Avery took a toy to donate to school. We went to the office to donate it and the donation box was gone!! Uh oh, did we miss it? I asked the school secretary, she told us that the box had been picked up the day before. She thought that maybe we could still donate it… so we gave her the toy, if no one comes to collect more toys, she can give it to her daughter who will be one in February.
Either way, someone will get the toy and enjoy it!!
On the 8th Avery took cans of beans to school to donate to the school district. They asked for cans of food, but NO SOUP!
On the 15th the kids both took cans of food to donate at Awanas. It was fun to see Sawyer participate in the donating too.
Sawyer’s preschool Christmas performance was very entertaining. His class sang “Jesus Loves Me” and “Away in the Manger,” with Angel wings on. It was adorable.
The name of the show was “Christmas Around the World.” There were songs in Russian and Korean, as well as English.
Preschool Christmas Performance
Sawyer, our angel, singing & performing.
Sawyer's wings are falling off...
The last of school in 2011, Sawyer’s Christmas performance for preschool, and the day we fly to Boise- a stressful day!
Avery and Sawyer both had lollipops that we our square sticker pictures (from costco) on the back. We also had snowman marshmallow lollipops and chocolate pretzel rods. They loved handing them out to their friends, then they handed them out at the airport. Dan thought it was so dorky, who would want a chocolate pretzel rod? Well, the Southwest employees were very happy, maybe even overjoyed, when Avery began handing out the pretzel rods.
Each year the kids pick out an ornament (with our help) for the tree. We try to encourage them to pick something meaningful for that year… still a hard concept to grasp.
I took Avery to the Hallmark store. Did you know their ornaments are very pricey?!? I had no idea peole paid $15 to $45 on one ornament- crazy. I was telling Avery that maybe we should just look somewhere else, till I saw a basket of 2010 ornaments, might as well take a look. She found one in there! It’s a Santa Claus with a microphone and he sings “Rockin’ Round the Christmas Tree” when the button is pushed.
She said it was because she "sang on stage with a microphone," like this Santa.
With my help Sawyer picked out a super hero ornament. When I showed it to him he was super excited and kept asking if he could put it on the tree NOW.
Sawyer's 2011 Christmas Ornament.
"That one is mine."
We arrived in Boise late on Friday night. But there was a lot to do on Saturday & Sunday….
SHOW # 1 Avery & I (along with my mom & dad, Lacey, my sister Mardi, her two son- Jack & Josh) saw the musical version of A Christmas Carol. It was great, very entertaining and kept our attention. We were in the 2nd row. Only problem was that there were two little girls sitting behind us that kept whispering very loudly to their moms. It was very distracting.
SHOW # 2 Saturday evening we went to the last show of “The (Best) Worst Christmas Ever.” I read the book when I was a kid (maybe 10) so I was familiar with the story, but didn’t remember all the details. It was a really fun show. Only drawback was that we were in the 4th row, which was the last row that wasn’t on a riser. So Avery couldn’t see well, but the people behind us had no problem with her kneeling on her chair. That helped make the show more enjoyable for all of us around her!
Funny side note- no drinks allowed in the theater, except water and juice boxes. So if you bought a soda, beer or wine during the intermission and didn’t finish during intermission, you had to buy a plastic souvenir cup with a lid, to put your beverage in. I saw a lot of people sipping wine, beer and Mike’s Hard Lemonade out of “sippie cups.” A little ghetto…
SHOW #3 – We went to Prairie Dog Theater for our 4th show there. It’s a theater group that writes and performs “music melodrama parody theater.” There’s a lot of audience participation- boo, yeah, random songs… too funny. This time they took the story of “A Christmas Carol” and called is “Scrooge: Older but Miser.” Each show has Elvis in it somewhere, this time Elvis was the host of Christmas present. He sat in his chair and was mesmerized the entire time.
3 great holiday shows in 2 days- only in Boise.
COOKIES!!
My little sous chefs ready to work. Love the aprons!
After school today Avery, Sawyer and I got to work. We made chocolate chip/M&M cookies and sprinkled sugar cookies. We didn’t have a chance to frost and munch on the sugar cookies. Maybe tomorrow?
We’ll be giving the cookies to our neighbors after we wrap them up.
Sawyer's letter to Santa. He is way into Batman and Spiderman, it's hilarious. He walks around shooting webs at everyone. Can't wait to see what Santa brings him....
This afternoon Avery’s girl scout troop sang a few Christmas carols with two other troops. They met at a retirement community just before their dinner time, at 4:30!
I was quite impressed that (most of) the girls shook hands and introduced themselves to the residents. I could tell the residents really liked that they girls were talking to them,.
Ready to sing!!
Sawyer and I sat right in the front row. I sang along with the girls while Sawyer tried to get their attention… very annoying. He then tried to join them up front. Not so fast little guy! After he got his wiggles out he sat with me and enjoyed the songs.
Dan really wanted to get a real live Christmas tree this year. I found a deal we couldn’t pass pass up on a deal sight to cut your own Christmas tree down not too far away. It was really fun being able to pick our tree and saw it down- timber!! Avery kept picking out the “Charlie Brown” trees.
The tree we picked to chop (saw) down.
After cutting the tree down, Dan pulled it onto a flatbed that took us up to where our car was.
Took us a few days, but here is our trimmed tree!! She smells great!
