Lots and Lots of Christmas

What follows is lots and lots of pictures from the girls' Christmas activities.  Such a fun and exciting time of year, full of great memories...

Winter Concert

Alyssa's middle school band had a concert just a few days before Christmas break.  She was giddy about it the whole week before, telling us she had a big surprise for us at the concert.  She has a terrible time trying to keep a secret and kept alluding to the big surprise and making hints about it all week.  Apparently, her hints were not enough for me because I was caught completely off guard when the curtains opened for the show and it started with Alyssa and her good friend, Martina introducing the band and the numbers they were about to play.  I didn't even have the camera out at the time and missed getting a photo entirely.  But here she is, near the back in the santa hat, playing her horn.

Basteltag ~ Craft Day

I love helping with Basteltag at the girl's school!  It's a fun afternoon of making Christmas crafts and using so much glue, frosting and other sticky stuff, I often leave with something gross in my hair and caked to my fingers.  The kids are always so excited about it, and the treasures they get to bring home in their shoe box that day!

I offered to help with the pine cone craft, where the kids spread peanut butter on a pine cone and rolled it in bird seed to make a little birdie treat to hang in their yards.  I have a severe tree-nut allergy, but have never had a reaction to peanut butter, in fact Reese's peanut butter cups are one of my favorites!!  Within just a few minutes of starting the project, I could tell I was reacting to something.  Sneezing and runny eyes seemed to be the worst of it,  and I was able to minimize the impact of the reaction by walking away from our table to take pictures elsewhere in the room whenever I wasn't busy with one of the children.  I later talked to my mom about it, telling her I was concerned that my allergies were becoming more sensitive and she told me it was likely the bird seed, not the peanut butter that was bothering me..bird seed often comes mixed with tree-nuts.  I was thankful to know that because the reactions are no fun at all and sometimes downright scary.  It was a great day though, all the kids in Rebekah's class are so sweet!

Rebekah's sweet, sweet, sweet ginger house.  She was so proud of it, and couldn't wait to eat it!


On the night that we took Emma and Rebekah to see Alyssa in Junie B. we had a few extra minutes between the time we dropped Alyssa off pre-show and when the theater doors opened.  I drove the girls to see some of the downtown Christmas lights.  They loved the gingerbread baby, Rebekah must have laughed for a good 15 minutes about it's funny diaper.


After parking at the Marcus we walked through the skywalk, and Emma was really dragging behind us.  I called out to her to keep up and she shouted back to me, "I'll be right there.  I'm doing everything the hard way!"  She wouldn't let her feet touch the ground the whole way down the skywalk.  There was a tiny ledge she was half walking on, half holding herself up on the railing to stay off the floor.  She was joyful the entire way down, like she was conquering something huge.  I had to laugh with her, and at how happy this silly little challenge was making her.  I thought to myself how much better off I'd be if I enjoyed a challenge in that way.  I tend to like things to be easy, and while it's not always fun at the time, sometimes the struggle in something is what makes it good, what lets you know you're doing it right.

The bouquet we brought Alyssa that night.  She loved the purple and silver glittery additions we made to the daisies.

The girls were invited by a lady at our church to sing and ring bells in a nursing home a couple of days before Christmas.  A and E sang the song, "Happy Birthday, Jesus" then joined the rest of the kids to play bells.
 
Bell ringing requires the most serious attitude and upmost concentration :-)
I joke a little, but I was really proud of them.  They were well outside their comfort zone and I hope they realize how much happiness all the children brought to the nursing home that day.

German Dance
Our reluctant angel...


In 2010, Rebekah loved her German Dance Christmas Party.  This year, after lining up to dance, and being partnered with a boy instead of her usual partner, Claire ~ she refused to dance.  Just one of those times that she flat out refused to be reasoned with, even after she was told she could dance with Claire.  She finally agreed to sing Christmas Carols, and almost even smiled while she was doing it.  The sweet temperament of a persnickety five year old. 


