Merry Christmas from us to you

I see that it's been awhile since I blogged. Life's just been very hectic and I'm still trying to adjust to working part time, etc. I will try to catch up on all that's happened since school started at some point but for now, here are a few pictures in front of our tree on Christmas Eve.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

It's Christmastime!

It's Christmas morning and the present opening is done (well it's done here - we still have gifts to open at Paul's parents' later) and everyone is either napping or playing with their new toys. We just wanted to share a photo of our tree after Santa came last night and our official Christmas Eve family photo for 2006!

We hope that you got everything you wished for this year under your tree!

Merry Christmas from us ... to you

December has been a whirlwind of activity for us. The girls performed in the Nutcracker for the first two weekends of December (8 performances for Emily & 10 performances for Hannah - she did 10am Friday shows for schools in addition to the other 8 shows) and since I help backstage for most performances (and attend the few where I'm not helping) I was busy that whole time too. Emily was a skater and a soldier this year and Hannah was a party guest.

Right after the Nutcracker was done, it was time for the annual school Christmas show at Hannah's school. Even though Emily has graduated and no longer attends the same school, she was also in the show this year (as a special guest) since the music teacher at the school is still her voice coach. Spencer Davis was in attendance at the show and he commented to his wife about Emily's performance and her stage presence - he said that had he closed his eyes he would have thought it was a black gospel choir singing (it was a gospel song). Spencer also told his wife that Hannah has a great voice and will be giving Emily a run for her money in a few years!

The day after the Christmas show was the last day of school before vacation for the girls and I was busy with the class party for Hannah's class since I'm the room mom this year. I'm happy to report that even with all that, we do finally have our tree up and the presents are all bought (though not all wrapped yet) and the cat has knocked the tree over once already so I guess it's officially Christmas time for us!

We want to wish everyone the merriest of Christmases and hope that you enjoy the time with those that you love.

Mark Your Holiday Calendars!

I know it's early to be thinking about Christmas but in just over a month, the girls' ballet studio is putting on their annual production of The Nutcracker. It gets bigger and better each year and this year will be no exception! If you typically make The Nutcracker part of your holiday season, please think about making it RZBC's Nutcracker this year. And if you haven't added The Nutcracker to your holiday traditions, this is the perfect year to start that tradition!

Performances are held at the Madrid Theatre on Sherman Way in Canoga Park on December 8th at 7pm, December 9th at 2pm & 7pm, December 10th at 2pm and December 15th at 7pm, December 16th at 2pm & 7pm and December 17th at 2pm.

This year Emily is a skater, which is the opening number of the show, and a soldier in the fight scene near the end of Act I and Hannah is a party guest and will be on stage for much of Act I. They will be in all performances of The Nutcracker and they'd love to have you attend.

You can buy tickets online or at the Madrid Theatre box office. Most shows will probably have tickets available at the box office the day or evening of the performance though in the past there have been some sold out shows but this is the first year with 2 weekends of shows. This year it is also reserved assigned seating rather than general admission.

Will you see me at all of the performances? Well, I will be in the audience once again taking pictures of The Nutcracker (yes those are my photos from last year) for at least a couple of the shows and I'll be backstage helping out for the others!

Christmas 2005

Christmas Day was fun but exhausting - presents both at home and at Paul's parents' house, good food and spending time with family. We all got a lot of really great presents and ate way too much food so I'd say that Christmas 2005 was a definite success. One of the happiest gift recipients this year had to be our cat, Nemo. I bought him a collection of stuff in a stocking from one of the pet stores and he kept trying to rip it open even before Christmas - apparently the cat nip in it is just wonderful!!

Sad to say but I didn't take many pictures on Christmas Day - bad mom - but after taking tons of pictures at the Nutcracker and the school Christmas Program and the school Christmas parties I just didn't have the energy for it. I did manage to take a few of the cousins playing in Grandma & Grandpa's backyard after all the present opening was done.

Backyard Fun: Blowing bubbles, collecting nut shells & searching for bugs!

Two of Emily & Hannah's cousins had to leave before dinner to go to their other grandparents' house so before they left we gathered all the cousins together to try to get a good photo of all of them together.

The two youngest cousins

All of the cousins by the tree

With 3 or 4 photographers and 6 kids from age 3 to 13 it's not easy to get a photo especially when I had a lens on my camera that made it tough just to fit them all in and there wasn't time to switch lenses. Oh well, none of them are perfect but it did capture the moment in time. Which is your favorite?

