Present Time!!

Christmas Eve, for us, is about the true meaning of Christmas. (Well, and apparently about baking this year, lol.) Christmas morning? That's about family. And, about PRESENTS!

We had a stupendously wonderful Christmas this year. After opening our stockings, Jon and Laurie (AKA Pop-Pop and Grammy) joined us for breakfast and we enjoyed muffins and bacon and eggs. Then it was time for the present frenzy.

We spent 2 or 3 hours tearing into paper and tossing aside bows. By the time we were done, everyone was happy and the room looked like a toy store explosion. Scott's favorite presents were Madden 2007, a wireless controller for his Game Cube, and a book about U2, by U2. My favorites were Willow Tree and Ten Thousand Villages angels and sculptures from various family members, the complete Indiana Jones trilogy and a VERY COOL signed photograph of Brett Favre!! Nicky adored his DS, and said his second favorite was the electric train that Grandma and Grandpa got him. We also had fun with Grammy and Pop-Pop's gift of a crazy Cranium Cadoo board game. Kairi loved her MP3 player and said her favorite gift was a box full of frog decor for her room from Grandma and Grandpa. Grammy and Pop-Pop also scored big points for a how to draw book. Grammy and Pop Pop were happy with their presents, too - they got a microwave, I Love Lucy DVD's, a Sinatra CD, and a framed picture I had restored of Scott's Grammy.

Here's some of the highlights, in photo form:

The traditional peek down the stairs...


...to see the pile of presents Santa left!


Nicky was thrilled with his stocking contents.


Kairi looks pretty happy, too!


And let's not forget Honey, Midnight, and Princess! They get stocking stuffers, too, naturally!


Here's Nicky's reaction to his DS....


....and Kai tearing into her MP3 player.


Grammy and Pop-Pop are so cute together after 30+ years of marriage!


Kai and Nick also got the coolest Cranium fort (which they've played with A LOT since Christmas!)


Here's their first construction attempt - it can go together hundreds of different ways.




And all of that was before lunch time! After the traditional ham dinner, Jon and Laurie went home, leaving us to watch the Eagles trounce all over the Cowboys. Now THAT'S really Scott's favorite Christmas gift, no matter what he says!

Twas the Night Before Christmas....

And all through the house were the smells of baking. I had already made 6 dozen cookies for Scott's work. Then I made 3 dozen more for Kairi and I to take to school. Then Nicky took my dozen to his dance class party. So then I made another 2 dozen to take to school. So I had made 11 dozen cookies, but there were STILL none in the house for Santa or company on Christmas. Unfortunately, Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday. So after church, I came home and Scott turned on a football game. I fell into my usual Sunday afternoon snooze mode and dozed off on the couch. Before I knew it, it was 3:30, no cookies were made, no lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner was started, and church was due to begin at 6:45! I hustled the gingerbread men into the oven and got the kids decorating them. For being left to their own devices, I think they did a beautiful job! I threw together a pan of Hello Dollies and tossed them in the oven while I prepped the lasagna. The lasagna went in, the Hello Dollies came out, and I started making fudge. That's when I realized that the lasagna wouldn't be done in time for us to get to church. I sent everyone scurrying to get dressed while I stirred and stirred the fudge (you can't just leave that stuff in the middle of the process, you know)! I pulled out the lasagna, finished the fudge, threw on clothes, and ran to church. Where, blessedly, I found the peace of the season and my usual puddly eyes as a candlelit church sang "Silent Night". Not to mention the soloists. And the violinist. It was wonderful. Although the morning service had a duet of "Mary, Did You Know?" that sent shivers down my spine. So really, both services were great bookends to the day. At any rate, we went back home, had candlelight dinner with slightly cool lasagna, and sent the kids off to bed in their new pajamas: their Christmas Eve present from Grandma. Then we baked more cookies and finally tumbled into bed. All in all, it was a very nice Christmas Eve. Just, well... busy. You'd think I'd be used to that by now!

