Christmas Fun: The Nutcracker, Christmas Shopping, and More!

We've had some more Christmas fun this past week.

On a side note...as I type this, it is rainy and windy. Yesterday the high was 78. This weather is the opposite of Christmas-y.

Anyway, Friday evening I watched my Buford Wolves claim their first State Championship in football in Class AAA, which they just moved up to from AA. (However, this was NOT their first championship ever, not by any means. I could look up the stats right now, but I'm too lazy to do that.) I was thrilled for them to win. To say BHS has had a tough 2012 would be the understatement of the year, so it was wonderful to see them win and celebrate something good and fun.

Our next-door neighbor gave us two free tickets to see The Nutcracker: A Tale from the Bayou Saturday afternoon, so Amelia and I went to that. I was very curious about the "Bayou" part, but it ended up just being part of a very brief frame story. (But might I say, my drama teacher friend Kim would have been very impressed with their bayou set. Seriously.) The rest was the "real" Nutcracker, and it was amazing. Amelia enjoyed most of it, even though she (understandably) got a little restless about halfway through the second act.

Sunday, we went to church (our church hunt deserves another blog post because YES, we're still looking), and that afternoon, Amelia had a birthday party to go to. Here she is with her friend B...AFTER I caught them sliding together down an inflatable with a hula hoop around them. I told them I didn't think that was a good idea, not to do it again, and they both said, almost simultaneously, "It's okay. We didn't get hurt."

Monday, Darryl and I went to New Orleans to Christmas shop while Amelia was in school. This was something I had told Darryl I wanted to do as far back as the summer. WELL. Aside from shopping at a Disney store for some things (we don't have a Disney store in Baton Rouge), we didn't really find any shop that we didn't have access to in Baton Rouge. So we decided that at least we could have a really good lunch somewhere spectacular. We had a list of several places in mind. And guess what? Apparently almost all the "notable" restaurants in New Orleans are closed on Monday.

Interesting.

So we ended up at a BBQ joint that was just okay.

And for Darryl's co-workers who read this blog...don't you miss seeing this mug every day?

I must leave you with this one Amelia story.  Monday night, I was doing various things around the house, and I saw Amelia like this:

I asked her what she was doing, and she said, "I'm the Elf on the Shelf." Then, when I wasn't looking, she would move to another location and sit perfectly still like that. This went on for at least thirty minutes. It was hilarious!

And a little creepy.

A Loss for Words

I feel that I can't -- and perhaps shouldn't -- continue to blog about Christmas baking, The Nutcracker, and festive events when something of an unspeakable magnitude, of unimaginable horror, took place in a small elementary school in Connecticut on Friday.

The truth, though, is that I really have no words. I have nothing new to bring to the conversation. If I'm being completely honest, I've watched the news reports in bits and pieces, unable and maybe even unwilling to let myself "go there" completely. I can barely stand to look at the photos of kids who have the same grins full of those tiny baby teeth and those eyes that sparkle with happiness and/or mischief, much like my own daughter's, or the photos of the school administrators and teachers who obviously took their jobs to heart and were advocates for their students even in their last breath. I have a choice in what I read, watch, and allow myself to experience; my heart breaks for grieving families and loved ones who are forced to face a nightmarish reality.

Last night before going to bed, I read an email that Amelia's principal sent to all the parents of the school. She was transparent and honest about how difficult and confusing these days after this senseless tragedy have been and will continue to be. The email ended with a prayer that I found comforting and reassuring, and I will end with it as well:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. 
Where there is hatred, let us sow love; 
where there is injury, pardon; 
where there is discord, union; 
where there is doubt, faith; 
where there is despair, hope; 
where there is darkness, light; 
where there is sadness, joy. 
Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; 
to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. 
For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life.  

Amen.

The Christmas Season Thus Far

I know I've been focusing on catching up on past events, but I also want to talk a little bit about the Christmas season up to this point...or else I'll be catching up on it in February, maybe March. :-)

This season has been a ton of fun so far, and it has been a good balance of doing fun things and just chilling out at home and watching Christmas movies and baking goodies.

I'm doing another December Daily album this year (this one is my fourth), so most of the photos are from that; if you see something fancy (and for me, "fancy" is a collage or words on a photo, as you see in the photo above), that is why.

We kicked off the season by going to a Family Fun Night at Amelia's school, where we watched The Polar Express on the playground while enjoying some snacks and hot chocolate. Oh, and food trucks were there as well. Amelia enjoyed hanging out with her friend G, and here they are after about four cups of hot chocolate EACH.

The next day, we broke out our Christmas decorations and decked the halls. I must confess it was fun decorating a new (to us) place this time around.

Last week was a busy week at Amelia's school. I helped out one day at the Book Fair. Here's Amelia's class listening to a story. (Y'all. I've always loved a Book Fair. When I saw it as a volunteer opportunity at the school, I signed myself right up.)

Another day, I had lunch at school as part of the Book Fair promotion. (They take this Book Fair seriously, y'all.) I took out my phone to take get a photo of Amelia and me, and her friends wanted to get in on the action.

And if you ever wondered what 4- and 5-year-olds like to talk about at lunch, I can tell you: they LOVE to talk about pee-pee and poo-poo. And the various places one can pee-pee and poo-poo.

Gross.

Let's change the subject.

Friday night, Darryl and I had a date night. We went to eat and then just strolled around Perkins Rowe shopping center. My favorite decorations were the Christmas Alligators, seen here in the bottom right photo.

