Christmas

For the first part of winter break, we enjoyed lots of Christmas celebrations.  After my last day of school before winter break, we went to the drive-through light show at Valleyfair:

We made cookies for neighbors and Santa:

We celebrated our little family Christmas on Christmas Eve day:

Dave and I both played for two Christmas Eve services, and Norah played ukulele at both for the prelude:

The girls woke up early Christmas morning:

We drove to Iowa on Christmas Day and spent time with my mom's side of the family.  The girls loved all of the baby time!

We spent that night at my aunt Miriam's and the next day celebrating Christmas with my dad's side of the family.  Miriam surprised us all by making each person a special quilt.

Due to weather, we had to leave Iowa earlier than expected, so celebrated Christmas with my parents and sister in Rochester that evening so that we could head back home in the morning to beat more bad weather.  The only pictures I took in Rochester were of my dad opening funny food-related gifts!  🤪

 

Christmas program

Another thing that was back this year (after a year of doing it virtually), was the church Christmas program.  I played piano for the songs, and Norah participated by being a reader and singing the songs with the other kids.  My parents were able to make it up to watch.  All of the kids did a great job!

Band concert

Abby's middle school band put on a winter concert, which was our first school event since before covid.  Abby warned us that they wouldn't sound great (they've had a wonky couple of years in band with distance learning/hybrid/masks, etc.), but we thought they sounded wonderful!

For King & Country

I had the opportunity to go to the For King & Country Christmas concert with my friends Kaysie and Gretchen.  I've seen them in concert before with the kids and friends, but the Christmas concert was also amazing--I loved that there were Christmas songs mixed in with some of my other favorite For King & Country songs.  Such a great night!