Yay for Christmas!!!

Christmas came fast as our school break started the closest to Christmas day that it ever has since we came to Texas--December 21st!  Top that off with Kendra having two Snow White shows on the 21st and one more on the 22nd and we were rushin' and crazy!  Thankfully, I had all the shopping done, and our wonderful PTA at school had given me a 1/2 day off earlier that week so I had done the wrapping, too! 

Christmas eve arrived with me feeling rather puny (found out later that I had the flu and a brewing sinus infection) so Kendra and I chose to stay in.  Kendra pampered me with a spa night---she got me a hot bath ready complete with bath salts and rose petals, and then lit candles and put on Christmas music for me.  The hot bath really helped me feel better!

We were awakened in the night by one doozy of a thunderstorm!  It was LOUD and it went on for hours.  Definitely a first for us---thunderstorms on Christmas night!  Normally I have to wake up my Sleeping Beauty on Christmas morning (every year!)  but this year the storm did so we got up at around 7:00--a record early time.  :-)  Kendra enjoyed opening her gifts---highlights this year for her were new bedding from me (we're redoing her room slowly) and gift cards from her dad (she LOVES to shop!).  Kendra spent her own money to buy me a beautiful sweater and to put a Lifesavers Book and toe socks into my stocking.  Awesome.

An awesome blanket from her dad and his fiance---it is embroidered with "I'd Rather Be Acting!"

Gift cards!

Surfin' the new body pillow on the new bedding set

Surveying the blessings!

Sweater courtesy of Kendra

 After unwrapping, I made homemade cinnamon sugar doughnuts...mmmmm!

Time to make the doughnuts!

 We got showered and ready for the next VERY anticipated activity of the day....we went to see Les Miserables!!!  Oh man, great movie.  I introduced Kendra to the amazing music about a year ago, and she loves it as much as I do.  We can both sing the whole musical!  But we didn't sing in the theater---that would be rude.  :-) 

We walked out of the theater three hours later to find it was.....

SNOWING!!!

It came down fast!!!

It made for a little bit of a dicey drive later on that night, but the snowy whiteness and the joy it gave to Kendra made it more than worth it.  But holy CATS, it was also so COLD!  We headed over to the (David) Ballards for dinner with our (Scott & Sherry) Ballards.  Kendra and I were both dim witted (or maybe just trying to remember everything we needed to take with us) and didn't even think to bring snow gear for Kendra to play in.  The kids all piled outside (minus Kendra :-(  ) but they didn't stay out long in the bitter air.  We had a delicious prime rib dinner and enjoyed wonderful friends.  We exchanged gifts and were rottenly spoiled by our Ballards yet again.  I received a new pair of  black dress shoes (desperately needed) with a certificate to buy another pair of my choice, new flannel sheets, a certificate for car washes, and a certificate for a 90 minute massage.  Kendra received a gift for both of us---tickets to go see Wicked coming to Dallas!!!!!

Are you kidding???????

We had a beautiful Christmas...we are very, very blessed. 

Hall Decking and Holiday Prep

Just a few shots of our Christmas preparations this year...

Kendra with her nativity collection

Oh Christmas tree!

Us in front of the Fort Worth Christmas tree downtown

Another decoration in Fort Worth's display

Our fifth annual picture at the nativity display at a church center in Arlington

A Snow White Christmas

The theater bug bit Kendra some time ago---in fourth grade, I believe.  Last year she played the lead in our school musical, and was a bit sad to learn that theater is not an elective offered to sixth graders at her middle school.  We started thinking about other avenues for Kendra to pursue this (very big) interest, and a local community theater called The Artisan came to mind.  They are a wonderful, family-owned and family-friendly theater that we've been attending as patrons since we moved here.  They have cute children's productions and "main stage" shows that are out of this world.  So we looked into it, and Kendra auditioned for the Christmas children's musical A Snow White Christmas.  She earned the part of one of the dwarves/elves--Giggle Toes.