Amelia's next-door friend A spent a lot of time with us Saturday while Darryl helped her dad move some palm trees in their backyard. These two girls kept me hoppin', but eventually they settled down with their dolls and stuffed animals to eat some popcorn and watch a Barbie movie.

Saturday night, we went to the Christmas parade downtown. I'll just say it wasn't our favorite parade experience, but Amelia was happy she caught some Mardi Gras beads. Apparently Mardi Gras beads aren't just for Mardi Gras anymore.

Sunday, we went to church and lunch with my friend Martha and her family. That night, she met us at her church again so we could take Amelia through the live Nativity. I think Amelia's favorite part was a cage full of baby bunnies in a makeshift petting zoo. (The church had brought in live donkeys and such, so I think they just brought in a few extra animals for the kids. Unless I'm forgetting something about rabbits as part of the Christmas Story.)

 

A couple of nights ago, Amelia was in her first little dance recital. She is taking a VERY informal dance class at her school one afternoon a week (really, all she cares about it is putting on a tutu and dancing around), and they had a little program. Y'all, it was HILARIOUS. Here's Miss Amelia getting her groove on to "Jingle Bells."

And that brings us up to date on Christmas season, I think. We have a few more fun things planned...and I REALLY need to get a jump on some Christmas shopping. And some baking. And...

5 (The Actual Birthday, not the Birthday Par-TAY)

Amelia turned five on November 12.

I can't believe it. This birthday was a little more difficult for this mom to take than the ones before. Five just seems so...old, like some landmark birthday that is the transition from little girl to big girl.

Amelia was SO excited to be turning five. When she woke up on her birthday, she sleepily walked into the kitchen, where I was sitting, and she said, "Momma, I'm turning five years old today!!"

The birthday girl and I managed to fit in some doughnuts before school that morning.

I took cupcakes to her school. She has been into superheroes lately, so she requested superhero cupcakes.
Also, at school, she got this rockstar crown.

(I think next year, I want a crown like that with a big "40" on the top.)

That evening, she wanted to eat at Chick-fil-a and then go to the mall to ride the carousel. And since she was the birthday girl, that was what we did.

This isn't the greatest photo of Amelia (look at the camera, girl!), but I had to include it. She named this pig "Tickle" and said it was her brother. Um, okay...

 For dessert, she picked out this rainbow cookie. Girlfriend loves rainbows.

Here are some things I am loving about Amelia at this age:
--She is open to anything...meeting new friends, trying a new Sunday School at a new church, trying new experiences.
--She is affectionate. She is a HUGGER. She hugs her friends when she sees them and then again when she tells them goodbye. (If her friends are a lot smaller than she is, she also likes to lift them off the ground when she hugs them.)
--She loves to make books. She is always drawing pictures, writing some words over them, and then asking me to staple the papers on the side to make a book. Love it.
--She loves to dance and sing. Loudly.
--She's funny...usually when she isn't trying to be. :-)

Anyway, we had a wonderful day celebrating our girl. We love her so much!

A Catch-Up Post: Thanksgiving '12

We had a great Thanksgiving!

My parents stayed with us for Thanksgiving this year. Actually, they came the weekend right before Thanksgiving so they could attend Amelia's birthday party on Sunday. They enjoyed getting to spend a lot of time with Amelia...they even braved Chuck E. Cheese with her one day. That is love.

Our week got off to a rousing start when our fridge of over ten years decided to quit. Convenient timing, yes?

But now we have this beauty hanging out in our kitchen, and we're getting along very well.

Here's a photo of Amelia and my mom just hanging out, having coffee and hot chocolate.

My dad enjoyed some light reading.

He isn't serious all the time, though. Sometimes he likes to play with Power Rangers.

On Thanksgiving Day, there were several attempts made to fly a kite, but the wind seemed to mock us and stop blowing as soon as we'd run out there to try. (I say "we"...I just stood by with a camera in my hand.)

We ate WAY too much food, and Thanksgiving night, Darryl and I had a movie date night and went to see Argo. GREAT movie.

Friday morning, my parents went home, and my friend Rebecca and I kept up our tradition of doing some Black Friday shopping. Here is what you should know: 1) We do not get up at some ungodly hour (like 2 a.m.) to do this. 2) To be honest...we shop mainly for ourselves.

(I look like I am wearing a fancy hat, but it is a pedestal holding a purple high-heeled shoe. Everyone needs a purple high-heeled shoe, am I right?)



While I'm on the subject of Black Friday shopping, can I just say that I HATE that the sales and the shopping start Thanksgiving Day?? Can't we just have Thanksgiving Day, for Pete's sake? (I think Charlie Brown would agree with me on this one.)



And thus concludes Thanksgiving 2012. A good time was had by all.

The lack of blogging....

Well, as I indicated, oh, almost a month ago...life has been a little nuts lately. Not with anything in particular, just with the craziness of life.

Oh, and the fact that for the past few weeks, I've been staring at these:

 

Essay after essay after essay.

If I can toot my own horn, though...I must say I've done a pretty good job of staying on top of the grading this semester. However, I have decided that next semester, I am cutting out at least one essay so I can have more time between the last two.

You probably don't care about that.

So anyway...I have a little catch-up to do in the blog world. I haven't posted about Halloween, Amelia's birthday, Thanksgiving...

Whew.

There's lots to cover.

So for the five of you who might check back here on occasion, expect some catch-up posts. Stat.