Merry Christmas!

I remember years ago when I was little, that I would wake up around 4 a.m. on Christmas morning along with my brothers and sisters, and we would clang the cowbell around the house, yelling "Merry Christmas!. Mom and Dad would roll over, tell us to open our stockings, and they would be up later. Around 5 a.m. they would appear - I can only imagine how late they were up the night before! We would rip into our presents and had everything open by 6 a.m. and ready to start the day!

Tony tells me that he would stand in front of his parents as they were sleeping on Christmas morning(around 4 a.m. also) They would sense his presence and tell him to go back to bed!

Now, on our Christmas morning, I still wake up relatively early - I just can't get past the excitement of early Christmas morning! Nicholas woke up at 7 a.m., and we sent him to go wake up Michael at 7:30 a.m. We even sent them to bed early, and they just can't get into waking up early on Christmas!

Ever since I told my mother-in-law about my Raggedy Ann doll I got for Christmas when I was young(I don't remember how old I was), she has gotten me a new doll for Christmas. Today I got three dolls - two of them were dressed as a Cowgirl and Cowboy, respectively. The other was a Dorothy doll from the Wizard of Oz. My sister-in-law didn't even know that 10 of my students were chosen to be Munchkins in the high school production of the Wizard of Oz, and that I've been telling them all about the show!

It was a wonderful day!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

My Winter concert was a huge success! My student teacher played the part of Santa, and the kids loved seeing him. I had five classes worth of 2nd graders performing at the Sing-Along. They sang about 10 holiday songs, along with a few other songs that they really wanted to perform. One of the songs "Risseldy Rosseldy" is a very difficult song to enunciate, but they sang it so well that the teachers commented on how well they understood the singing.After the sing-along, I arranged to leave school a bit early so I could be at Michael's school for his Culture Day presentation(I really appreciate teaching in the same district where I live which makes this possible!). Michael researched England's animals(red deer), natural resources(coal), authors(J.K. Rowling), and food(oatmeal cookies, bread pudding). Then we served his classmates bread pudding. I couldn't believe the number of children and adults who had never tried bread pudding before!

Today was the snowstorm that left a foot of snow in Las Vegas a few days ago. Tony's school closed for the day, while Nicholas, Michael, and I had to go to school. Driving to school was no problem, but the afternoon was rather tricky driving home. Luckily I don't live far, so what usually takes seven minutes to get home only took me 20 minutes.

After we got home, Nicholas and Michael built a snowman who will hopefully last for a few days before he melts!

The First Snow of the Season

We woke up this morning to everything coated in two inches of beautiful fluffy snow!

Nicholas and Michael were very happy with the snow! Nicholas was happy to see it, and Michael was ecstatic to be able to throw it, run in it, and everything else you can do with snow!

Tony was at Rochester, NY for the annual NYSSMA(music teachers) Conference for the weekend. They had snow up there, too, but thankfully he arrived home safe and sound!

At the beginning of this month, we waited and waited for a dry day to try and clean up the leaves. We finally got one on Veteran's Day, November 11.

Yes, Michael is standing in that pile of leaves! We were able to clean up the front yard and rake up the backyard before the rain came again.

I love our leaf-blower. It's lightweight and very easy to run - even Nicholas and Michael can start it up and run it!
Michael decided that sitting in a pile of leaves would be the best place for reading his book.

In-between raking and cleaning up the leaves, Michael and Nicholas went to perform at the local VA Hospital with their teacher's violin group.

The nurses at the VA Hospital allowed a few pictures as long as we were only taking them of our children. They discouraged videos, because of the privacy of the veterans.

Now at the end of November, the weather has become unusually cold for this area of the country. Our dog Copper is a coonhound, and is very cold! So I never thought I would need to put a sweater on a big dog, but here she is:

Isn't she cute?

Yesterday we went into NYC again for the Young People's Concert. The theme was Ravel's Paris, and they played French music for the program.

Our friend Jen was also at the concert with her daughter Amy.

