Christmas Fun Is Beginning

Some fun holiday traditions this week.  Starting with the annual Merry and Bright Parade.  Every year all the scout troops/businesses/marching bands/government elected officials/etc. march in the parade.  It's such a wonderful Michigander thing to do - a parade in December in the snow.  All the candy they throw disappears immediately into the snowdrifts at your feet and kids freeze their fingers off looking for it.  When it's over your fingers are too cold to fold up your chair properly.  You wear so many layers you almost can't sit down. By the end of the parade route most of the metal instruments have frozen and don't play anymore.  But it's all worth it when Santa comes driving down the street on the firetruck wishing you a very merry Christmas and his face is just so bright and cheery that you can't help but smile.  We do it every year and every year I honestly look forward to it.  Our last chance to see our sweet kids in their marching band uniforms before turning them in and calling the year done.  My last chance to see Bella march.  Benjamin's last year the weather was so terrible they actually had to cancel it and that made me sad.  I was glad that despite the low temps, this year we got to have it.  Plus, Bella's band was at the very front of the parade so she was able to finish and join us to watch the rest of it, just like old times when she was little.  Couldn't have been more perfect.  Peter was a candy-collecting machine.  He was digging in the snow and scrounging in the dirty slush at the edge of the street.  Don't tell him, but I threw away half of what he collected because it was nasty filthy, but he was so happy collecting it that he didn't notice the cold.

Christmas concerts are also always fun.  The kids are so amazing with their multiple instruments.  Bella performed on the tenor sax, the alto sax, and the flute during various parts of the concert.  I loved when she played the flute because I could actually see her!   She just started playing this summer when a friend loaned her a flute during vacation and she taught herself and joined a flute choir when school started.  She's amazing.  Christian plays drums in marching band but plays saxophone in jazz band and symphony band.  For jazz band he sat in the front so I got good pics of both my kids for the first time ever. although the lighting and distance made it a bit fuzzy.

The kids have also been touring around to other schools to perform and increase interest in younger kids to join the band in high school.  Parents haven't been permitted to come but luckily the director posted this picture of Christian's band at his old middle school today.

Bella asked me to take her and a friend, Katie, downtown to see the lights, visit the Light The World Giving Machine, and go skating.  We had a wonderful time. We parked a ways away and took the Q-line into downtown and rode the People Mover around the inner city. I am amazed how much Detroit is revitalizing.  It was sooo busy and so fun!  It really felt like a vibrant down-town scene.  It's so exciting to be in an area that's developing like this.

As the temperature has dropped, Newburgh Lake has frozen over and I couldn't pass up the chance to skate on it.  Sunday after church I took the boys skating.  (Bella had other commitments, sadly.)  We had a blast and had the lake all to ourselves.  Other than freezing wind so cold it froze your eyeballs, we had a great time (as long as we kept our backs to the wind.)

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of Peter after he fell through a spot in the lake where there was no ice.  A drain pipe poured water into one small part and Christian was exploring the hole.  Peter decided it was also interesting but didn't have the maturity to know where to step and where not.  Down he went.  Mother's worst nightmare.  Amazingly, he floated.  Swim lessons for the win!  I was able to grab him out in seconds and he was fine other than his clothes became solid blocks of ice within minutes and he had to stumble to the car in a jacket and pants that weighed about 50 lbs. and were so rock solid he walked like a zombie.  I ended up carrying him the last little bit.  No tears or fear, though.  Just part of the adventure.  It was a really great adventure all around.  However, let's not talk about the unfortunate car accident we got into on the way home as a woman zoomed out of a gas station and crossed 4 lanes of traffic right into our car.  :(  Bye, bye beautiful Ford Mustang.  We will choose to focus on the good things we did that day, not how it ended.

Peter and I went shopping for stocking stuffers.  It was such fun to be able to say "yes" to toy requests.  Saying no nearly every time we shop is draining.  But this was the reason we went and Peter was thrilled.  To top it off, we had to take a ride on Sandy.  As he was riding, an elderly Chinese man came over and started talking to Peter in heavily accented broken English.  He was so taken by cute little Peter.  He started telling us about his grandson that used to ride Sandy but is now in medical school.  Then he offered to take our picture.  It was a good Christmas shopping day.

Miscellaneous:

Peter's teacher often posts pictures from school.  I love seeing him happy and smiling with friends.

Christian is going through a medical journey right now as we investigate how to proceed with a scoliosis and pectus excavatum diagnosis.  We have found some good doctors at the University of Michigan and hopefully we'll have some plans in place soon.  In the mean time we log many, many hours of driving between home and Ann Arbor and many moments of frustration in large public parking garages.

Thanksgiving

 It's been a fun week of friends and family. We hosted Thanksgiving at the church again this year.  We had nearly 40 people attend and had sooo much food!  Many stayed after the meal to play board games and have fun together.  As usual, I took no pictures.  The few I have are from a friend who attended that took some photos when it was nearly over and most had left.  They don't include any of my kids.  Not the best, but it's all I've got.

