Can't Forget Christmas

Well, here we are coming up on nearly a month past Christmas. I'm getting ready to post some basketball photos, only to realize I never acknowledged Christmas!

The day before Christmas, Cole had a sudden realization that he had not gotten anyone anything for Christmas and also, had no money to do any last minute shopping. He decided to quickly learn to crochet, and make hats for everyone for Christmas.

Later...

Much later...

Wayne jumped on the learn-to-crochet band wagon.

Meanwhile, Heather and I made peppermint bark.

On Christmas Eve, Wes too all the kids to Mass. Then Heather and I met up with Joanie and her friends Cindy and Jerry, for a Christmas Eve moonlit snow shoe.  We went back to her house, and met up with Wes there for the lighting of the figgy pudding.

It was yummy and tasted like very moist gingerbread. 

 Christmas morning in our house, starts off with the stockings.

Then we take a break for breakfast. I had made cinnamon rolls, and we had fruit and bacon. Then a little later, we move on to the tree gifts.

Meanwhile, outside we were visited by some grosbeaks making good use of the crab apple tree.

Peter, Jeanne, Katie, Lizzy, Joanie and Martha came for Christmas dinner.

Apparently, dessert is more important than dinner, because I didn't get any pictures of dinner. Heather had made and decorated sugar cookies. Cole made brownies. 

I made an apple pie from apples I had frozen from our trees last fall.  Joanie made pecan pie bars which were dangerously addictive!

All those calories were worked off by clearing the pond and a game of pond hockey.

A week later, we were off to Cedric and Susan's for the big Alexander holiday party.

I did not take any of the following photos. I'm using the ones that were sent out via email.

We had a great holiday break. Monday morning back to school was a rude awakening.

No More Single Digits

Heather turns 10 today, which means no more single digits in our family.  Mondays are not very birthday-friendly around here, with our busy after school schedule, so we celebrated over the weekend. Heather only wanted to have one friend, Kelby, come over for a sleep-over. Joanie and Grammie also came for dinner, cake and ice cream and games.

 Heather and Kelby's favorite game, Pie Face.

 Earlier in the day, Heather and Kelby decorated gingerbread houses.

 Patches tried to curl up in Grammie's lap, but this was the closest Grammie would allow her to get!

 A Hot Cocoa Trimming kit was a fun gift from Joanie.

Happy Birthday Heather! Daddy and I love you so much and are so proud of the wonderful girl you are turning out to be - Sweet, funny, smart, athletic, musical. We are so lucky to have the best girl in the world!

Christmas Music

In case you are NOT already in the holiday spirit, here is an abundance of Christmas music videos to take care of that problem!

Cole and Wayne recently had their middle school and high school winter concerts. 

 Cole is in the chorus, jazz band, and concert band.  He somehow manages to sing, seemingly without moving his mouth!

I got my videos out of order here. I meant to have a chorus video here, but looks like that's further down the line. (I'm not going to try to move it, because that usually causes everything to go haywire.)

Cole in the jazz band. You can't really see him because Miss Newton is right in front of him.

 Here he is in the concert band. Again, not a great view.

In high school, Wayne is given a nice outfit to wear. The boys wear dress shirt, vest, bow tie, and dress pants. The girls all wear the same long black dress.

Wayne has a jazzy trumpet solo here. Freshman are not usually invited to join the jazz band, and as you may notice, Wayne is the only trumpeter. (And I believe he is one of 2 trumpets in the concert band, which is open to all high school band members. 

Dr. Doncaster was happy to see Wayne come along after losing some trumpet players last year to graduation. The saxophone soloist here is also a freshman.  Dr. Doncaster gave credit to Amy Newton and Anna Kennedy for doing such a good job with the middle schoolers that these freshman were already prepared for the upper level jazz band. Quite an accomplishment considering middle school instrumental students have one 20 minute lesson each week.  (The jazz band rehearses for 90 minutes on Wednesday evenings.)

Wayne was acknowledged in the Chronicle.

Another piece by the jazz ensemble. The solo singer is the daughter of one of the preschool teachers where I work.

The bassoonist next to Wayne is his honors English teacher, Steve Tatum.

Wayne with the concert band.

Pete Corocos, who is always at the middle school concerts, also photographed the high school performance. After the show, he talked trumpet with Wayne and wants to help him play Taps.

I am curious to find out what songs Heather will be sing at her concert on the 20th, as they are no longer allowed to celebrate holidays.

Everyday Life

Not a lot going on these days, and that's probably a good thing. Soccer ended a couple of weeks ago, so the kids have had less after school commitments. Basketball begins after Thanksgiving break. As with soccer, we will have 3 kids on 3 different teams. 

Wes and Wayne have been doing a lot of hunting. With them away at camp, the deer are brave enough to venture right up to the apple tree in the back yard. 

 The apple tree was a hot spot for wildlife today.

Spike was attacked by another dog while we were out for a jog the other day.  He was pretty sore for a while and had to wear a cone to keep him from constantly licking his wounds.  Unfortunately, the width of the cone also took down a couple of side tables and coffee cups.

 Today was warm and beautiful. Heather, Cole, and I puttered around the forgotten garden and found several overgrown carrots.

I guess our biggest news lately, is that Wayne has acquired his driving learner's permit. This is what it looks like to have your 15-year-old driving you around...

 ...but this is what it feels like.

I'm not ready for this.

Youth Weekend

I don't know all the details, but Wayne and Wes spent Sunday afternoon of youth weekend hunting near the camp and this is the result! I will try to have Wayne write an update to this post at some point with "the story."

Meanwhile, we are looking forward to having only a 2 day school week. Sooooo happy about that!