Way back on December 3rd, we attended the play Alice in Wonderland because the girls' friend, Mia, was starring as the Small Alice. Mia did a great job, but the play reinforced to me just how weird Alice in Wonderland is. I hope they do something normal next time. :) I loved having an evening out with my girlies. They grow up toooo quickly!!!
On the 10th of December, Daniel, Shiloh, and I ran in the Freedom 5K. The race benefits the Folds of Honor Foundation which provides educational scholarships to the children and spouses of military men and women who have been wounded or killed while serving. It was a great race with a patriotic, supportive atmosphere. Race day turned out to be cold but sunny - perfect! The course was part trail/part road - a nice change from the typical road race. I was a little worried about Shiloh because she's never run on trails. I needn't have worried. With just 200 yards to go, I was still ahead of her (shocking!) but then she BLEW right by me. Without even a HELLO, MOMMY or WAY TO GO, MOMMY she just flew past me. Rude. That's what that is. :) Turns out, she didn't even realize she was passing me; she was focused on beating the guy next to her. She ended up getting first place for her age group (and first place for the age group above hers), and I ended up getting first place in MY age group. I never win anything at these races! I didn't get a big head, though, since I had already seen the times for my age group the year before. I wouldn't have broken the top three for the year before; I just had a slower group this year. :) Daniel had a great race as well, but he had NO CHANCE in his age group...there were some ringers who clearly ran together - at 19:21, 19:22, and 19:23. Not Kenyans, but close. :) We had such a fun day that we'll definitely do the race next year (providing the doctors can figure out what's wrong with Daniel's foot!). One other fun thing about the race is that everyone ran with either an Army bib or a Navy bib (because it was the day of the Army/Navy game.) Whatever team had the first 50 participants cross the line would win a prize package for the whole team. Army won! We got free long-sleeved t-shirts and a new pair of Ininji running socks. Fun! Love me some free stuff!
Here's Shiloh at the finish line. The official photographers didn't catch her photo because she was RIGHT behind the guy in front of her. :( He was an ROTC guy from the local high school, and his buddies were yelling at him not to get beaten by a GIRL. :) Too bad Shiloh couldn't pull out the victory in the end.
Here's Daniel's finish photo. He looked great at the end!
Trust me when I say that you do not want to see me in a finish photo. It's not pretty. Here I am getting my first in age group reward photo with the kids surrounding me, though. :)
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE small town parades! I think we saw everyone we know in Greene County the night of the Christmas Parade. Daniel and Jackson's Cub Scout Pack had a float in the parade, so we bundled up to see them. You know it's a small town, rural parade when the Electric Co-op has a float, and the Roto-Rooter guy has a float (hey! he's pretty important to those who have septic tanks!) and all the Ruritans/Civitans/Lion's Clubs are there. :) We had free hot chocolate and cookies, watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas on a projection screen, and listened to banjo music while we waited for the parade to start. What fun!
Can you spot Daniel and Jackson?
Twice a year, our enrichment group goes to a local nursing home to sing to the residents, chat with them, and hand out cookies. We go on Memorial Day to sing patriotic songs, (they LOVE this!) and we go during the Christmas season for caroling. We gathered at my house beforehand to make Christmas door-hangers for the residents and to decorate cookies. We also practiced our "Twelve Days of Christmas" because everyone had a colored sign to illustrate his or her particular day. We sang first at the Alzheimer's Unit, which made a couple of the kids a little nervous as we walked in. It was a good experience for them to see these ladies and gentlemen, realize that they were just people who might be lonely during this season, and show compassion for them. Even though some of the residents didn't seem to be aware of their surroundings, they became engaged during the singing and sang along. I hoped this might be the case as long-ago memories of caroling came back to them in a way that they don't remember recent events. By the end of the singing, all of the kids were eager to meet and greet, hand out cookies, and pass along some cheer. We went down to the regular dining room after that where it was a delight to see some familiar faces and connect with people. They seemed to enjoy the singing, even though we are far from professional!! :) (Evidence at the end of the post in the videos - the videos had to be posted in three parts because they were too big)
Here is a picture of our group after the singing:
We were all about the Christmas cheer when, later that same night, we got to board the Gingerbread Express to take a bus tour of the city's best light displays. Mrs. Claus handed us cookies and apple cider to start our tour, and off we went. We arranged to go with our friends the Rasheeds, but their adorable Zavon was sick, so Hassan stayed home with him. Daniel opted not to "hang out with the women?!" since Hassan wasn't coming and went to see Sherlock Holmes. That was okay, since Odelia and I talked non-stop the whole time on the tour. We hadn't seen each other in awhile, and we needed to catch up! They have spent the last two Christmases at our house, but they ditched us this year to spend Christmas up in New York City. Yeah, I don't blame them either. :) Here are the kids in front of a beautiful quilt on display in the City Center while we were waiting for the bus tour to begin:
Shiloh got a picture of me with Odelia. Love you, Odelia!
