Pre-Christmas

Connor started taking piano lessons in January, so he had almost a year of practicing under his belt for his first piano recital a couple Saturdays ago. It was cute - the other students were two other boys his age and a married couple that decided to learn later in life. The teacher is wonderful. He comes to our house and is almost too nice for his own good. I'm really happy with what Connor has learned so far. At the recital he played "Rudolph" and "Frosty", (both as duets with his teacher,) and did great!
  

  

Ryan has a very serious rule against artificial Christmas trees. I understand - the ritual of picking out and setting up a fresh tree can be a lot of fun. This year, though, it got to be a week before leaving for Utah, Ryan was sick, and it was cold and rainy outside. In a moment of weakness, he agreed to let me run to the hardware store and get a short little plastic tree. I put it up on a box to make it look bigger, and put the lights on. The rest the kids did all by themselves. Easiest tree ever!
  

  

The week before Christmas was a bit crazy. Our friends from Hayward came down on vacation, so we joined them at Disneyland on Tuesday. It was a little rainy and cold, but not too crowded, and we had a great time. Corinne divided her time between the baby carrier, (snuggled inside my coat,) and the baby center - an awesome Disneyland service I'd never known about before. It's like a little clubhouse for moms with private nursing booths and rows of changing tables. It definitely beats freezing to death trying to nurse on a bench!
  

  

Thursday night was the kids' Christmas concert. It was adorable - they'd been practicing for it all semester at school. Connor's class sang "Gloria to God in the Highest" and "The First Noel". Elise's sang "Ten Little Angels" and something about friendly animals in the stable (I can't remember the name.) For the finale, the classes all went up together and did "Joy to the World." The lighting was pretty bad, but I'm posting the pictures anyway because they're cute!