More activities in December

Weston had a piano recital this month, he played "Minuet" and "Jazz Cat" and had both memorized and made almost zero mistakes, he has really progressed in piano this year since I've had Michelle Hansen be his teacher. Jared and I were impressed.

Savanna did a nice job at her orchestra Christmas concert, she played Dance of the Tumblers and The first noel.

Sav is front stage on second row

The last week of school Weston played again for the School Christmas Sing, and Fiora participated in a dance during the "Faculty vs Student" basketball game. Both were loud and fun.

Our nephew Sylvan Nielson had a baptism this month, Holly took our picture really quick after the baptism and it turned out so cute I used it for our digital Christmas cards.

Weston had gym pictures taken of his team and of himself individually.  Last year we missed the announcements about pictures so he wasn't in them and I was so disappointed, this year he made it. With all the time money and work put into gym we need to at least have a picture to show for it. Better shots forthcoming.

The kids enjoyed Grandma Sandy's Christmas party at the snow's home as is tradition every year. They made some nice crafts and had a gift exchange and games.

Fiora with her flashing nose and earrings

I got to lead our ward Choir in a christmas cantata for the ward's sacrament meeting program. It went very well and lots of people participated which was nice.

Our extended family on my mom's side got together the Sunday before Christmas and had a nativity and sing along, they asked Jared to be a wise man so we borrowed my cousin Christine's scarf to make him look like a magi and she snapped a picture.

At the EFHE nativity at the Terry's

I hosted a Nativity and Talent Share for the Barretts at my house, it was nice to have some authentic head gear from Jerusalem for the kids to wear this year!  Mom and Dad narrated, I played the piano, Holly took pictures, and everyone else role played the story of Jesus' birth, and in between we performed Christmas songs. Kelsy was Mary since she is really pregnant, Jesse was the donkey, Joseph was Joseph, Knightly was baby Jesus, Gabe was the angel Gabriel, Rachel Krystal Savanna Fiora Lucy Sophie were angels, Heidi, Sylvan, Travis, and Collin were shepherds, Weston, Trevan, and Kayden were wise men, Bill was Simeon, and Jared was Herod. It went really well and I didn't want it to end! 

the cast

baby in the manger

host of angels

shepherds and the angel

three wise men

Acivities in December

Decembers are so full of activities its almost impossible not to get behind on updates. This will be a bit of a picture dump and brief explanations so I can get to Christmas Day.
First set of pictures: Weston and I playing for the Lindon Elementary Orchestra concert, we had fun learning "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and "Rest ye merry Rock ye very" for this concert. Weston is getting much better at accompanying on the piano.

Fiora's good friend Kimee Puckett

 Sav taking selfies and making holiday nail art.

Weston had a Cold Turkey gym meet, a meet where judges come in and they go through all the events, but they don't have a formal warm up or awards, its kind of a practice meet to see where they are before the real meets start in January. He still did very well I thought. We were not in a good position to see all the events, but I was close for Parallel bars so I'll add that video, he scored a 9.9.

Weston with his team waiting his turn for the P bars

 We visited the Live Nativity in Alpine this year with our friends the Heims. It wasn't too cold thankfully but it was super crowded!  It was fun to see all the animals and people dressed up like Romans and Hebrews. Took me a minute to figure out the flash made the pictures purple/worse.

 

 I made some fun desserts this month, pies and tarts and pistachio covered chocolates, they have turned out pretty good, and I've tried to shared when I had extras.
 

Fiora made a 3D model of a plant cell for her class, out of bread and candy. I thought it was very clever. The day it was due she had a problem with her CRT lenses and couldn't open her eyes, so we went to the eye doctor instead of school, but the next day her teacher was very impressed.

 We also had a ward Christmas party, celebrated my sister Holly's birthday, and Jared and Justin Schauers hosted a business Christmas dinner which was very nice, but I don't have any pictures of those events.

Holidays

I am so GRATEFUL this holiday season! Here are a couple pictures from our wonderful thanksgiving feast with the Barrett family. Heidi and Gabe treated us to a short lip sync concert after we ate, the subject of which was a parody of the gut pain I experienced in Jerusalem.  It was very hilarious and I laughed a lot!  Wish I could get Jared to get up and dance like Gabe does, ha ha. So grateful for family, I hit the jackpot with the best parents and siblings in the whole world.

Dad never leaves the kitchen, always cleaning something

Carpenter family lip syncers

Jared in a post-thanksgiving feast coma

selfies with Great grandma Rappleye!

I made another gingerbread house this year. It took me seven days to complete, my kitchen was a chaotic art studio all that time, and a lot of other things got put on the back burner for that week.  Let me tell you putting up the christmas decorations seemed like a breeze compared to the work this gingerbread house required. But its fun to create and be artistic once in a while.

Step 1: Creating the floor plan and baking the gingerbread panels

Step two: decorating the panels

Step 3: making frosting and erecting the walls

Step 4: accessorizing the interior base floor

I later added a little clear straw with frosting that looked like a cup of milk, it was too cute!

Step 5: Taping lights to the ceiling/floor divider and erecting second floor walls

Step 6: decorating interior of upper floor

Step 7: cutting roof panels, taping lights to ceiling, frosting roof, adding chimney

.Step 8: finishing touches to exterior, frost and decorate the yard

All done! (Fiora's and Weston's ginberbread house on sides)

The kids just love this whole process and have to make a little house of their own while I do my big one, that really added a lot of work to my load since I had to make three more floor plans and panels and frosting for them, but I loved their enthusiasm.  I was pretty burnt out of gingerbreading by the end!  Here are a few pictures of Savanna's ginger bread house and her preferred art form--fingernail polishing.

Savanna doing holiday nail art!

Isn't that a cute snow man she made!