...to be Jolly

 We saw a a Christmas parade and tree lighting in Brooklyn, MI with Kade's friend CJ and her family. That was cold but fun!

Games beforehand.

Santa's on this boat.

Trying to keep warm before the lighting.

Ta-da!

Erik performed in his first band concert. He plays the trombone and is getting really good. There are 115 6th graders in the band, which is 54% of the 6th graders. Bless Mr. Hartge! I recorded the concert, mostly small, short songs they had learned. The first few were even just the noises they started making at the beginning of the school year. I didn't have a good shot of Erik, though, because of the amount of kids on the stage. They played wonderfully! This is the first time I've had a kid in a music class without having had previous piano experience, so I felt more like a lot of the other parents who are seeing their child play an instrument for the first time. I was very proud to see the progress!

His trombone was at the school, so we took a pic of him pretending to play. We forgot to take one with it at the school, besides this next pic where you can barely see him.

Peeking out behind the snowman!

We decorated a gingerbread house together on Sunday. It was Kade's idea and so enjoyable!

They built a snowman a few weeks ago when it actually snowed!

It was really good packing snow!

My work party was last night and it's one of the highlights of my year. Really. The Hackneys, the owners of Red Bell, host it at their house every year. This year, Ms. Bonnie, who's a very old friend of the Hackneys and Red Bell itself, smoked a pork roast (well, her husband did) for 2 days! Mrs. Hackney made a delicious salad and green beans, Mr. Hackney made delicious chocolate cupcakes from scratch, and Ms. Becky, the actual "principal" of Red Bell, made the cheesy potatoes and homemade hot cocoa with different flavored Reddi Whip options- gingerbread, marshmallow, and peppermint. Becky is also the mastermind behind all the fun party games and gifts. The right and left game, which scored me an egg bite maker, the Christmas song picture game, in which I was a close second, the Saran wrap gift game, where you unwrap a huge wad of wrap from a pile of small gifts until the next person rolls doubles on the dice. Once they do, you pass it on. Whatever comes out during your turn is yours to keep. Then the "Balloons in Nylons" game. As teams, we had to blow up 10 balloons and put 5 in each side of the nylons and then have someone put it on their head. It was hilariously fun! My team won and we got socks!

The Hackneys gave us 12 Days of Christmas jelly spreads with different jellies for each day, Becky gave us fresh potpourri that she dried and jarred, and Bonnie made us little Christmas ornament angels.

I love this wonderful group of teachers!

Best staff!

Victoria is coming home tonight!! Here are some of her dance pictures from BYUI at the dance showcase extravaganza. We're excited to see her in person!

Beautiful lines!

She's improving so much there!