Nutcracker

 Erin Joy's idea of dressing up.....fancy dress, fancy shoes with levis underneath and socks. Silly girl!

 Our friend bought us Nutcracker tickets as a Christmas present. We were so excited to go. This is the last year that the PNB will be using Maurice Sendak's sets and costumes. I absolutely LOVE the sets, scenery, and costumes by Sendak. I can't imagine the Nutcracker without Sendak. I am so glad we were able to go this year. Both Rachel and Erin have been sick....I am so glad they were able to suck on cough drops and enjoy the performance. (Poor Rachel is still in bed at 10:30 recovering from last night.)

 We were not disappointed. What a fabulous show!

 The ballerina cupcakes were gone so we settled for Mouse King cookies during intermission.

We had so much fun. Thanks Jean!!

And a little movie with even more pictures..... 

Our Poor Elf

 We have been having a lot of fun with our elf this year, but I haven't been taking pictures everyday like I did last year, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of  him the day he got a little too close to the vacuum cleaner.

This year Erin Joy asked if she could hide him. I was shocked. What??? She knows the elf doesn't really fly to the North Pole every night and report back to Santa??? She believed in Santa and Hermy the elf for so long that I suppose it is time for her to grow up. I told her she could hide Hermy every other day because I still wanted to do it too! It is fun to try to find Hermy on days that I don't hide him so I'm fine with this arrangement. Rachel doesn't want to hide him because she wants to find him every day. I am glad my kids still play along with me....I hope the elf game will last forever....

Rachel's Music Concert

 Rachel played Christmas Carols with a small group in the hall before the performance.

 The orchestra meets one day a week and is very small....

 And here she is with the band....

I thought Rachel's middle school band did an amazing job. I am impressed with their new conductor. He is fresh out of college and looks like he is 12 years old, but he is doing a fabulous job with the kids. I was sad when Rachel's former teacher retired because he was really good too, but I'm not sad anymore.  I think her middle school band sounds just as good as my high school band ever sounded. I really love music and I am glad Rachel is enjoying both band and orchestra. Here is a video of one of the four songs they played.... 

Here is my favorite song....a lovely Holiday Medley.... They played two more songs, but I am tired of fighting with Youtube to get them uploaded so I give up; two are sufficient.

 

And her small, but great orchestra.....(they played two songs, but I only ended up with one on my camera because I didn't push the right button and didn't actually record the second song. Shucks!)

And the small group playing Christmas Carols....

Christmas Fun

 We were socked! How fun! Even more fun than being socked, was socking someone else. We also "snowed" people too. Very fun indeed!

 Our church Christmas party was a luau. It was fun to use some of the things my parents brought for us while serving a mission in the Marshall Islands. It was fun to have a Hawaiian Santa Claus even if he was a little skinny.

Rachel Ice Skating

Rachel did a great job ice skating today. She got to skate in the big arena with spotlights. Very fun!!

Happy Birthday, Rachel!!!

 I sure love this sweet, talented, and beautiful 13 year old girl!! Happy birthday, Rachel!!

 Instead of a cake, she had a mashed potato/chicken patty mound so we could put the candles someplace.

Happy Family Forever Day, Rachel!

12 years ago, I held Rachel for the first time. I loved her then and I love her now. What a wonderful, talented, kind, and precious young lady she has become. I love you more than chips and salsa sweet Rachel Bug!!

Every year she adds and "ornament" that I purchased in China to her "Adoption Tree." The tree used to be taller than she was. Guess that has changed!

Thanksgiving

We were joined by the Ward family and had a marvelous Thanksgiving.

The kids helped with dinner....

 They also wrote with berry ink and quills like the pilgrims.

 They played on the big truck at the quarry near our house while they waited for dinner.

 Dinner at last....

 The dishwasher....

 Great Dalmuti game...

Ice skating the day after Thanksgiving was much better than Black Friday shopping!

 

We were all impressed that my uncle was skating.

 We had fun making snow ice cream when it snowed two days after Thanksgiving...

 Sledding was also fun....

 We were so glad that Jean came over and helped us make a wreath.

 Our new wreath inspired us to get out our Christmas boxes and start decorating.