The Children Were Nestled All Snug in Their Beds

Okay, so that's the plan anyway but our oldest daughter is still awake which makes it tough for Santa to come. I have to confess that we were extremely disorganized about decorating this year and in fact we only got our tree up on Christmas Eve - YIKES! We've never been this late before but I was insanely busy with school things and trying to get the shopping done, etc. and Paul was working 60+ miles away for the last week and a half so it didn't get done. But, I'm happy to say we did get a tree and we did get it decorated. Since we got it so late, there wasn't a lot to choose from so it's smaller than our typical tree but it's amazingly not that dry and it smells like Christmas which to me is the important thing.

Here's the tree
(all ready for Santa to come and add his gifts!)

Every Christmas Eve we go out to dinner with Paul's family and then back to his parents' house to open one (or two) gifts. But, before dinner, we always each open one gift before we leave for dinner. What's in the gift? New pajamas and a new ornament for the tree. And, just before we leave, we take our traditional Christmas Eve photo in front of the tree (which we mostly hide this year).

Our Traditional Christmas Eve Photo
(Complete with a lovely Got Beer mat in the background LOL!)

We would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and we hope that you find everything that you have wished for under your tree this year.

Another Annual Christmas Event Done

Every year, there is a Christmas Program at the girls' school. This year the program was written by the music teacher at the school, Joseph John. It was a story about the true meaning of Christmas. Emily had one of the speaking roles in the program this year. She played a poor mom who was staying in a homeless shelter with her son and she had a solo singing part on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Hannah's class and the 5th Grade were a Jamaican choir and they sang two songs: The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy and Song of Exaltation. It was very cute - the girls all wore red robes and the boys wore white. If Hannah were any shorter it would have been a big problem since the shortest robe was all the way to the ground on her. It's also a good thing they were paired with the 5th Grade or Hannah would have been the only girl since she is the only girl in the 4th Grade this year - it's just her and 10 boys.

At the end of the program the entire school (Kindergarten - 8th Grade) sang four songs together: Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Jesus is the Rock. The program was excellent and it's sad to think that this will be Emily's last year and this was her final Christmas Program at her current school since she'll be going to high school next year.

Now it's on to the class Christmas parties next week and then Christmas itself. I'm still madly trying to get all the shopping and wrapping finished before the girls are out of school. It will be interesting to see which happens first.

Speaking of Christmas, to me it's always been a magical time revolving around family and friends. As a friend of The Cowsill family, I am praying for a Christmas Miracle this year. Barry Cowsill has been missing since Hurricane Katrina and it would be a wonderful gift for the Cowsill family and all of their friends and fans to have Barry safely return for the holidays.

Wow only 12 days until Christmas!

RZBC 2005 Nutcracker Cast

For me, the Christmas season is really here once my daughters have performed in the Nutcracker and that happened last weekend. Starting with dress rehearsal on Thursday followed by a Friday night performance, two Saturday performances and a final performance on Sunday, it was a busy and exhausting weekend. I attended the Saturday night performance and helped backstage at the other three performances and the dress rehearsal. I also take a lot of photos at the rehearsal and the performances and in fact this year's promotional materials for the Nutcracker used my photos from last year.

Hannah (dressed as Mimi the Mouse) & Emily (dressed as a party guest) ready to go on stage!

Neither Emily or Hannah is advanced enough in ballet to have a starring role yet but they still have fun and are looking forward to the day when the get to do the bigger parts. They're already talking about what parts they think they may have next year.

This year Emily was a party guest and a mouse in the battle scene. The mouse was a new role for Emily. She has been a party guest every year so far. Next year, she's hoping to be able to be one of the skaters.

Hannah was a polichinelle, an angel and an enchanted butterfly. Hannah has been a polichinelle and an angel for three years now and in fact she wasn't going to be an angel this year but there weren't enough angels so Hannah volunteered to do it again. The enchanted butterflies were a new role this year as part of the Waltz of the Flowers. Hannah also was the understudy for Mimi the Mouse - Mimi is part of the party and battle scenes and is a larger role than either of the girls have ever had. The girl who actually had the role this year was unable to make either Saturday performance so Hannah actually played the role of Mimi for two shows. When she was Mimi, she wasn't able to be a polichinelle or an angel but she was still an enchanted butterfly for those shows too.

Hannah as an Angel & an Enchanted Butterfly

Now that the Nutcracker is over it's time for the school Christmas Program & Christmas Parties coming up this week and next. And, oh yeah, there's that pesky thing called shopping that I need to get done sometime before it actually is Christmas.