Piano Recital

Our school week was quite short! The boys only had a couple assignments but spaced throughout the week, Phillip completed a STEM project on Thursday and Everett finished his projects by Thursday as well. We did a short unit studying about Christmas around the world. All the kids chose a country and presented about the country, showed where it was on the map, and highlighted traditions. Evelyn chose Sweden, she dressed up as St Lucia in a white dress and red sash. We made a fun candle crown with construction paper. It was fun to learn about Christmas in France, New Zealand, Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Russia, etc. School vacation started for us on Thursday after I finished our school submissions. Hooray! 

The kids played outside in the melting snow most of Monday. Josie was the most insistent about playing outside. She would come in every hour or so for dry gloves and a snack! The kids shoveled our neighbor's driveway since she is a widow. They left her a note "We wanted to light the world for you today! Enjoy your clean driveway!" The Ostlers started making a snow ramp, it was enough to take a bitty ride on with the snow saucers. I was not too fond of the mountain of wet snow clothes left to moulder in the garage or laundry room. We had a serious chat about putting their wet things into the dryer and starting the dryer. Towards evening we drove to deliver cookies to my Uncle Darrel and Aunt Fawn. It was fun to do a spot of Christmas caroling at their door. At 9 pm we practiced "The Natavity" song with the Ostlers at Sister Miner's home. It sounds so fun to have us all singing together. 

Tuesday and Thursday the younger kids had gymnastics. I picked up the sourdough bread bowls during the girl's class. They were excited when I came in to watch them after my errand. Josie surprised us all by getting up on the high beam after swearing she would not do that again. She earned a candy and lots of high fives for braving the beam again. Thursday I sat out in the van with the bum warmer on to keep warm. It sucked the battery dry...had to beg a jump from someone since my back up battery jumper thing was also out of juice. We made it home...I was hoping the boys would not tell Justin about the battery, it's embarrassing. 

Wednesday was busy with piano lessons and activity day girls. We made fun pop-tart houses and decorated them with lots of candy. Esther gave me a huge bag of leftover candy to decorate with, there were 18 different kinds of loose candy to play with! I had Pandora radio going and a smidgen of snow falling outside for a very festive feeling. My girls joined in the fun since there were plenty of leftover pop-tarts. The boys were able to make their own after their activity. This was the last week of Primary for Phillip and Ambree! Those two are headed for the youth program. 

Friday I was helping Josie clean up their room and put away laundry. I noticed a pile of undies shoved between her bed and Evelyn's dresser. I asked her about that, she replied: "I hate dragon underwears! Those stupid undies have dragons. I put them in timeout!!!!" Silly girl. The kids really banded together and got the house cleaned upstairs and down for our recital. I took the little girls to grab doughuts as a recital treat. We met Justin for lunch at JJ's as a special girl date treat. The littles were especially delighted with some one on one time. This year I have 7 students, three are my own kids. In January I am getting 3 new student while their teacher is on maternity leave. Busy, busy. The kids performed so well! It was fun to watch them bop along to their songs. Phillip and I had quite a challenge staying on beat, he's got his own internal rhythm. Amelia is miss speedy keys! She tailored her song and added some creative license. That was a very nice evening. 

Saturday Justin took the kids for an adventure so I could knuckle down and wrap gifts. I wrapped for 6 hours straight, I only have Evelyn and Justin's gifts to wrap plus some gift stuffer items. Justin took the kids ice skating and then came home to grab the dog for a jaunt to the dog park. The girls helped me wrap the boy's gifts. My back is aching something fierce from sitting on the ground for so long. 

We attended church in person today so we could sing for zoom. The whining about mask wearing and the length of church wore down my patience. When did a 35 minute meeting become too long? Yikes. We enjoyed several musical numbers and the narration. 

Like usual I made a blunder out of organizing a short trip to Utah. Mason is taking out his endowments on the 30th, we wanted to support him in that as he leaves for his service mission. Well, he is staying at home but serving locally. I texted that we were coming, but did not text the Lances first to see if we could stay. I miscommunicated Jana's willingness to let us stay in her basement, put my foot in my mouth inviting ourselves over during James' Christmas vacation, etc, and etc. Too much drama. We shortened our trip to Wednesday-Saturday. The kids are enjoying a sleepover with Aunt Chi-chi on Wednesday so Justin and I can celebrate our 16th anniversary at the Anniversary Inn. Woot, woot. Then we see the Greats, the grands, Shawn, and Jana on our way to Eagle Mt. Spend New Years with the Lances then jiggity jig back home. Apologies that I stepped on toes. I really felt awful.