Forever Family: The Week Before Christmas Fun Stuff

The very next day after we returned from Nampa was Jack's band Christmas concert. It was the whole music department taking turns; jazz band, choirs, orchestra, and other bands. Jack had a solo but his group was up high behind the crowd for that number. You had to crank your head around and up to be able to see them. This happened throughout the performance. Some groups would be up there on either side. Others would be on the main stage, either in the middle or off to one of the sides. It helped to make things interesting and it gave time for bigger groups to set up behind the curtain for the next performance. The orchestra walked around the perimeter with the lights off and had glow sticks on their bows for one of their songs. That's always fun to watch. It was a fun concert, and the girls came with us to watch this one.

All ready for the concert. I'm glad he wore a Santa hat because it made it much easier to find him. Only a handful of people wore festive hats.

He was in the middle in this picture. Still kind of hard to see him way back there.

The girls brought home some Christmas gifts for mom and dad the next day that they had made at school. They were too excited for me to open them and didn't want to wait until Christmas. They also said that I kind of needed to open them before Christmas (since they were ornaments). I love the creativeness that the teachers come up with such cute gifts to give!

We had donated some holiday m&m's and now I know why. They made a cute little candy machine.

And her picture was on the back.

Alice made a homemade gift bag with her gift inside.

The art project that I helped her class with. When I helped they were only at the stage of painting the background and the fingers for the snowmen. It turned out so cute!

On Thursday the 19th, Sister Gale and I took our other activity day leader, Toni Diaz, out to lunch for her birthday. Sister Gale offered to pay, and she took us to one of the expensive fish restaurants called Anthony's. Curtis and I had eaten here before. We all ordered the fish and chips. The fish and the fries were really good but none of us liked the coleslaw. It had a weird flavor that we think is from the ginger they put in it. Anyway, they brought Toni a dessert afterwards and we got to taste it, but we were all stuffed. We had to use the restroom before we left, and this was the first time I had ever been in this one. We were all surprised to see that each stall had it's own mirror and sink right there by the toilet!

It was weird but kind of cool to have it right there after you finish so you can wash right away and have the privacy to check yourself in the mirror without others looking at you.

After we finished our lunch, we decided to do some shopping because I still had a few small items to try to find for gifts. We went thrift store shopping to a few places in Richland. By the time we finished, it was very close to time for the girls to get out of school. We started heading back to drop off Sister Diaz when I realized I could call Garrett and have him pick the girls up from school, so he did, and I could relax. It was fun to go out shopping with friends for a change.

Saturday the 21st, was the day of Alice's friend birthday party. I did not plan what they were going to do until a few days before. Curtis bought Alice some party invites the week before and Alice filled all of them out by herself once she had the right information. She passed half of them out before our trip to Nampa and then the rest when we came back. The morning of the party, we did some decorating and cleaning. We rearranged the basement so it would be more open and have lots of space since Alice invited 11 friends. While I was vacuuming that floor, the girls had a little fun with Milo and tied him with yarn to the office chair like he was a reindeer.

They even made antlers out of paper and a headband. He did not like it though.

Charlotte was helpful and took charge of playing some games with the girls while I was upstairs getting food ready. They did some fun YouTube exercise videos and Charlotte created a laser maze with red yarn connecting from the couch to the ottoman and folding chair. We had them come up and eat after that. Instead of pizza, I decided we would have meats, cheeses, crackers and fruits like we did at activity days. After they ate, we sang happy birthday. Instead of cake this year, Alice asked for apple pie. Not knowing how many people like apple pie I talked her into just buying a mini one for her for singing to and then get cookies or something for everyone else. She was fine with that and ended up picking out a gingerbread cookie decorating kit that had 16 cookies in it. So all of the girls got to decorate their own cookie. After cookies, we went downstairs again to play a few more games and then open gifts. They played pin the horn on the unicorn, Limbo, and Charades. Some girls really loved playing Limbo and did it several times.

Not all of her friends came but they still had a lot.

Decorating their cookies.

Pin the horn on the unicorn.

You can see the tape on the floor where they tried to play tic tac toe but it didn't work very well.

Charlotte and I took a turn after all the other girls went.

It was a good party, and I think the girls had a lot of fun. I'm thankful it's over now. I told her that next year it will just be a family party only. We can't do a friend party every year. It's just too much. The main reason we let her do it this year is because she is turning 8 and getting baptized.

The next day was her actual birthday and also our ward Christmas sacrament meeting. We had to be there early since Charlotte and I were singing in the choir, but we managed to wake up early enough to make some French toast for breakfast beforehand. There was Sacrament meeting only that day so that people could spend more time with family before the Christmas holiday. On the way home, I told everyone that we needed to get a family picture and not to change right when we got there. Thank goodness for the tripod Curtis got me.