's really cool and we all look forward to driving through every year.

It was a great night and Ben did a nice job singing.

Emily's Recital

Emily had a piano recital on Sunday. She got to wear her pretty dress again!

All the girls playing in the bedroom before the show.

Here are the 4 girls that Mrs. Stacy teaches. Unfortunately, Alanah caught some flu bug, so she wasn't there.

Here are the other three girls waiting to perform.

The girls with Mrs. Stacy.

It's really ideal as Stacy is one of our good friends as are all of these girls and their families. So, it's a fun time to watch everyone perform.

Emily played her songs beautifully.

She and Alissa had a duet.

A final bow.

I think the girls were trying to bow 3 different ways.

Stacy spoils them. They got gifts, and certificates and trophies!

Emily is doing wonderfully, and she wants to continue to play which we think is fantastic. We are so proud of her.

Here are the videos from the recital:






Seriously, how great is she? She's awesome.

We're Country

Before I get to our festivites last night, I wanted to share two pictures. First I went by Ben's class Thursday to tell his teacher I couldn't volunteer because my closet was flooding when I saw this little chart. Each student is trying to get to read 70 words per minute. I think that's the goal for the end of 1st grade. Well, Ben's already in the hooray group with a few other kids.

Honestly, I thought Ben was the creative one. You know, Emily is the smart one. And Noah is the athletic one. Well, it turns out Ben is smart too! I knew he was always smart, but I didn't know he'd hang in the top of his class with the likes of Sarah and Kadence. In any case, I'm very proud of Ben. He can be the smart and creative one.

He came walking out of his class wearing the cutest elf hat. I just about died. He is the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Okay onto tonight...

Our clubhouse was hosting a holiday party. We typically don't go to these things. David doesn't like crowds. I don't like to be cold. But much to my surprise, we finished dinner and I asked David if he wanted to go. I think the words "catered desserts" may have got him. In any case, he said let's go. So, we all bundled up and went to the Clubhouse.

For a can food or toy donation, you could take a horse drawn carriage ride. We've never done that before. It was so fun!

We ran into our friends in the parking lot, so they went with us.
This is Stacy, Dan and Savannah. My flash was going crazy in the dark. So, Dan is blurry and Savannah couldn't look at the lights any longer.

Their son Caleb wanted to sit with Ben. They are best buds.

We went in and Santa was waiting for us. So, the kids talked to Santa...again.






Then, Bud was serving up desserts.

We all had cocoa.

The kids made a craft.

I love Ben's ornament. He gives everybody glasses including his gingerbread man. He used a B sideways. Like I said, he's the creative one.

We were some of the first to arrive, but by the time we left the joint was jumping.

We really live in a great community. It's such a small town that we run in to people we know all the time. It's great.

On the way home, we drove through the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights. Once we got within a block or two of home off the main drag, we let the kids sit on our lap. Because we are country you know.

Mother nature in her best attempt to not dissapoint, finally showed up with some winter weather. It wasn't the winter wonderland we hoped for. But, it's enough for a snow ball fight and that's all that matters. The kids were so excited. About 8:30, they all came busting in my room to wake me up. David has no clue where the winter gear is. It was a sweet way to wake up with all three of my babes around me wide eyed and ready for fun.




We haven't had our fireplace on for 2 years. When Noah was about 16 months, he crawled right over to it and went to pull himself up using the glass on the fireplace. He got some nasty blisters on his palms. We've had it off ever since. We figure he's old enough now to know not to touch it, so we get to have our fireplace going again.

Life is sweet.