Christmastime is Here
Once we arrived home from Ireland, the busy Christmas season immediately started. The first week in December brought us concerts, sports, and one of our favorite Christmas traditions.
This year Natalie chose to join her school choir. She's not really shown a huge interest in music or singing before so we were kind of surprised by that particular choice of elective, but Natalie has LOVED choir and her teacher Mr. Sands. She's excited about singing and the songs they're working on together in class each day. This is our fourth school year with a musician at the middle school so at least we knew what to expect - a hard time finding parking and kind of mediocre music. The middle school band and choir concerts are always combined with both bands and the choir all on the same night in the gymnasium. The gym floor is filled with musicians and the bleachers are packed with parents and other family members. However, her first concert with the school choir was so much better than we expected. Mr. Sands is new to the school this year and he directs both the bands and the choir. The music has definitely taken a jump up from mediocre and it was easy to see why Natalie has been enjoying choir class so much. Natalie is the singer in the back row on the left-hand side. You can just see her Santa hat above the speaker.
Samantha and the JV Basketball team traveled to their first away game of the season. By the way, she was selected to be the JV captain! They took a long bus ride to Germany and played against Ramstein on Friday night (a loss), slept on the gym floor, and played against Kaiserslautern (their first win!) on Saturday morning before turning around and making the long drive back to England. It sounds pretty cool when you say you're traveling to Germany for basketball, but playing sports for DODEA is no joke. Samantha came home exhausted from three nights of poor sleep and with a bruised tailbone that's still not fully healed.
Ever since we lived in Germany we've been celebrating St. Nikolaus Day on the 6th of December. Children put their boots or shoes by the fireplace or next to the door on the night of December 5th and in the morning they're filled with treats and little gifts. It's a fun tradition that we've adopted and look forward to each year. This year I knew that Samantha would be in Germany for Der Nikolaustag so I packed her basketball shoes with candies and gifts before she left town. Abigail and Natalie were home and put their shoes out the night before. Sadly, I forgot all about filling them before I headed to bed that night. The next morning I was lazy and didn't wake up before Abigail headed off to seminary. I felt so bad when I woke up and saw her shoes sitting there by the front door and realized that I'd forgotten to fill them. I could just see her waking up and going to get her shoes and finding them just as empty as she left them. She had to settle for a text message apology and a photo of her then filled shoes waiting on her bed.
This year Natalie chose to join her school choir. She's not really shown a huge interest in music or singing before so we were kind of surprised by that particular choice of elective, but Natalie has LOVED choir and her teacher Mr. Sands. She's excited about singing and the songs they're working on together in class each day. This is our fourth school year with a musician at the middle school so at least we knew what to expect - a hard time finding parking and kind of mediocre music. The middle school band and choir concerts are always combined with both bands and the choir all on the same night in the gymnasium. The gym floor is filled with musicians and the bleachers are packed with parents and other family members. However, her first concert with the school choir was so much better than we expected. Mr. Sands is new to the school this year and he directs both the bands and the choir. The music has definitely taken a jump up from mediocre and it was easy to see why Natalie has been enjoying choir class so much. Natalie is the singer in the back row on the left-hand side. You can just see her Santa hat above the speaker.
Samantha and the JV Basketball team traveled to their first away game of the season. By the way, she was selected to be the JV captain! They took a long bus ride to Germany and played against Ramstein on Friday night (a loss), slept on the gym floor, and played against Kaiserslautern (their first win!) on Saturday morning before turning around and making the long drive back to England. It sounds pretty cool when you say you're traveling to Germany for basketball, but playing sports for DODEA is no joke. Samantha came home exhausted from three nights of poor sleep and with a bruised tailbone that's still not fully healed.
Ever since we lived in Germany we've been celebrating St. Nikolaus Day on the 6th of December. Children put their boots or shoes by the fireplace or next to the door on the night of December 5th and in the morning they're filled with treats and little gifts. It's a fun tradition that we've adopted and look forward to each year. This year I knew that Samantha would be in Germany for Der Nikolaustag so I packed her basketball shoes with candies and gifts before she left town. Abigail and Natalie were home and put their shoes out the night before. Sadly, I forgot all about filling them before I headed to bed that night. The next morning I was lazy and didn't wake up before Abigail headed off to seminary. I felt so bad when I woke up and saw her shoes sitting there by the front door and realized that I'd forgotten to fill them. I could just see her waking up and going to get her shoes and finding them just as empty as she left them. She had to settle for a text message apology and a photo of her then filled shoes waiting on her bed.
On the other side of the world, our two oldest girls were able to see each other briefly when Madison and her choir sang at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. We're so grateful that Emily is serving somewhere she has been able to see family and friends from time to time. It's a huge blessing for her and for us.
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