Hi family,
Well, the Christmas vacation is at an end. We had such a good time, but it went way too fast. I didn't write last week because I went to bed early on Christmas night, having only slept for 2.5 hours the night before (the consequence of a Christmas program that went on about 1 1/2 hours longer than it ought to have, and waiting until the night before the wrap presents, but mostly due to my OCD about wrapping presents. Somebody help me.)
So. Highlights from the past two weeks:
- Finishing my Christmas card! This one was the most labor intensive one I have done. All the taking pictures and then computer work of course took a long time, but what I didn't anticipate was how long it would take me to cut and fold all of them. There wasn't any place that would print and fold in the way I invisioned, so I got them printed on larger pieces of paper, and then trimmed to size, scored, and folded them by hand. It took me 9 hours-- from the hours of 9 PM on Monday night to 6 AM Tuesday morning. I did sleep 3 hours that night. I think next year might be a Walmart photo card from us. :-)
- Our art group Christmas party. We decoupaged votive candle holders with tissue paper, shared lots of treats, and had a white elephant gift exchange. Those are my favorite. The boys and I had a good time at Goodwill choosing our presents. Joseph gave cow book-ends, Mosey gave a hummingbird feeder (I actually quite liked this one), and Joseph gave a set of four plastic palm tree goblets.
- Joseph's flute performance. He and his teacher played a medley (the same arrangements I made for the violin/flute duets Joseph and Brigham played at the Christmas piano recital) of Christmas carols for the children at the Christmas program of the preschool/daycare where Joseph's teacher's daughter attends. The little kids were very attentive, and Joseph and his teacher sounded just magical. I was absolutely kicking myself that I did not record it. What was I thinking????? I'm so glad they got to do this. I think Joseph really got a thrill as he realized how wonderful he sounded. It nearly didn't happen, though, because I totally forgot about it! It was the morning after our art party, and I was looking forward to the first day of our vacation with "nothing" to do. I got up at a leisurely 9:30 or so, emerged from my bedroom at 9:45, and was just thinking about getting breakfast for the boys when my phone rang at about 9:55. When I saw "Francois Minaux" on the screen, my heart jumped into my throat as it all came rushing back to me. Joseph and I were supposed to be AT the preschool at 9:45!!!! The performance was at 10:15! I apologized profusely to his teacher, and told him we would leave immediately. We were about 20 minutes away, so we could still make the performance, barely, if there was not a speck of traffic on the freeway. I yelled for Joseph to get dressed, and he dressed in absolute record time, grabbed his flute and his music and we were out the door and on the road in about 2 minutes flat. I drove as fast and I dared, and luckily we got to the preschool a few minutes before 10:15. Miraculous! The preschool's director had been talking up this performance for the kids, so I would have felt terrible, and it would have been very embarrassing for Joseph's teacher if we had not showed up. As it was, everything was fine and Joseph and his teacher sounded angelic. What a great morning it turned out to be. I treated Joseph to breakfast at Sonic on the way home. :-)
- Listening to my boys wrap presents. They were all in the same room, singing nonsense words to--what was it-- Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, I think. It was so cute listening to them sing, and reminded me so much of my sisters and myself at that age, making up nonsense words to "Joy to the World." (Sear's saving's bank, Sear's saving's bank. Sear's saa-vings, saa-vings bank!--remember?)
- Caroling! This is the first year we did this. We went with another family that has 2 boys our boys' age (plus a little girl), and it was fun! We learned a couple of songs with the handbells mama gave us last year. I never thought I would actually get my boys to go caroling, but going with their friends did the trick.
