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!

Eeek. November is over and I have not posted in over a month! I wish I could say big things happened, but not really. Kevin does have his car back (finally!) which just happened this week. So, here is a summary of the month and a few pictures from the holidays.

Holiday 1: Veteran’s Day! The hamster re-appeared on Veteran’s Day, courtesy of Ashley. He was very patriotic, and Kevin was touched. For all of the veterans out there – thank you.

As for the girls, Kayla is just going along doing what she does! She has started taking Adderall twice a day on school/important days. It does seem to help, which is a relief. We are working on her application to Woodlands Academy, and hope to get that mailed in the next few weeks. Kayla is also visiting Mom’s to have her hair done today….more pictures to come!

Ashley has her recital coming up next week. She is also going to participate in the school Solo and Ensemble contest in February. She will play the piano. Her teacher is looking for good pieces for that contest, pieces that will stretch Ashley and give her a chance to get good judge feedback. I saw Canon in D and Swan Lake on the piano. Ashley also had her belt test this past Sunday before Thanksgiving. She earned 3 out of 4 stripes for her test (a great job!), and so she is now an orange belt! We ordered the new belt, and I will post a picture once it arrives. She was very excited! Unless she aces her next belt test in the spring, she won’t color up again until next Nov/Dec, when she would move to yellow.

And now holiday 2, Thanksgiving! I only got a few pictures, and by the time we got to pie I was too distracted. Oh well! The food was good, the company was just right, and we got to watch the dog show!

The stuffing….

The girls…

The family…

The bird after we got done with it. Poor turkey….

Tradition in our house is to put up our Christmas stuff the day after Thanksgiving. We have a new addition to our decor this year – the little ceramic tree that Grandma used to sit on her coffee table. It feels like we have a little piece of Grandma with us still, seeing that little tree. Kayla put all of the lights on it.

A quick addition: Kayla got her hair dyed a fun shade of blue. Doesn’t it look awesome?