Pictures with Santa.  Emma told him she wanted a piglet ~ a real one ~ Santa was speechless. 

Jingle Bus Fun

We took the girls on the Jingle Bus one night.  It's hard to get photos on the actual bus tour of the city's Christmas lights, but we took these pictures of the girls with the balloon animals they got as we waited for the bus.  Alyssa got a teddy bear riding in an airplane, and Emma got a puppy inside a heart.  I was afraid that Rebekah was going to be disappointed with her tiny mouse after seeing the bigger ones the older girls received, but she loved her little mousie.


One afternoon, Emma's friend, Alyssa came over to play and practice all the choreography for the Kid's Choir Christmas musical.  They danced and sang up a storm in the living room.  The following day was the performance, and after all their practicing they were ready to go!

The Great Christmas Giveaway...

The children's Christmas musical at church is one of my most favorite nights of the whole year!  The girls always have such a fun time, and they typically get their practice cd sometime in September, so we always have an early start singing Christmas music.  It's wonderful.
 
Kingdom Kid's Choir is for children in 1st to 6th grades, so it is hard to believe, but this was Alyssa's last children's Christmas musical.  Kid's choir is where Alyssa discovered her love for singing, and I am so very thankful for the years she has spent here.


Emma singing her solo.


Rebekah was Mary in the preschool program.  She was so excited, and the tiniest bit shy about her role.

A pretty happy bell ringer, right?  Not so much...this picture was taken during their rehearsal about 15 minutes before the service began.  During the actual song when the children were ringing the bells, she started to cry and reach out towards where I had awkwardly plopped myself down in the pastor's pew because I saw the meltdown approaching.  I thought if she could just see me, she'd somehow make it through the song.  I was wrong, and at the prompting of the people around me, I had to join her on the stage so she could sit in my lap as we finished ringing the bells for that song.  Poor Rebekah though, after rehearsing for the bells (I think she thought the rehearsal was the performance as the sanctuary had already begun to fill up by the time they did the run through) and being in the manger scene, she had enough of the spotlight, and just wanted off the stage.


On Christmas Eve, our gecko had quite an adventurous day.  We were headed down to my parent's house right after Junie B. and Christmas Eve service, so we had the gecko in tow with us for much of the day.  I was volunteering for Alyssa's performance of Junie B. that day so he had to come inside with us and be stored in the coat room, because he would have never survived for a couple of hours out in the car.  He's too temperature sensitive for that.  I'm sure we were in violation of numerous Marcus Center policies bringing him in...they're not even supposed to allow children under age three (although the very nice and accommodating company manager always makes exceptions to this rule) into the theater, I can't imagine how they feel about having crested geckos in there.  We tucked Banana's carrying case up on a shelf by the rice krispies and no one seemed to notice.

Later for Christmas Eve service, we again had no other option except to bring him into the church.  Banana sat next to Emma the whole time and when a lady asked her what she had in the case and Emma responded, "My pet Gecko," the lady burst into laughter.  The woman said, "Well, I've heard of bringing to friends to church before, but this I've never seen!"

The day after Christmas we had lunch with some friends who live near Boston, but were in town for Christmas.  It was nice to see all the children pick up conservation and playing with friends they only get see once every couple of years as if they hang out all the time. 

They were playing outside the restaurant when we finished eating, and as the adults were busy talking, Alyssa led them in an oath that made this promise: "I won't run around like a wild maniac when I get home."  The Kowal children are among the most polite and most well behaved children I know, so I'm sure she was addressing that to herself as much as anyone else in the group :-)  The oath should have been something more along the lines of: "I promise to meet you in Texas at Schlitterbahn one of these summers coming up, where we will have so much water park fun we won't know what to do with ourselves!"  We're looking forward to it, Kowals!

We spent a good part of the weekend undecorating from Christmas.  Never my favorite thing to do.  Alyssa put these two Eeyore's front and center on the tree this year.  I kept turning them around to see Eeyore's face, and she kept turning them back so their bottoms were the focal point of the tree.  That silly sense of humor.