On the 30th, we celebrated the first advent and put up all our Christmas decorations.  That's always a favorite day for the kids.

Bella always claims the coveted role of putting on the star.  Peter was so upset.  I kept reassuring him that his time will come soon, but that was of no comfort.  He has brought it up again nearly every day since, begging me to take the star down so he can put it up again.  I truly have no idea why this is so important but he's almost convinced me to do it.

At the end of cross country season Christian had his team banquet.  I'm new to the team banquets.  For some reason Benjamin's teams never had one.  I missed nothing.  It was soooo boring I literally fell asleep.  4 hours of speeches and awards (6-10pm) with a lackluster dinner of baked ziti and pizza.  It was brutal.  I'm happy for Christian, though.  He worked so hard during the season and he has a lot to be proud of.

Bella had her fall concert.  As always, the saxophones are hidden behind other musicians during the performance, so I got the usual low quality walking-off-the-stage photo of Bella.  Can't believe it's the last fall these concert for her.

We got our first snowfalls this past week.  Peter and Christian were so excited.  As soon as the first little flakes started to fall they went out and made the largest snowman they could. :)  When we got more snow, they made a bigger one and a giant snow fort 

Peter's cub scout pack attended a local hockey game.  We spent far more time walking around playing carnival games to win free merch, but the hockey game was fun too.  It was a fun date with my little guy.

Halloween

This is a little late but Halloween was a lot of fun.  As usual, Peter wore a variety of costumes depending on the event.  Pirate Magician to the trunk-or-treat, Spiderman to his school Halloween party, and a Knight in shining armor w/horse and sword for trick-or-treating. What a blessing it is to have siblings and lots of old costumes.  Especially since his desired costume - Kirby - arrived much too large from Amazon.  He'll have to wait a few years before he fits into that one.  One size may fit most, but that doesn't include my little peanut Peter.

He was a good sport about it and we had a lot of fun at all of the events anyway.  We also had a great time decorating Halloween cookies.  Bella didn't go trick-or-treating, but she and the rest of the marching band wore costumes as they visited middle schools and performed on Halloween.  The whole saxophone section dressed up as Umpa-loompas from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, complete with green wigs and orange faces.  They looked awesome.  I was my usual warm and cozy Tigger.  It's the perfect costume for chilly Michigan October evenings.

No pictures from the school party because I was too busy helping to run the event.  One sad story from that - Peter knew I was coming to help with the party, but when I arrived, I was assigned to work in a different classroom.  He was at recess, so I couldn't tell him.  I hoped his teacher would let him know, but she didn't.  He came in from recess and didn't see me.  Rather than ask where I was, he assumed I was just late and waited.  All the other kids got snacks, went around to different rooms to play games, do crafts, etc. and Peter just waited for me.  I worried the whole time why I wasn't seeing him but told myself surely he's just having fun somewhere else.  After about 45 minutes, his teacher brought him to me, crying.  He collapsed into my lap and cried for a while longer.  Then he stayed in my lap while I attempted to run the game I was leading and simultaneously comfort him for another 15-20 minutes.  Finally he calmed down enough to explore and enjoy the party.  I felt so bad.  He'd been so excited to see me and thought I hadn't come.  Thank goodness his teacher noticed his distress and helped him.

I got a call last week from Peter's principal asking if I had time to talk.  Nothing can make your stomach drop quite like that question.  I don't know why I was worried, though.  He's a great kid.  Turns out he was nominated as the "character champion" of the month.  They have a different character trait (Respect, Responsibility, Empathy, Integrity, Grit, Confidence, Mindfulness, etc) they work on school-wide each month and then each teacher nominates a student from their class as the student who best exemplifies that trait.  Peter was nominated as the one who best displayed "respect" defined as "showing high regard for all."  They have an assembly each month to honor those nominated and parents are invited.  So I got to see him get his certificate from the principal.  Proud of that guy!

He doesn't love school but he does well there and I'm happy about how things are going and what he's learning.  

Bella got her senior yearbook photos this week.  I thought they turned out very cute.  Sorry about the watermarks.  I'm cheap and won't pay the $150 for the rights.

Christian continues to enjoy driving and has been making regular long trips with Kelly on Sundays for the sake of practice.  They also happen to visit some fun and beautiful places while they're out.  I'm really glad Kelly likes doing long drives like that. My nerves can't handle it unless I'm in control of the vehicle.  8 more months and he'll be officially driving on his own!

Last Times

Senior year is so fun and so hard.  Every time you do something you think, "This will be the last time I do this."  Thus it was this week at Bella's last marching band performance at a football game.  It was senior night so we got to walk onto the field with her.

Also, as we carved pumpkins on the kitchen floor I realized this will be the last time I do this while she lives at home.  It really makes you cherish every moment.  I love these fall traditions.  Wish everything went a little slower so we could enjoy them longer.  Kids grow way too fast.

We also had our trunk-or-treat at church.  Peter was a "magician pirate."  We lost the pirate hat so he wore a top hat of my dad's and was happy as can be with the combination.  Kelly decided to match him and the two had a great time going car to car.