December Recap

I'm getting old so I can't remember everything that I *should* have posted, had I been doing a good job of blogging.....soooooo, this is a quickie recap from the last part of December.  Bear with me...this could get long and boring as I find photos to post!  :-)
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Claire auditioned and made the cut for her school's choir and swamp band.  They call themselves the swamp band because their mascot is a gator.  The only instrument in the band is one of those plastic recorders that schools use to teach music...but they sound really good anyway! 

Choir (chosen from a student body of 900!)

Claire's swamp band costume

I helped out with our church's Children's Choir this fall.  Our program was "A Shepherd, Sheep & a Savior".  We dressed all of the kids in shepherd costumes for the play, and they looked adorable!  One of the kids' favorite songs was "Stinky, Smelly Sheep"...so cute!

My little shepherd, Claire

I did quite a bit of online shopping for the holidays.  Several items were packed with the foam "peanuts".  Max was playing with some of the packing material and noticed that it stuck to his hand.  I showed Max how to rub the peanuts to make them have more static.  He had the best time playing and making them stick to him (love his little peanut beard!).

We all had a great Christmas.  The kids got pretty much everything they asked for.   We drew names again (among the older 5 of us...Max just isn't old enough yet) and *made* an item for the other family member.  Randy made me a beautiful photo frame; I made Randy a CD calendar and a year of memories book; Emily made 3 bookmarks for Allyson; Claire made a journal and bookmark for Emily; and Allyson made 3 cute bottlecap necklaces for Claire.  This is one of our most fun traditions, and the kids always LOVE making something for another family member!


The "post gift-opening" mess!

My four fab kiddos (and a crazy looking dog)

Emily brought home one of her art projects from the first semester.  It was a self-portrait, and I thought she did a great job on it. 

Claire and I helped bake Christmas cookies at church for a fundraiser.  We were selling cookies to help with the expenses of children's camp this summer.  Allyson will be going to youth camp, but she even helped us for a bit.