Friday, December 27, 2013

Christmas 2013

Jeremy (6) and Grace (9)
 Every gingerbread kit we buy every year ends up being too much for the kids- too much time to build, too much time to eat! We decided to do something smaller this year.  This train was perfect and the kids needed minimal help putting it together.  (What a goofy kid Jeremy is!)

At our church's Christmas Eve Candlelight service
 Annual Christmas book from Di Dao
 Christmas morning stockings

   Stockings at Grandma's house
 Grandma blesses us with so much!

I had to document Grandma's Clam Chowder- absolutely delicious and I look forward to it every year!

 The family
Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Winter Performances

Jeremy has never been much of a performer, so I definitely needed to document these 2 occasions!  He is a part of our school's after school program, and they held a "Winter Showcase" this past week.  His age group performed, "Hoe Down Throw Down" and he actually knew all the moves!  Too cute!  (We recorded a video of it, but it'll take too long to download here).
Jeremy's second winter performance was at our church.  There was a different format for the children's performances this year- rather than the children's program taking up an entire Sunday service, each week leading up to Christmas, different age groups took turns presenting.  This was Jeremy's last year in the 3yr.-Kindergarten age group!  Every year, that age group sings the same songs- Grace sang the same songs each year she was in it.  We're ready to see something different next year! 
 
  (Jason forgot to take a picture of the whole group- there were definitely more kids than just these boys!)

Grace's age group performed several weeks earlier (I'm actually the one who put the presentation together, but on the day of the kids presented, I was sick at home with strep!)  Jason didn't get any pictures of her group's performance.

Her second performance of the season was her very first orchestra concert.  Jason and I were impressed that there were about 50 kids in the beginning orchestra, and about 35 of them were violinists.  They did great- it's rather impressive that Grace's orchestra teacher was able to direct so many students!

Friday, December 6, 2013

Thanksgiving 2013

I love Thanksgiving!  Jason's mom makes the BEST Thanksgiving meal and we haven't let her make any changes over the years!
 I am thankful for so many things and the top of the list would be my family!
 On Thanksgiving Day, we went to our church's first Turkey Trot.  Aaron organized it and all participants brought items for our church's food pantry.  Jeremy and I walked/jogged 2 miles, and Grace and Jason ran the 5K. 

With Jason's family's Thanksgiving held earlier in the week,  we still wanted to make the actual day "special."  I decided to try making my very first pie crust from scratch, and Jason decided to make homemade noodles for turkey noodle soup. 
They were both labors of love- I have utmost respect for people who can so easily make pies!  I had such a hard time.  Luckily, it tasted alright!  Jason also learned some things about making noodles for next year.

I'm glad we got to spend a good few days together as a family because Friday rolled around and I got sick- with strep!!!!  Last year, I missed 8 school days for sickness, much of it due to strep.  Actually, I got strep at the same time this year as I did last year!  I was able to convince the doctor not to give me amoxicillin, since 2 rounds of that made no effect on me last year.  We went straight to the "Z-pack" and I was back at work by Wednesday.  Jason also got strep for the 2nd time this year and missed a day of work.  It was definitely an interesting week for our household- the first time we've both been sick since we've had kids.  If anything, it made me feel even more grateful to have a partner to go through life's ups and downs with.