Winter Band Concert

Kairi played in her band concert tonight. She did a beautiful job, even surprising Mommy and Daddy by playing a special part featuring just the saxophones and her during one song. We were very surprised to notice that while Kai and her friends had played most of the songs with the 5th grade band last year, this year's fourth graders only played one song. This was explained when the band director said that this year's fifth grade class was one of the best he had conducted. As you can imagine, that makes us very happy - especially after all the hours we spend taking Kai to her private lessons! She just loves her horn and hopefully will continue to do well. As we said to her, though, if she does this well now, imagine what would happen if she PRACTICED a little more!! ;-)

Frog in Your Throat?

So. Nicky practiced. And he practiced. And he practiced. And he was ALL ready to sing the all important solo in the church Christmas play. And less than a week before the play, he got laryngitis. BADLY. His voice just went. :-( But, we needed him. And he could, well, sort of sing. So he sang. The play went perfectly, except for the fact that Nicky sounded like he was swallowing sandpaper. Ah, well.

We were very proud of him and the rest of the kids, anyway. Even with his weak voice, Nicky made everyone puddle up. Which is understandable, since the chorus of his song was:

Was He a boy like me?
Did He bounce on Daddy's knee?
Did He play games to make His mother smile?
As you place the final piece inside the manger scene,
I wonder if He was, a boy like me.

With all the craziness of the season, I'm glad we took the time to celebrate in song and drama the little boy who was born to save us all.

Christmas Comes Early to Wilson!!!!!!

WOOOOOO OOOO OOOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOO OOOO OOOOO OOOOO OOOO OOOOOO OOO OO OOOO OO!!!!

Okay, so maybe that wasn't my most articulate blog opening ever but.... WOOO OOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOO OOOOO!! !!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

Kids who not that long ago learned language and literature in MY classroom are celebrating a STATE CHAMPIONSHIP RIGHT NOW in Hershey.

How articulate do you want me to be???

Go WARRIORS! You ROCK!!!!!

http://www.mcall.com/sports/highschool/all-piaa-wilson-121606-cn,0,2528535.story?coll=all-news-hed

Deck the Halls

We love decorating for the holidays. A question on Scrappin_FUN a few weeks ago asked if we went "overboard" with decorating. I'll let you all judge.

Here's the entrance of the house. I'm so excited that we have a carriage light now - it looks so cool at Christmas!

As you can see, the tree dominates the living room. We picked the first one we found at the lot that made the kids bend backward to see the top. Our new star isn't very visible in either shot, but it's nearly brushing the ceiling, so no wonder. Under the tree is the gorgeous quilted tree skirt Mom made us.

Our tree is a hodge podge of ornaments. No themes here! Every single ornament on the tree has a story. Most were made or given by a child. Many are paper, or foam. A few are glass and ceramic. No two really match. Here's a few of our favorites: a CD snowflake made by Nicky in Kindergarten, an angel Kairi made at Advent Workshop, Scott's "Go Eagles!" ball from the year they went to the Super Bowl, and my childhood puppy ornament. Each one is special to us, but classy... it's not.

We've also decorated the living room with lots of our favorite little Christmas items. The nutcracker is Nicky's, new this year. The houses line the windowsill behind the tree, and the bell (with mistletoe inside) is right in the entrance way for maximum kissage. There are a few other scattered decorations, including a Christmas lap quilt, but I think this blog entry has enough pictures as it is!

The stockings were hung.... by the stairway. But hey, in lieu of a fireplace, it's a pretty nice look. The entranceway is also home to our old nativity set and (of course!) a pretty Christmas quilt.

The view from the head of our dining room table is really pretty this time of year! My snowman collection has taken over the hutch and the sideboard bookcase has my new nativity. (Yes, mom, I was VERY CAREFUL when I had the candles lit for this picture.)
We also have some fun wooden reindeer in the kitchen, the kids have covered their rooms in garland and Christmas stuffed animals, and a certain dancing half snowman/ half Christmas tree that "scares" Nicky has been relegated to our room. All in all, the effect is cozy, and only a LITTLE cluttered. At least, I think so - maybe it's a lot cluttered. Oh well!

Breakfast with Santa

Well, the good news is, breakfast was great, Santa was great, Hoboken the clown was great, Nicky's present (a hotwheels racetrack) was great.....

But Santa didn't know Kairi was going to be there. See, he just got the AGES of the kids coming to the party, not the names. Or he would have known not to give Kairi a Bratz doll. Cause mean old mommy doesn't let her play with Bratz dolls.

