Rare

Christmas

Another favorite tradition from growing up: decorating sugar cookies.  This was a great rainy day activity!  24 hours of rain last week... yay!

Lining up in the hallway for Santa.  Emmy is not sure what is happening.

 

Now she understands...She was the first to plow through her stocking candy.

Yummy breakfast.  Joseph always gives me a hard time about my Christmas plates, but I love having them to eat off of on Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve

One of my favorite memories of Christmas as a kid were the many nativities we put on.  The tradition has continued with my own kids and their cousins.  Grandpa Larsen always reads the Bible verses.

The kids came up with their own roles this year.  Ruth is a Shepherd.

Jame is a pig.  (He INSISTS that the stable had a pig).

David is a drummer boy and Emmy is an angel.

Forgotton pictures

I found some forgotten pictures on Joseph's phone from Thanksgiving week.  

We were invited to a pool party at a very nice apartment complex.  Emmy and David were buddies both in and out of the water.

On thanksgiving, we walked along San Clemete Beach.  We came across a man who was using these huge sticks to make giant bubbles.  So neat!

Grandma and grandpa hosted a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner for us with the whole spread.  Emmy found David (again).  He sure loves to spoil her.

Ruth and James are thrilled over the sparkling drinks!

Super Badger James

James' 1st grade class put on a Christmas play last week.. lots of songs and even a few speaking parts.  Way to go James!

December happenings

Joseph kicked off December by building a giant stable for our newest nativity.  It sits on stilts about 6 feet high, so from the street looks like it is floating above our front gate (hard to describe).  I bought this last January, so we were pretty excited to finally get it out. Ruth spent hours and hours as Joseph's project buddy.

Ruth is really at such a sweet stage.  I wish I could bottle her up.  She is very loving towards Emmy and  generously shares almost everything.  Her one wish for Christmas is magic markers.  Santa will have it easy this year.  ;)   Can you find Emmy in this photo?  (hint: she is inside the "house")

More photos to come on this.  These were the girls that I taught from the garage all fall.  My numbers in this class are dwindling, so we have likely hit the end of this adventure.  Ruth always says, "mom, I am ready for a break from dance class", but then so that I don't feel bad she adds, "but your were my very favorite teacher!".  This is the age I was when I first caught the dancing bug.  My very first students 12 years ago in Ohio were also this age.  They are lively and often unruly, but very fun!

Choir Boy

I have just finished the most crazy week of my life, filled with nonstop parties, concerts, and even my first recital (more on that later).  It all began last weekend when David had the wonderful opportunity to sing in a youth choir with OCMCO, a full choir and orchestra directed by Brandon and Brett Stuart.  It was an amazing evening, with an audience of over 1500 people.  The power of the music was so strong that it brought tears to our eyes.  This is the blessing of living in an area with a strong LDS presence.

This is David's best buddy, Ethan.  It took some convincing, but we manage to get him to join choir with David.  They both loved it!

Snapshot of the interior of Samueli Hall.  This is also where our Symphony performs.

The girls stayed home with a babysitter during the performance, so it turned out to be a special datenight with James.  It was a dream come true for him.  He kept saying, "this is the best day of my life!"  After the performance we went out to dinner and explored the large Christmas display at South Coast Plaza, including the reindeer carousel, which Joseph used to ride every year as a child.