Jackson and Jhael "entertained" the people sitting in front of them with off-key Christmas carols.
Nathaniel was just excited to be riding on a bus! :) Oh, the woes of being a homeschooled kid. :)
Shiloh and Cora got to sit on their own farther up in the bus. They're such lovely ladies.
In between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Shiloh got her braces put on! I told her it would be easier than the Crossbow, but I should know better than to say things like that. :) She was VERY sore for about four days, and she actually took Tylenol, which is a big deal for her. She also couldn't eat her beloved carrots. She's doing fine now, but she didn't know until a few days ago that they would be tightened at her next orthodontist's visit. Oops.
She went with aqua since it's her favorite color. :)
Here they are during intermission:
Lovely ladies in their finery for the show:
(Mom, I blame you for Abigail's head tilt. It's your genes.)We decided to open our gifts and stocking Christmas Eve (it's European, you know) so that we could focus on the Lord's Day the next day. "We" decided to wait until it was dark, so that the lights would be pretty and the anticipation would build...whatever. By 2:00, I couldn't wait any longer. :) We woke Nathaniel up from a rest-time, put on Daniel's Italian Christmas CD, and plunged in. The only picture I have of the chaos is Abigail holding Calvin on her lap while she opened her present to him - a rubber ball. :) He loves to bat balls in mid-air when you bounce them on the floor. Anyway, the highlight of the afternoon was the German gifts Daniel picked up on his last trip - Nutcracker ornaments for the boys, pyramid ornaments for the girls, German chocolate with nuts for me that he kept in the freezer at work, and beautiful purple dirndls for the older girls (pictures to come, I promise!). I also loved the lavender laundry soap my mom got me (thanks, Mom - I've used it, and I love it!) and my new running mittens Daniel got me. The girls all got one of these books: http://www.graceandtruthbooks.com/category/chosen-daughters and Cora's already read hers. :) Jackson got this: http://www.amazon.com/Princes-Poison-Cup-R-Sproul/dp/1567691048; he already has The Lightlings and The King Without a Shadow. Nathaniel got this: http://www.amazon.com/Sammy-His-Shepherd-Susan-Hunt/dp/1567691099/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325108846&sr=1-1 and I'll enjoy reading it to him. We've also been having fun playing our new Professon Noggin games and Blokus. I got the girls some new yarn for knitting projects, and now I want to take up knitting. :) I had such fun picking out yarn. Oh, and both the boys and younger girls received LOTS of legos. I love the creativity of legos! It was a wonderful day, and we ended by watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, of course.
Here are some shots we took before heading to church on Sunday. Sorry Cora's face is in shadow; I'm not the photographer in the family anymore. :)
Shiloh and I picked out Daniel's tie when we went shopping on Black Friday. It's not Christmas-y, but it looks great! :)What to do with hours of free time, no piano lessons, no co-op, no formal schooling, and no outside commitments? Why, dress-up, of course! Only now that we are out of toddlerhood, we are into much more sophisticated territory. Can you tell that they've been checking bridal magazines out of the library? We have been informing them that their real dresses and tiaras will NOT be like the ones in the magazine (especially the diamond tiaras) but I think they make old sheets and lace look just as nice. :) I remember doing this, but not capturing it with this kind of style in photography.
First up, though, a lesson in "more is definitely more" by Abigail Emma. She received these plastic party rings in her stocking. The ring on her pinky is actually a NICE ring from Pier One, but she resisted any encouragement to wear that one by itself. The bow in her hair? A gift from Shiloh, who knows her sister likes BIG and BOLD. (Although we draw names for gift-giving, Shiloh is a sweet big sister who buys or makes a gift for all of her siblings. She also bought a book for Daniel: The Infantry Tactics of Edwin Rommel or something like that. Thoughtful, that's what she is. Love that girl.)
Cora tried to copy some of the weird poses they do in bridal magazines. I think she got this one down. :)
Wasn't this a clever shot? I was impressed. Shiloh thought of it.
Oh, the drama of the wedding day! Are the flowers late? Did the ring-bearer forget his pillow? 
Now for Adah's dress. Notice the bit of leopard print on the pin? I think she might actually do this on her real dress.
The stairs pose:
Cora decided this was what a fashion designer dressed like when she was designing a wedding dress. She might be correct, actually.
She's giving the "look" to her assistant in mock exasperation. "Bring me those pins!"
The girls did all this while I was doing laundry, making dinner, etc. I love that they can have these times together without me. I heard giggling and rustling - LOTS of rustling, and then they came to show me these pictures. It was a fun afternoon!
