Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all. Here is our tree all ready for Santa to put the presents under. I got all the presents wrapped yesterday. The kids will track Santa's progress throughtout the day. And when he gets here, he can enjoy cookies made in his honor and of course carrots for the reindeer. Have a wonderful Christmas and I hope you get everything you wish for.

Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village

On Friday evening we had planned to go to the Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village. I had purchased 23 tickets and had two others that purchased their own. This was going to be our first big outing with our Troop. I started collecting money and permission slips from the girls and Mom's since October and ordered the tickets the first week in November.

Of course, it was also the day Michigan got its first big snow storm. We had about 12 inches of snow and of course the Village is 45 minutes south of us. I had built in an hour of drive time thinking we would be traveling during rush hour to begin with. We knew the storm was going to happen and so the night before our event I started receiving e-mails asking what we would do if we were snowed in. I, of course replied we would wait to see what happened, the tickets were non-refundable and non-returnable and very expensive.

The snow arrived, I called the Village twice during the day, the event was still going to be held. That meant if we did not go we lost our money. Many e-mails later and half the group had decided to not attend. I was not losing my money, I just needed to get out of my neighborhood. The main roads were as good as they could get considering they didn't start to plow until the snow stopped at 3pm. I left with five girls plus Lizzy and myself in my car and we had one other driver with four girls and two adults, so 14 of us made the trip. We had a great time. The snow added to the effect of the Christmas spirit of the Village with all the strolling costume performers. Our first stop after we met at the event was to head to the ice skating rink were they had skates for anyone that wanted to skate could use. Now Evie has never been ice skating in her life, but after helping several girls get their skates on I went out expecting to see her holding onto the rails following around the rink. Do I see her there no, as I am looking for her she skates by and waves HI. She is out there skating as if she had been born with the skates on her feet. Hence the picture above. We then walked around the Village, took a ride on the carousal, joined in the sing along and got to see Santa who said hello to the Troop and Evie from the roof of the Robert Frost House. The other picture Evie took of the reindeer resting for their big night this week. After our visit with Santa we sat by the fire and sang some more Christmas songs and watched the fireworks. After the fireworks we were paraded back to the front gates by the fife and drum corp to be sent on our merry way home.

Bowling with Santa

Saturday was bowling with Santa and of course Evie and Allard got to go. The pictures are courteous of Lizzy. Evie got to bowl with 5 other boys and so she bowled 2 games and Allard was with one other boy and he bowled 7 games. They both bowl on Thursday afternoon and Saturday mornings and are getting quite good. Lizzy bowls with them on Saturdays.

We also took time this week to try and get a picture with the three kids for our christmas card. Allard tried not to smile, but I got one that will work as well as can be expected. I have spent my days off lately cleaning and baking and we did get the tree up this week. It is up a lot later this year and everything seems to be taking longer to put together and yet the days are not. Before you know it will be time to put it all away. I missed Allards concert at school this week as the car is in the shop. We expect to get it back by Monday or Tuesday.

Swim Season Is Really Over

Well today was Lizzy's swim banquet, so the swim season for 2008 is officially over. All the girls get to wear their homecoming dresses for a second time so they really get their monies worth. Except for Lizzy, as the previous entry shows Lizzy wore a long dress for homecoming and so she wanted a short dress for the banquet. Luckly, we had seen a dress that she liked at Deb's, a hip girls store, that was on clearence so she waited for three weeks and we went and got it. It was still in her size and still on clearence because it was a spagitti strap short dress. Of course then we had to go shoe shopping yesterday. Try taking a teenage girl shoe shopping, it was not a pretty site and I really don't want to do it again. I go in and look for a pair that fit and are usually black, takes two minutes and I am out the door, Lizzy has to try on twenty pairs and then go to another store because she is not sure the first store has anything better then the second.

We knew about this banquet two months ago and paid our fee to attend, and wouldn't you know it but Allard brought home the winter orchestra concert schedule last week and of course he was playing tonight also. So Jeff and Evie went to Allard's concert. Today however he informed me that I was going to miss him in his first solo on the violin. It just figures you can not win sometimes. Thankfully they are going to repeat the concert during the school day on Dec. 12th for the students and teachers to see, so I told him I would have to make his concert that day.