James' Christmas program

It's time for James' Christmas program! He's the cute one in the front holding the red sign and wearing a hat.  He was so excited to have a special part and he could not wait for me to see the show.  He insisted that I sit right up front!

 

 James' solo.

 

The big surprise--the grinch!  All the kids laughed so hard at him.  He really threw the presents and tore them up.

 

  James thought he was so funny (right behind the teacher's back).

Whoops!

Only home for a few hours and this is what happens.  James is not sure what he did, but one of the other swimmers said he did a dolphin dive off the bottom of the pool, his foot slipped, and he dove right down on the side of the pool.  It was like a horror story, him coming out of the pool.  He really looked like he was being murdered (you know how water makes blood spread like crazy?).  His whole face was covered in blood and he tried to tell me it was just a bloody nose.  Here he is waiting to get stitches.  Five stitches later and we were on our way.  These things always happen to James!

A weekend in Boston!

I had the great honor of being named Eoin's (pronounced Owen for those un-Irish minded folk) godmother, so I flew to Boston this weekend for the baptism. Unfortunately, my bag did not make it to Boston until about 8 hours before I had to leave back home.  Lucky for me, Liz had a nice dress that I could borrow and we made due!

Conor, Wystan, Eoin and Liz  (spell check is not happy with that list of names!) all ready in their Sunday finest.

Eoin was the only baby getting baptized that day, so we had the whole church to ourselves and it was a very quick ceremony.  The priest was very friendly and made us all very comfortable!

 Getting the water on his head--not a peep was made.

  

The proud parents

 Godmother, me, Liz, Eoin, Priest, Wystan, Conor and the godfather, Wesley Benbow (my half brother).

 The godparents!

 It was a fun time and Trefor really got into being the photographer--he was bending this way and that!

The fifth grade band concert

Now that it is December, all of the kids have a holiday program in something.  Skylar kicks off the holiday program season with her first band concert ever.  She was so excited for her show.

She is in the back row right next to the teacher standing up.

 She even got selected to do a solo.  She was very proud of herself for earning that honor.

 

Here is a video of their performance!

Time to decorate!

Now that Thanksgiving is done, it is time to decorate for Christmas!!  It has to be done before the 1st of December because that is when all the advent calendars start.  It is a very big deal as to who gets the candy on what day.  Anyway, here we are getting the tree ready.

 

The finished product!

Last day with all the cousins!

After a week of playing together, Little Lena and Charlotta became friends.  We went to the park one last time and tried to catch them together for one moment--I think we got it!

 

Turkey Day!

Every year a few of us do the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning--a five mile run to benefit the homeless in Nashville.

 

 Here is our group of runners this year.  This is the first year that any kids did it.  Congrats to Skylar and Korrina for finishing!  Skylar, not being much of a runner, held Korrina up, but she did finish.

Later on, while the turkey was cooking and the boys were watching football, the kids made a great leaf pile to play in!