It was a big time commitment---rehearsals were usually three nights per week for 2-3 hours.  I did a lot of paper grading!  :-)  When we arrived to the first rehearsal I was pleased to see the "seasoned" kids welcome Kendra into their fold quickly, and the moms were equally nice.  As the time went on, I started to get a little worried---things seemed disorganized, the rehearsals seemed barely-controlled chaos, and the hours spent in rehearsal seemed to bear little fruit.  Kids weren't learning their parts and only idle threats were given.  Once, I sat in on a rehearsal and my teacher skin was crawling---I literally had to leave because the management of the kids was so poor.  Kendra was frustrated, I was frustrated.   We were both worried that her first experience at this place we LOVED was going to be a total waste of time and a complete embarrassment to Kendra---many of our friends had promised to come watch her perform.  So, I wrote the managing director and owner an email expressing our concerns.  Thankfully, both had seen similar issues and jumped in to help the newbie director get some semblance of control.  Our confidence in the theater was restored.  The shows were rough at the start, but eventually they came together.  Kendra enjoyed herself once things got fixed, and she plans to audition for another show in the next weeks. 

First show with flowers from our friends, the Aigners.

The merry band of elves!

On stage

At the mall performance

Our Bloggy Christmas Card---2012 in Review

I'll admit it.  Sometimes I'm cheap.  I loooovve getting Christmas cards from family and friends.  Love it!  But I'm cheap.  I don't want to spend the equivalent of a nice gift for someone on stamps!  So I hope family and friends will forgive me when I do my card blog-style.  The upside is that I get to have this year-in-review preserved here on my online "journal"!  So, here we go!

JANUARY:  We rang in 2012 and I declared my word of the year to be "balance."  Have I achieved that?  Well, if you count being able to do a tree pose in yoga as balanced....

FEBRUARY:  I had the pleasure of chaperoning Kendra's fifth grade science camp with her.  We had a blast together!!

No that's not snow.  We live in Texas, people.  But it was chilly!

 Kendra surprised me by asking to be on our school's Battle of the Books team.  It involves reading.  She's not normally a fan of reading (which kills me).  Maybe the bestie being team captain had something to do with it.  They came in fourth place (not bad out of 23 schools).
                         

Kendra and bestie R, ready for competition

 MARCH:
We got sick.  A lot.  But we got better.  :-)
We lost our dog, Grady, to a tumor in his belly  :-(

We went on Craigslist and got a new dog, Eli.

Eli was a totally crazy dog who didn't do well in a one-dog, people-gone-all-day house---he didn't stay with us long, but he did end up with his own happily-ever-after.

APRIL:
Crazy weather, lots of storms, even a "take shelter" at school!

MAY:
I co-directed and Kendra played the lead in our school's first ever musical!

Kendra graduated from elementary school!

I earned my five year pin from my school district.  Five years already???


JUNE:
Kendra went to spend two weeks with her dad in Utah---first time she has ever been gone that long.  It was hard!

I had a birthday and turned....

Kendra's three closest friends moved!  One to Cali, one about 2 hours east of here, and one four hours south of here.  :-(  That was hard, too.

JULY:
Our annual pilgrimage to Michigan--for the first time without a dog. 
Kendra cut her hair!

We spent lots of time with cousins.

Kendra had her 11th birthday!

AUGUST:
We got a puppy!!!!

I started my sixth year of  teaching fourth grade, and Kendra started middle school!

SEPTEMBER:
Kendra adjusted to middle school well and made some good friends.
Kendra started having migraines and we started chiropractic care which worked!
I was crazy busy with the demands of my job at the beginning of a school year.  Sigh.
We took Lucy to puppy training at PetSmart.  She learned to sit, stay, come when called, and some other things.  We're trying hard to keep her trained!  :-)
Kendra discovered she loves volleyball.  Go figure---my non-sporty child found a sport.  She even bought her own volleyball.

OCTOBER:
I attended Kendra's first choir concert as a middle school student.  I was very impressed!
We did the usual Halloweenie things.  :-)

NOVEMBER:
Kendra auditioned for a part in a Christmas musical called A Snow White Christmas at a local community theater.  She got the part of Giggle Toes, one of the elves (dwarfs)!  November was packed with rehearsals 3 nights per week.

Kendra joined her school's Destination Imagination team.  They will compete sometime in the winter.  She's very excited about her team!

Lucy got her first big-girl-dog hair cut.

I was chosen as teacher of the month.

DECEMBER:
A Snow White Christmas is in full swing 

Giggle Toes :-)

We visited our favorite Nativity Display as is our family tradition.

Kendra's choir had a very busy performance schedule...first a concert, then two visits to nursing homes and a fun trip to the mall.  Kendra takes private voice at school and also had a recital the same week.  Have I mentioned I'm totally impressed with the music program at her school?