Fortunately, that Santa guy is pretty slick. Cause after we left for a Christmas shopping excursion, we came back to our car to find a note to Kairi apologizing for the mix up. Along with a gift. A FROG gift. (Kairi is obsessed with frogs like Nicky is obsessed with pirates - see below....)

Better yet, one of the girls we picked off the angel tree at the grocery store wants Bratz dolls. So now we can deliver the doll to her, right from Santa.

We think Daddy's work is pretty cool to sponsor such a neat event!

Avast, Ye Cookie!

Nicky is completely obsessed with pirates. He was Captain Jack Sparrow for Halloween, and again for Disney day at school this week. He made a pirate Jack-O-Lantern for kindergarten last year, wants pirate stuff for Christmas, and is saving allowance to buy the Pirates of the Carribean movie on DVD.

So it shouldn't have exactly been a surprise when Mommy asked "How do you want to decorate this gingerbread man for class?"

Penny Wars!!!

Every year, my seventh graders raise money over the course of a week to buy gifts for needy families at a local shelter for women and children. We have "penny wars" where quarters and dollars count for your homeroom, and pennies, dimes and nickels count against your homeroom. Of course, ALL the money goes to charity, but the competion really gets the kids geared up - my homeroom alone raised $294! We're still waiting on the results, but with $178 "positive" money, I think we may be the winners.... for the third year in a row!

We also decorate a tree in a theme related to our charity. This years' theme is "Give the Gift of Love". I was pretty happy with how my tree topper turned out, and the kids' ornaments were great too - even though in typical seventh grade fashion, they don't see "heart" Santas. Nope, the ornaments have become known as the "butt" Santas. *sigh*

A Winter's Night

The theme for Kai's winter concert this year was "A Winter's Night". Personally, I think her favorite part was wearing her pajamas on stage. To give her credit, they were awfully cute pajamas! The chorus did a great job (though it wasn't their best holiday concert, in my opinion) and Kai said she had fun. The song I liked best was the one where Kai got to sing in Swahili!

Oh, YAWN!

You know, I write a lot about all the fun our family has. And it's true, we do have a lot of fun! But there are regular, ordinary, BORING parts to our lives, too. For starters (sorry Kai), WAITING for Kai's French Horn lesson to be over every week is just plain boring.

Her instructor lives too far from anywhere we might need to go to make it feasible to leave and come back during the 30 minute lesson. And since his house is 30 minutes from ours, going home and coming back won't work either.

Since Nicky has to be to dance right after her lesson, he and I have to come along, too. So there we sit, on a residential street, doing nothing for half an hour but staring at the houses - like the holiday decorated one above.

It got so boring this week that we took turns taking pictures of said house, without the flash, and with as much motions as we could manage. These shots are the result. Pretty pathetic, huh? On the other hand, who knew a six year old, Christmas lights, and a slow digital camera could make such... interesting pictures!

Tree Troubles

So. You know you're a bit silly when you move to a new house with 10' ceilings, buy a tree, and still manage to have the tree be TOO BIG for your living room! Ah well, some judicious pruning, and the tree looks great. Where are the pictures, you ask? Well.... I haven't actually taken any since we decorated it! But trust me, putting up the tree on the Sunday after Nutcracker really helped everyone's holiday spirit! We especially love buying the tree from the high school band sale, since Kai will be selling the trees one of these days.

And yes, Mom, I'll take pictures of the decorated house very soon! (Sowwy!)

Nutcracker Nuttiness

Sorry we haven't updated in awhile, but we got caught up in the holiday hustle and bustle! First, the kids spent nearly all their free time the week after Thanksgiving rehearsing for the Nutcracker. They did a beautiful job, and we were very proud of them. We were also very glad rehearsals were over!

My batteries died on me, so I don't have any pictures of Kai in the first act. She was a soldier, and danced some key parts in the battle with the mice! Nicky was in the previous scene as a party guest.

The second act found Kairi dancing beautifully as a dew drop. She was wonderful - focused and graceful. Nicky was adorable as a bon bon - even though he HATES the bonnet. Can you blame him?

Both had tons of fun dancing with all their friends before a packed audience on Saturday night - but it wasn't all fun and games - they really earned their applause and roses!