The Festivities

As great as all the fun holiday parties and festivities are, I must admit I am glad they are slowing down. They're all fun but rather stressful when they're all crammed into one or two weeks. Here are just a few highlights from last week alone!

We took the big girls to see my nieces in a local performance of the Nutcracker...

Ashley and Reagan's class parties....look at my presents! Aren't they so cute! Their teacher really put a lot of effort into making their gifts.

And in return they got purple Christmas trees with their picture on top and 2 star ornaments that their teacher had written nice things about them on them.

Mackenzie's dance class performance...she finally put her head up and smiled after telling me at her Christmas mini-recital 5 days before that she wouldn't smile. So much better! Now she's a performer! What a difference it makes!

At the big girls' school parties, I showed up to find Kaitlyn with a head full of bows that I thought had fallen into the abyss somewhere. She finally found them in her desk and stuck them all in her hair! Looks festive to say the least!

Brownie troop caroling at a retirement center....Kaitlyn and Mackenzie even played their Christmas piano pieces for everyone.

First piano recital!  They did great. They did seem to have a case of nerves when they first sat down but once they got over the nerves they played all the way through just fine.

Kaitlyn played a duet with her teacher..."Up on the Housetop" while wearing her new Mrs. Claus dress. Pretty good considering she couldn't read a single note 3 months ago! She is finally reading music now and getting better with every month. It was a real struggle for her at first but I hope she has the confidence in herself now to know that she can keep going.

Mackenzie played "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," but first she cracked me up and then warmed my heart. In being silly, when she did her bow as she approached the piano, she flopped her head over and pieces of her hair got caught up in the flower where it remained throughout the entire performance. On top of that, she sings every time she plays, including in her piano recital. You could just faintly hear her sweet little girl voice singing "Rudolph" while she played. As I looked around many audience members had little smiles on their faces. Precious!

I was very proud of both of them!

We still did a lot more last week but those were the pictures and the biggest highlights. This week we are chilling out some, wrapping lots of presents, watching movies, eating a lot of sugar, spending time with family, and getting ready for the big day! Now THIS is what Christmas feels like!