Once again, it has been a full month or more since the last update. December is always a busy month. We’ll start with Ashley!

Yes, Ashley looks good in orange!

She was supposed to have a piano recital, but the nursing home that was hosting had to cancel due to a flu outbreak! The recital will now be on Jan. 10th. She was also supposed to have a choir concert last Wednesday night, until she got a cold/flu bug and missed 3 days of school. Lucky for me, I have some video of when she sang with the choir at a pancake breakfast. Just some Christmas carols! Ashley is the fourth one in from the right until they all shift spots.

Ashley’s D.A.R.E. essay was her class winner too! She was pretty proud of herself for that!

On to Kayla! For the first weekend in December, Kayla went on a lock-in trip with the confirmands to Chicago. She spent a good portion of her Saturday cleaning up an old church in a needy neighborhood. She came home tired but feeling good. She had her band concert last Tuesday night. We only have a few clips – the camera was dying. She’s in the front row, second chair in. Not sure what the first piece is called, but the second one is a Frozen number (this one’s for you Kieran!).

Of course, what would Christmas be without someone being sick! Kayla came down with the bug last night. Today has been so-so for her. Hopefully, she will feel well enough to enjoy the holiday dinners. Kayla also finished her application for Woodlands Academy and we mailed that yesterday. She had to write an essay, but was given a choice of prompts. She chose the prompt “In a room lined with shelves is a box with your name on it. Describe what is in the box”. She wrote a beautiful and creative essay about being 100 years old and finding this box that had gone missing years ago, containing childhood memories. It was really amazing and touching.

December also means truffle time! We made 7 different flavors this year, for a total of 579 truffles. It took most of a week to make, bag, and deliver them all! I even had to use a spreadsheet to track how many of each flavor per person, and who, and what! Crazy but people really like them and they make for a unique gift for all of the people who interact with the girls.

Both girls are excited for Christmas! This has been a year of many blessings mixed in with some sadness. We will miss Great-Grandma at tomorrow’s dinner very much. Christmas will be different from now on.

Merry Christmas everyone!