Christmas Countdown! (and a whole lot of catching up)

choclate dipped pretzels! M 10 p.m.
more pretzels and raspberry spoons- jo 10 p.m.

the card T made for his principal

So... December is flying by! 10 days left of good behavior~ the Santa threat totally works here! We are so excited it is almost Christmas! it is such a magical time of year, and having kids totally makes it so special! The boys are truly in the spirit of the holidays, and are having a great time making gifts for their teachers and our friends! M had his last of preschool Friday. Thursday morning I had the horrible realization that I needed gifts for his teacher, 2 aides, and the director of the preschool my kids have been going to for 5 years straight now by the next morning. We have really tried this year to make a lot of what we are gifting, and have tried to get the kids involved. Thursday after work, I came home and put van down for his nap and started making lists of who we needed to give to and what to give them. When all was said and done, I realized we have 17 teachers this year that our kids see on a regular basis: 2nd grade teacher, the principal (i work with him through pto), the guidance counselor, who keeps offering to keep T (we keep telling her they come as a package deal) the first grade teacher, Jo's speech therapist, his reading specialist, M, and his above mentioned 4, and finally van, who has 7 teachers other then me. So, i picked up the kid from school and headed straight to walmart with an extensive list. around 8 pm that night, we finally began the baking. We ended up making 20+ gifts in the one evening (the kids finally finished around 1030, and i headed to bed at 130), but we finished! the boys made cards for each of their teachers, and I made hot choc. mix that is slightly bitter, and choc. dipped spoons, rasp., and mint, to use as stirrers to sweeten and flavor the choc. the boys made choc. dipped pretzels and decorated each with plenty of sprinkles. we had a great time, we just started a little to late...

other fun dec. things: last wed. we went to elem. school to decorate gingerbread houses with the first grade. the boys had a great time making a huge mess at school, and eating a ton of junk. the houses were architecturally interesting, but what was the funniest realization came when John leaned over to me and pointing to our kids houses stated: you can tell which kids dads never do art projects with their kids, and which dads are engineers. i was a little confused until i looked over at a good friend of mine who is an interior designer, and has a husband who is an architect, and saw my kids houses compared to her kids houses. they had tile of twizzlers lining their roof as shingles, outlines of windows and doors, and a garden out back. our kids had the most absurd amount of candy draped however it could stay on. very interesting.
M had his school pageant the other night. he was a Sheppard, and was very cute in his costume. he goes to a catholic school, and they get to do so many fun religious things. it has been very fun for us to have him in a school were we can actually celebrate Christmas, rather then the holidays. it was so fun to watch 3-5 yr. olds act out the story of the nativity. one of the wise men, in the weeks leading up to the production kept messing up his line of "i bring you frankincense", and kept telling the baby doll playing baby Jesus, that he was bringing him Frankenstein. I told the boys that story and they were eagerly awaiting the production, only to be met with much disappointment when w. got his line correct.

last Sunday i played my first real concert in 2 years. It was really fun, and we actually sounded really good. I was really pleased. We played a manfredini piece called concerto grosso; still, still, still; Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring; Corelli's concerto fatto; and a suite of carols including pastores a belen, it came upon a midnight clear, o, little town of bethlehem, brign a torch, etc. I had a great time learning the music, as some of it was hard.. i am sounding better every week! it has been hard to find time to practice and get back into something i put down so long ago. We play our final holiday concert tomorrow.

we have had a series of very interesting conversations with the boys lately about us dying, life after living with us, etc. so, the other day as i was driving, this conversation came up again. it started very much the same as the others. "mom, if you and dad die, i will go live with gritty and grandpa?" yes. "with my brothers?" yes. "when i get married, i cant live with you anymore?" no. "or with my brothers?" right. (this was all T.) So then Jo pipes up... "i am never getting married. " why not? "because i am just going to play video games all day." uh. ok... not sure where that came from. then back to T... "jo, you have to get married." (me... why T?) because then if a robber breaks in, he has someone to protect him." oh no... my poor misguided child..... so here's jo... "no T, i will just get a gun, and be a police and play video games. and if a robber breaks in, i will kick him in the head. but i will have like a million guns." T: "it will be scary to sleep by yourself." jo: "i wont ever sleep. i will play video games. and a robber will never break in because i have a police car." T: "well, i am getting married so i wont be scared." yikes. so anyways... here are some pics!

Van at his school party
jo and van decorating the tree night

M at his polar express Christmas party at school- he is in the very front
-T- far right. making a mess. notice the technique of constr. child to the left of T. hes making a chimney.
Jo and his house
T and his house
e., T, and jo's teacher

outside of squires at johns white coat ceremony- every huge scholastic event has happened at squires for John- high school graduation, college grad., white coat ceremony, and he will graduate med school there also. kinda cool!
M as the Sheppard
trying to get a nice pic in front of our charlie brown Christmas tree, notice a trend w/ van in family pics???
the other constr. child, notice the shingles and the roof line
van, john and amy- dec. 14, 2007