It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

It's been a nice day. It's been a compete-with-Christmas nice day.

First of all, Kip's been working a lot extra and today he was off. Just off. Plus, it's a Sunday, which for us means no shopping, errands, stuff. We went to church, we had a nice dinner, we played hide and seek, we made Magic Cookie Bars otherwise known as Seven Layer Cookie Bars (Pace vs. Knight). We made gingerbread houses using the melted sugar method, which Katie told me about and which I'm totally going to steal for my blog. (You'll notice the all candy foundation on one of the houses. You also can't really see it, but the houses are filled with candy--not stuck to anything, just pure unadulterated candy filling. We'll pretend it's gingerbread house furniture. Stacked to the ceilings.)

And it snowed. A good 3 inches. For December in Evansville, that's quite a lot. The kids don't have school tomorrow. We watched the First Presidency Devotional since Kip worked last Sunday. Emma went to sleep and the kids watched it with us. All the way through. (This probably had to do with the fact that the only other option was going to their beds, but they were so good and engaged, it was amazing). And then Savannah fell asleep on my lap at the end, which was pure sweetaliciousness. And did I mention that Emma has slept through the night the last 2 nights. Bliss, pure bliss.

The rest of the week hasn't been too bad either.

Monday night, Elizabeth had a concert at her school.

That morning she'd woken up with a pinkish eye. I'd sent her to school anyway, fingers crossed. Her teacher called about 9:00 saying she thought it was pink eye and that they'd had several cases in their classroom. I was sad. She wanted to go to her concert. I wanted to see her concert. Her teacher said, "Just get her some drops and bring her. It'll be fine." Which is what I did. And it was fine. The concert was so cute. The kindergarteners sang. The kindergarteners did little dance moves. Elizabeth did really really well. Kip was working and I got a sitter for Emma (thanks, Jackie). Mark and Savannah seemed to enjoy being there too. Mark was excited to be in the audience. It was sweet. It was fun. Even if I did spend the entired concert with 2 large-ish children sharing my lap.

After the kindergarten sang, the 4th and 5th grade choir sang. I realize I'm a bit biased, but the kindergarten totally outdid them. They were cuter. Their songs were better (a spiritual, a song about love, and a peppy number about Christmas). And they sang really well for such little folk. The older kids had a story line to go with their songs, but you couldn't understand most of the spoken parts. And the songs were just...lame. Forgive me. But they were. And now, for one of my Christmas pet peeves. I mean, I get that there's a political correctness thing going on so the kids don't sing the traditional religious songs in school. I miss them a bit, but I do understand it at least. But why can't they sing any traditional songs. I feel like the wheel has to be re-invented year after year. What about "Deck the Halls," or "Jingle Bells," or "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," or countless other non-religious Christmas songs? People want to hear traditional songs. And I think kids like to sing them. Instead we have to get through a silly story about a dog who wanted to sing in Santa's choir, but he wasn't any good and their was an uprising from the elves. Blah. I mean, are we trying to rob our society of any musical heritage we might have--religious or otherwise. I'll take "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" any day. And yes, I am done with that rant. Thank you very much for remaining with me (if in fact you did; if not, I understand.)

Friday night we went to a going away party for one of our favorite families. And Emma got pink eye.

And Saturday was the creche. (Our church puts up hundreds of nativities and there's music and stuff like that throughout the day.) In the morning the kids sang and were cute and then we had a look around and got a few cookies. Mark was really interested in the nativities, which warms my mother heart. That afternoon I went back to sing and play and then to accompany a friend. And that night I went back again to do a less than steller rendition of "Silent Night," which made me a little sad because I would have liked to have ended on a better note (no pun intended, but we'll run with it). But you can't win them all, I guess. I hurried home after my piece was done because Kip was off to work.

And then, this morning, we were rewarded with this blissful day.