After the program, we went to Times Square and a restaurant called Carmine's for dinner with some friends. It's an Italian restaurant that is served family-style. It is delicious food!

Our friends Liz and Kenny had gone to see "South Pacific" at the Lincoln Center Theater. They loved it! Liz and I took a picture with one of the cast members after the show.

I Still Love Fall!

So with the beautiful colors of Fall comes the cleanup! I still love Fall, but it takes a very long time to rake up and bag the leaves. We had a lot of rain this weekend, so the leaves are too wet to pick up.

This is our backyard completely covered with leaves.

Here is our front yard, also completely covered with leaves. Michael is loving being able to walk through the leaves and jump in the piles!

Today was my first day in Sunday School and Relief Society after 10 years of serving in the Primary. I didn't know what to do with myself! The Primary children made me a beautiful turkey with their names and "Thank you" notes from the teachers. I love the Primary children, and I loved being in Primary, but I am also happy to be with grown-ups!

Michael's School picture

We just got Michael's school picture along with a photo CD so I could post his picture. Enjoy!

I love Fall!

For those of you who miss the colors of Fall, I have posted a few pictures for your enjoyment.

Michael wanted to dress up as Harry Potter for Halloween this year. His violin teacher had a Halloween violin class two days before, so he got to wear his costume early.

Nicholas didn't want to dress up for Halloween this year, so he was in charge of handing out the candy.

Tony made a killer batch of chili to hand out to the adults. It was delicious!

I dressed up as Raggedy Ann, and I will post a picture when I get it back.

The week before Halloween, Michael and I carved a pumpkin. Nicholas carved a pumpkin at his Young Men's activity night(so unfortunately I have no pictures).

Oh, and the last bit of news I have - I was released today as Primary President! As of now, I have no calling, and I don't know what to do. I'm sure in the weeks to come, I will figure it out easily, and besides, in our small branch, I'm sure I won't be without a calling for long!

Paul Mitchell Hair Academy

Tony's father is a hairdresser - an excellent one at that! Before he retired two years ago, he was a partner in a group of beauty schools. After he retired, he was contacted by some executives who wanted to start another beauty school, and they wanted him to run it. He was reluctant, but they convinced him to return to work for another five years.

Well, this past Monday was the official opening of the school.

John Paul is the owner of the Paul Mitchell Beauty Industry. You may recognize the name of the Paul Mitchell hair products line. I didn't meet him(John Paul), but he was there that night.

The New York Philharmonic

We are fortunate enough to live close to one of the world's greatest symphonic orchestras! We have a subscription to the Young People's concert series, which includes four Saturday matinee concerts. This is the first timewe have done this, and we had a blast! We drove into New York City yesterday and parked in one of the parking garages. Before we walked across the street to Lincoln Center, though,

we stopped in to the Manhattan Temple to visit some of the cleanest restrooms in the city.

There was a farmer's market in Lincoln Square Park, where we had lunch - soft pretzels, hot apple cider, and lemonade(and water).

Then we went to Lincoln Center to Avery Fisher Hall, where the concert was going to be held.
Before the concert began, there was Kidzone Live set up in all levels of the lobbies outside of the concert hall. If you're not sure what I mean, check it out for yourself at http://www.nyphilkids.org/ . It's really neat!

The boys tried out different instruments,

saw New York Philharmonic Musicians performing,

and participated in a quiz show.

They won some neat prizes, too!

Block Party

We celebrated a block party yesterday. I'll post pictures tomorrow. We have a really long street(a mile all the way around, surrounding other streets with state names), but we limited our invitations to about 15 houses. There were people on the rest of our street coming to us and asking us to include them the next time we have a block party, because they live on the(as they put it)boring side of the street!

We had Karaoke in our front yard, Guitar Hero, a firepit in the street, lots of snacks, a BBQ, and lots of music. The children rode their bikes, scooters, played basketball, and stickball. It was interesting to notice that most of the families in our neighborhood have mostly boys.