Singing at a Nursing Home

We are grateful for a break from school coming (even though we don't get two weeks like we usually do!).  We are planning to spend time with great friends and just relax!  We've also been blessed to be invited to spend several days with our dear friends who moved south---they are renting a cabin in Oklahoma and invited us to join!  Can't wait!!

We are a happy little family.  We feel blessed to have a sweet little home, a good, dependable car, food on our table, and money enough for fun extras from time to time.  We are ridiculously blessed with wonderful friends and family in our lives.  We are ever grateful for our faith and the knowledge of a God and Savior who love us.  We wish peace, love, and fun times to all!

Colleen & Kendra

Halloween 2012

The newest decor this year:

 

Idea found on Pinterest.  So clever, yet so simple. 

The pumpkin:

"We can't just get our pumpkin at Kroger, Mom.  It's about the EXPERIENCE."  :-)

Her favorite color:  Sparkles.  So we sparkled the heck out of it.  The bonus:  no gut-scooping!  Score!

Ta Da!  (She looks a little manic here...?)

Church Trunk or Treat:

We made Mummy Cupcakes for the cake walk

Black-eyed P!  :-)

Basically the antithesis of herself---but don't you LOVE the actress in her?  Such sass in this pic, and yet she is NOTHING like this in real life.  So fun!

Trick or treating the neighborhood with Lucy:

Lucy:  "What did I do?" 

The angel and the devil (really should have swapped costumes, methinks)

AWWWW

The loot.  Look carefully at her face---she started getting sick while trick or treating.  You can see it in her eyes.   She asked to come back early, and had showered and was in bed (without eating one piece of candy) by 8:00 p.m.  :-(

Spirit Week!

Every year for Red Ribbon Week our schools have a Spirit Week.  She had fun participating each day.

Day 1:  Mustache Day!  :-)

 It had a little adhesive strip, but we both knew it wouldn't last the day, so we ended up putting the 'stache on a big Popsicle craft stick and she held it up all day.  She actually got a zillion compliments on the pink-ness AND the idea to put it on a stick!

Day 2:  TWIN DAY!

Kendra's bestie, R, moved four hours south of us this year.  :-(  But apparently, they made a pact that when their schools had twin day they would call and coordinate.  They were twins from afar!  Her mom sent me the pic so I could have both of them together!

I think it is extra cute they both chose the hands-on-hips stance, unaware that the other did the same.  :-)

Day 3:  DECADES DAY
Dress like your favorite era.  I thought Kendra would go with the same old sixties or eighties look like everyone else, but she said, "Mom I just read about Pompeii and I think I want to wear a toga like those people."  Well, it paid off!  On her announcements her Vice Principal was talking about everyone's attire and he said, "And I even saw a cute girl in a toga!"  She was the only toga-attired person, AND she won her class award for most spirit that day!  A friend of mine who does the PTA stuff for the district saw her pic on FB and asked to use it for a district PTA promo, and at the end of the week on her school's announcements they did a recap of spirit week and her picture was on there, too.  Yay for creativity, Kendra!

Day 4:  Wear Red Day.  She did wear red, but we forgot to take a picture!

Day 5:  HAT DAY

I wish they let the kids wear cute hats all the time.  Kendra looks great in them!

Choir concert #1

Kendra's first middle school choir concert was this week.  It featured the choirs from all three grades--6th, 7th, and 8th.  I volunteered to be a "chaperone", and the director asked me to stand at the auditorium doors preventing the mob of parents from entering before the allowed time.  I got to be a bouncer!  :-)  I also sat amongst the choir children as they waited their turn to go on stage.  I am well qualified for that job---I have no issue using my teacher-face to hush other people's children.  :-)

Kendra was less than enthused with the polyester awesomeness of her required choir couture...

Nice of the gentleman chaperone to smile for my picture, too.  :-)

Giving it her all! 

This is the whole 6th grade combined choir--arrow pointing to Kendra.  HUGE group!

The concert was in the 7th week of school, so they only had six weeks or so to prepare.  The 6th grade girls group is so large they have two different class periods, and the boys have their own class.  They prepared their songs in class, but sang as a whole group only ONCE before the concert-- in a rehearsal just beforehand.  I was very, very impressed!  They sounded excellent!  To be honest, I went with the intention to hide my grimace, expecting pitchy and off-color notes at times, but there was no grimace to hide!  The 7th and 8th grade choirs sounded lovely and it was fun to see what Kendra will be doing as she continues in the music program.  I chose this school for Kendra because of its music reputation, and the concert proved I made a great choice!