- Christmas Eve. I really like our Christmas Eve traditions. In the morning Ben and I did one more quick shopping trip to Target for stocking stuffers. Then I finished making our braided wreath bread (I make this every year for neighbors and friends, as well as one for us for Christmas morning). In the afternoon we went to the church to practice our song for the next day, and then went delivering our bread. We ate dinner at Taco Cabana (our Christmas Eve dinners are always really fancy--I think we had ramen noodles last year) before going to HEB for our Shepherds Dinner shopping. Then back home for our Christmas program. All of the boys played some Christmas songs on the piano, and then we had our Nativity play. Then we had our annual Christmas Eve dance party before pulling out new PJ's for everyone and sending the boys upstairs. I started The Great Wrapping Project which involved opening about 20 boxes from Amazon.com. 95% of my chopping was done online this year. This is convenient, and also makes hiding Christmas presents from the boys really easy. :-) After the boys were asleep, Ben went to our friends' house where Sandy had been staying and then brought her back home. She was extremely happy to be back and it was very hard to keep her quiet. :-)
- Christmas morning! Of course the best surprise was Sandy. We had the boys come downstairs, had a family prayer (during which I could hear Sandy start scratching at the door), and then before starting on stockings and presents, Ben said, "Oh wait, I forgot one more thing." Then we went in our room and brought out Sandy who had a big bow on her collar. The boys didn't believe us at first-- they had to actually see the adoption papers. They were very, very, very happy, and it was a very fun trick to pull on them. I had intended our Christmas to be a small one-- Sandy being the main gift, but I can never quite manage that. I am happy with everything they got, though, so far no duds. The favorites: I got a new video camera (now to figure out how to edit movies), and Ben got a nice projector that we can hook up to our computer, and then project movies on our white wall between the two bookshelves (for those who have been to our house). This is a great system! A fraction of the cost of a giant big-screen TV. We've watched a few movies on it already. Joseph got a large animal trap with which he is hoping to catch opossums and raccoons. Brigham got a Harry Potter chess set from one of his cousins which has been a huge hit for him, plus 300 more blocks. Seriously, we need a new room on our house just for blocks. :-) Mosey got a remote control car that he adores. The boys got Ben new ties and a tie rack, and I got him some jogging clothes and reflective bands for his wrists and/or ankles. The boys got me a beautiful scarf, perfume, and a card-reader for the computer.
- Our song we played in Sacrament meeting. The boys did a really good job. I've been waiting for this for a long time. It was so wonderful to play and sing with my whole family. I think the boys really enjoyed it, too. I've lost some of my singing abilities from high school, but singing with Mosey was fun. I posted a video on Youtube if you want to see-- we recorded it again afterward in the primary room. The acoustics in that room leave much to be desired, and the boys' music stands were RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR FACES, but you get the idea. :-)
- Shepherds' Dinner. Ben roasted lamb and beef over the fire again, plus our usual fruit and nuts and cheese and flatbread and apple pie for dessert. So peaceful with only the Christmas lights and fireplace and candles lit. I played Christmas songs on my violin, another of my favorite things to do.
- Naomi's visit! Oh how I loved having Naomi and Dave and their sweet girls here. Oh how I hated to see them leave. We went on walks, hiked to Mt. Bonnell (with me on Ben's shoulders-- nothing like being the most conspicuous person among a big crowd of holiday hikers), took family pictures at Mayfield Park, watched MI3 on our projector, folded laundry (Naomi and I did that together-- much more fun than by myself), ate at Rudy's, went to the Safari Park and Riverwalk and Alamo in San Antonio, went on the train at Barton Springs, walked around the Capitol building, and treated ourselves (Naomi and I) to dinner at Cheesecake Factory after Ben and Dave and the boys got home from watching MI4 at the IMAX downtown. My biggest dream is to live close to my sisters. Polly is so adorable, and CiCi is the MOST smiley baby I have ever seen.
- New Year's Eve. We did our traditional hotdogs and rootbeer floats and The Destruction of the Gingerbread House. It was fun. I know Joseph and I were up for the new year, but I'm not sure anyone else was. Happy 2012!
- 9:00 Church! It's a bit painful waking up at 7:00 on a Sunday morning, especially when I was up till all-hours reading, but I do like 9:00 church.
I hope everyone else's holiday was as great as ours was.
Love,
Gabrielle
P.S. Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I didn't take very many pictures this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment