Cocoa and Doughnuts 2012

This evening was our second annual cocoa and doughnuts neighborhood soiree.  We had a really great turnout and it was just fun to visit with friends in our neighborhood.

It was quite chilly but no rain or snow and not much wind.  That's as much as you can ask for in December.

There were plenty of doughnuts, hot chocolate and marshmallows to go around.

We have such wonderful families in our neighborhood.  I could not be more grateful.

Elinor, Caleb and Ben spent a lot of time tribal dancing around the fire this evening.

Some neighbors stopped by for only a moment and some visited for longer, but Abe and I enjoyed it so much.

My beautiful friends, Jenn and Gabrielle.
Boy, my hat sure looks nice, doesn't it?

Actually, I really do like Abe's hat in this picture with Ryan.

As of today, I've hosted my last Christmas gathering.  I've taught my last piano lesson (until the new year).  I've wrapped all the presents.  I've finished school with the kids.  My tummy is full of hot chocolate and doughnuts.  It is officially Christmas break and I am feeling very relaxed and happy this evening. 
Truthfully, I don't handle relaxation and vacation very gracefully for too long,  but I'm loving it for the moment.

Acrobatics

Faith had her gymnastics recital Monday evening.  The whole family went to watch her and it was quite the show.  I was amazed at what these girls can do.  Faith's class was the youngest that performs in the big recital so it was the first time we got a look at what the older girls were doing.  WOW!

It's really blurry, but she did a good job on her "solo" round off back handspring. 
We seriously need a new camera. 

Her one-handed cartwheel.

Now from legitimate acrobatics to something else entirely.

I went into the laundry room today and as I passed by basement stairs I saw legs swinging back and forth.  Big swings.   Hmm.  It didn't take a whole lot of mother intuition to know I'd better go see what was going on.  I found that Clark had constructed a swing in the basement for the little kids made out of old Tae Kwon Do belts and basement support beams.  How does he think of these things?  You can understand why the little boys love him so much.

Oh, and by the way, if you are a true friend of mine you will NOT look at the ground and notice how messy the basement floor is.  Thank you, true friend.

Then it was time to rig up Faith and Cannon.

Time for the real fun!  Don't worry, even though it looks like Faith's feet are going to clock George's face, they didn't and no one was injured in this highly questionable family activity. 

Oh, joy!  

And this is just a little glimpse of why I'm such a great mother.

Or not.

Family Christmas Party 2012

Sunday evening was our Cannon/Behunin family Christmas dinner and gift exchange. 

Faith, Grace, and Moriah prepping for the kids gift exchange which went off without a hitch and without much drama.

Cannon hit the jackpot with the box of Cocoa Puffs!

And Faith was so happy to get these big coloring books.  But now that I think about it, I don't remember bringing them home with us so maybe she traded them away or we just forgot them.  Oh, well.

And then it was time for  the adult white elephant gift exchange.  For the record, my prediction was correct.  My gifts were lame and no one really wanted them, but I'm over it. 
Just don't invite me to any white elephant gift exchanges in the near furture.

At this point things weren't looking good for Clark's chances of landing a good gift.  Thank goodness Grandpa saw potential in this hat for his Great Dalmuti hat collection and he stole it from Clark.
You can imagine Clark's relief.

It looks like Grandma ended up with the hat in the end.  We finished off the evening with singing Christmas carols.  This was a FABULOUS group for singing carols with.  We had no piano, but there were lots of strong, beautiful voices and it was so enjoyable.  Definitely a highlight of the season.  I think the world needs to sing more Christmas carols. 

Extracurricular Saturday

Elinor tested for her brown belt in Tae Kwon Do this morning.  I was not there, but Abe and Elinor reported that she did great.   

She just loves it.

Bethany had her "Snow White" ballet performance this afternoon as well.  Her class were shadows in the woods and they danced beautifully.

The little boys stayed home with babysitters this afternoon because they're not really "ballet" material yet.  Elinor and Faith came with Abe and I and Grandma and Grandpa Cannon to the ballet.  Clark was gone all day with his PiPod friends on an adventure riding the Front Runner Train to up to Ogden to visit other PiPod friends who moved up North.  And this evening Abe and Clark are off to see The Hobbit, while I blog to my heart's content and watch Downton Abbey.  I was feeling very stressed out this evening and these last couple of posts have done wonders for my mental state tonight. 

Party Hardy

We have been going, going, going with all things Christmas for three weeks straight-- and we're not even close to being done.  Abe and I had talked about scaling back our Christmas festivities this year, but I don't think we've succeeded.  You would think we actually enjoy all these parties or something:)

This would be the table for young ladies at the ward Christmas party.  No boys allowed.

Here are the boys-- singing their hearts out to "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Jingle Bells".  Yes, my Clark was belting it out at the top of his lungs.  The boy who lip-synced through nine years of Primary because he hated to sing, couldn't sing Rudolf loud enough. 
Oh, interesting little question for you.  How do you pronounce the name of the red-nosed reindeer?  There was some discussion at a neighboring table.  Is it Rudof (silent "l") or Rudolf (prounounced "l").  Of course I already know the right answer, but what do you think?

Sweet little Cannon cannot get enough of our Elf on the Shelf.  Our's is named Gelf.  Several of my little piano students also have an Elf at their homes and when they come over they want to know where ours is hiding that day. 

Friday night we had our book club Christmas party where we do a white elephant gift exchange.  There are usually a couple of actual good books in the mix, but the rest are recycled from last years book exchange or pulled off our book shelves as duplicates or no longer worth the space they are taking up.  The original idea was to give a copy of the best book you've read that year.  We've really gone down hill.

Then the little kids do a dollar store gift exchange.  Even though its all total junk toys and no one really cares about the gifts after about 10 minutes, I prefer the kids gift exchange.  I always stress about white elephant exchanges because people have different ideas of what that means.  Are you really supposed to give junk?   Does if have to be funny?  Is it appropriate to be outrageous?  I'm never sure of the parameters.  But with the little kids its easy--spend $1 on a disposable toy that will bring joy for up to, but no more than 10 minutes.
Tomorrow night we have another gift exchange with my family and my step siblings always do super clever, funny, outrageous gifts that are still of some actual worth.  Mine will be be lame, lame, lame in comparison.  Oh, well.  At least I'll get something good.  Can't say the same for them.

It warms my heart to think that these older kids were the ages of those little kids when we first started doing book club.  It has been so wonderful to read and learn together and raise our families together.  We dearly miss our good friends who moved to San Diego a couple of years ago, but I did get a fabulous package in the mail from Christine on Friday.

I had, not one, but FOUR presents to open!!!  Let's be honest, that is more than I'll be opening Christmas morning, so I was pretty thrilled.  I didn't even let my kids help me open one.

I hope its okay with Christine that I'm sharing, but I want to remember this and it is a great idea.   Here's the plan-- 1) Take a mommy time out (that's where the chocolate comes in)  2) Get in the car and listen to some good tunes (GF stands for girlfriend) while I drive  3) To Barnes and Noble where I use my gift card to purchase a novel I've been wanting to read. 4) I savor the book, taking notes in the margins and then pass the book onto the next girlfriend in the book club.

Isn't that a marvelous plan?  I'm so excited to do the plan the holiday hoopla dies down.

And now pardon me while I am very inappropriate for a moment.  But can't you just see this picture in a wedding video someday.  Oh, I hope. 

What Goes Around...

I got a little taste of my own medicine this week.

Our Christmas piano recital was at the beginning of December so we were hot and heavy into practicing and polishing songs in the days leading up to it.  Bethany has played her violin with the Ward and then Stake choir several times over the past few months.  I regularly help her with her practicing by accompanying her on the piano or just listening.  I try to be encouraging and praise the kids when they work really hard on a piece or play something really well.  But I also don't really sugar-coat it if they are playing junk.  If they aren't trying very hard or not focusing I will call them on it and have them redo things.  My efforts and comments are not always appreciated-- if you can imagine that!

If the kids ask me to listen and tell them how it was, I will tell them how it was.  Good or bad.  They know I'll tell them what I really think.

Last Sunday I played a piano solo in Sacrament meeting of O Holy Night.  I know music and feel comfortable playing and teaching, but I am not a concert pianist.  But every December I give myself a gift of time to practice a harder song and really work it up.  The threat of public performance keeps me motivated to keep practicing.  So I volunteered to play this song in church. 

I was quite neglecting my home and family last week as I squeezed in as much practice time as I could.  I was pretty nervous.  Mostly because playing in church is different from playing in other places.  In church you really want the music to bring the spirit in.  Mistakes draw attention away from the music and onto the performer.  I didn't want the song to be about me, but about Christ and the spirit of Christmas.  I really felt like I did all I could have to prepare and forced myself to calm down, not pass out and play my piece.

Afterwards Clark said to me, "Mom, you did a good job.  It wasn't perfect, but it was good."

Me:  Thank you, I think.

Clark:  Do you want me to tell you how many mistakes I counted?

Me:  No, not really.

Clark:  Okay.  I counted ten mistakes.  Maybe other people didn't notice them, but there were a few pauses where they weren't supposed to be and a few bad notes.

Hmm.  I suppose you have been trained well, my boy.  Now be quiet.

Christmas Festivities

Abe and I had to divide and conquer this week to fit in all the necessary Christmas festivities.  He took the kids to the Winder Farms store Thursday night to see Santa.  Faith asked Santa for a ukelele.  It has been her true heart's desire for quite some time.  Bethany and Clark had other activities going so they missed out on their chance to see Santa this year.  I just don't think I've got it in me to go to the mall. 

Elinor is getting older, but no where near old enough to refuse a visit with Santa.  She asked for a "beautiful pink and gold locket from Walmart."  She has asked for a locket for the last six years straight.  They all get broken shortly after their arrival, but Santa has never failed to deliver.

As you can see, Cannon was thrilled to sit with Santa.  He's asking for a remote control car and ukelele.  I think he thinks it will be more like a rock start guitar, but if Faith wants one, he wants one too.

George wasn't so keen on sitting with the big man in red.  You might notice that one of these little people doesn't belong to us.  That's Ben.  He's Elinor's best friend and Tae Kwon Do carpooling buddy.  He got in on the visit with Santa as well and as far as I'm concerned he's pretty much one of ours anyway.

We haven't done regular book clubs this month but we did have a loud and fun Christmas party with everyone.

Everyone brought treats to share.  We made the rice krispie ornaments.  They were so cute in the magazine, but I don't think they turned out that great.  Truthfully, now.  Could you tell what they were before I told you?

 We are an extremely segregated group.  Girls were on one side of the yard.

 And the boys were on the very farthest side away from the girls.  Oh, you silly silly boys.  Someday it will all change.

We played a word finding game and the competition was fierce.

This team was defeated in both rounds.  But like I said, it was fierce competition.

We played a candy bar white elephant game.  Just so you know, Rolos were the most sought after items.  I didn't know they were so popular.  But my favorite thing about the picture is the bigger girls holding the little girls on their laps.  Cute, cute cute!
And the best thing about the whole part is that with so many kids and so much sugar and noise, there were no tears.  It's a Christmas miracle!

Christmas Recital 2012

It's piano recital time again!!!  Tuesday night we had our Christmas recital and it was a smashing success if I do say so myself! I really enjoy the Christmas recital because I love the music and the kids seem to really enjoy the familiar tunes as well.  I love each one of these kids (some of them aren't so little anymore) and it is so rewarding to watch (and listen) to them progress.  I feel very blessed to get to interact with them and be part of their lives.

 

Faith started off the evening with "Here We Come A-Caroling".  Elinor played "Still, Still, Still", Bethany did "Dance of the Reed Flutes" from the Nutcracker, and Clark played "Carol of the Bells".  

I was very proud of all of them.

Faith's song was a duet.  I love the focus in her eyes.  She is a rather determined little thing.

Clark is an avid wearer of his Santa hat.  Like father like son:)

He did wear his hat for his performance, but afterwards said he probably shouldn't have because he couldn't hear himself very well.  Oh well, it was very festive.

Faith loves that so many of her primary friends come over for lessons each week.

I adore these little girls.  

I admit that I am pretty tough on Elinor with piano.  She does very well and she has a very high tolerance for frustration so I like to see what she can do.  Last week as we were preparing for the recital I had high expectations for her and I was pushing her.  As she played through her song it was beautiful and all of a sudden I wasn't sure how old she was.  Was she really still only nine?  How was that possible?  She is playing such a difficult beautiful song.  I couldn't play anything close to that when I was nine.  So I complimented her and told myself to seriously chill out.  She liked the compliment and me chilling out.

Bethany also does very well, but I don't "strongly encourage" her that much on piano.  She does piano because she really likes it and wants to. 

I save my energy for "encouraging" her with her violin.  She has recently started with a new violin teacher and she is really enjoying that.  In addition to her regular practicing, she has played with our ward choir for the last two months and now is helping out with a stake choir number this Sunday.  She's a little worn out right now.  Poor thing.  She'll enjoy the Christmas break.