Christmas 2013

It's January 16th and I'm finally sitting down to document Christmas. December is always such a whirlwind with so many practices, performances, parties, shopping and so on. Avery alone had two choir concerts and three violin performances. It was a lot, but I also loved every minute of it. Her choir performance at the school was hilarious because she was placed right behind the piano. My girls are always placed on the front row due to being short, but all we could see was the top of her head. The choir did a great job and were actually asked to perform with the LAV arts academy across town. I was somewhat hesitant to take her to the LAC choir performance because it was so far away and on a school night, but it was worth it. We were able to listen to these choirs perform and they were AMAZING! She even mentioned that they were recording these concerts to turn in for the Grammy's and have won for several years. Wow. It made for a long night, but it was worth it. These high school kids treated Avery's choir so well and even gave them a standing ovation when they finished. They ended the program singing a song together which is the picture below.

Avery played her violin at the mall (picture below), the nativity, had an orchestra concert and played a solo recital all in December. She did a great job, but we were all ready to take a Christmas break.

I love being Aliza's room mom at school. Kindergarten is seriously such a fun place to be. I have always wanted to teach, so being in her classroom is just fun for me. We made these gingerbread houses at her Holiday party. She wanted me to take a picture, so here it is.

Christmas Eve we made special cookies for Santa. Luckily we had a few tubes of frosting left over from Aliza's school party which made frosting so much easier.

Micah looks crazy in this picture, but I love it. I love that Aliza is throwing a surprise peace sign in the background and Abbie and Micah were posing silly together.

The girls wanted to Skype to see Santa at the Phillips family Christmas Eve party in Utah. I guess it's always fun to see the big guy on Christmas Eve. No one seemed sad that we were at home and not there so that was good. After visiting with Santa we invited our friends the Lewis family over for a yummy turkey dinner with all the trimmings. It was a great night that ended with watching videos on our Saviors birth and my favorite Mr. Kruger's Christmas.

When Christmas morning was finally here the smile on Aliza's face says it all. They were very excited.

We were very spoiled by both sides of the family this year. I think the best part was that we just stayed home all day in our PJ's, and just played. We have never just sat home on Christmas before. Most years we spend running from house to house to visit family. Last year we stayed home, but I think we had church or something. It was very relaxing and just fun to play with the girls.

Abbie and Avery both wanted Ukelele's for Christmas. We have enjoyed getting them out and playing them together. We have figured out a few songs.

Avery loves anything to do with Bethany Hamilton or surfing, so she was in heaven with a few new things to decorate her room with.

Micah was rocking out with Aliza's new guitar.

Santa left us a scavenger hunt this year for a big surprise. The girls ran all over the house collecting clues which ended in our spare bed room with new swim suits, sun glasses and tickets for a CRUISE TO MEXICO. Our kids have been begging to go on a cruise for quite some time, so they were very excited. Santa was very good to us this year.