Emily got to partcipate in her first parade the weekend before last as her ballet studio all piled onto a float and wore their santa hats and waved to the crowd for the Magnolia Christmas parade. I'm not sure that she is ready to be a professional parade person as she says that it really wasn't all that it was cracked up to be as she had to sit on her knees which wasn't too much fun.

Josh and his buddy Sean got to root on their ballet sisters from the sidelines and get some candy while they were at it (and apparently some weird hats and mardi gras necklaces). The weirdest moment was when a girl that worked at a tanning salon came around handing out necklaces and telling everybody happy tanning. Then I thought, you know, Santa is looking a little pale these days maybe he could use a little bronzing.

Last week we had a chance to go in and watch Emily's whole ballet routine. This is a clip of one of the dances that we had not seen yet.

Last Thursday night Emily had her Christmas musical for her school. Each grade performed a couple of songs from a different country. Emily's class represented Mexico. So Emily and the only two other girls were the senoritas wearing their Mexican dresses while the 15 boys sported their sombreros. They sang Feliz Navidad. It was very appropriate as my daughter's favorite class is Spanish. She knows two Christmas songs in Spanish now as well as 2 Bible verses. She is ready to be missionary for Jesus to the spanish speaking world.

I also got to participate in the musical as I was caught in a rare moment wearing an official minister's robe and accompanying the second graders as they sang silent night.

Emily had her class Christmas party on Friday (her last day of school before Christmas break). It was a mega party full of various activities that lasted about 4 1/2 hours. At one point in the party the kids were all out on the play ground and I thought it would be fun to go and join them in their game of tag....BIG MISTAKE. The next thing I know I am being swarmed by kids from every direction and they are latched onto my legs and tackling me in a sea of confusion. At one point some of the boys executed what seemed to be a well-calculated thought out plan. Some of the boys were hanging onto my legs while another boy snuck behind me and gave me a sudden push which just about sent me toppling over to the ground. Yeah, so if you're ever tempted to join in a game of tag with almost 20 kindergartners, evaluate that choice very carefully.

One of the cool things they did during the party was setting up a little store for the kids. The kids were each given 10 dollars (fake but looked very real) and they could go pick out a gift that cost between 7-9 dollars. This gift would be given to kids that were sick with cancer at MD Andersen in Houston. It was a cool time for them to experience the joy of giving during this time of year. After they bought their gift they then could use their change to buy something for themselves but one of the kids went around to all the other kids and suggested that they combine all of their extra change so they could buy more gifts to give away. All the kids joined in with him and they were able to purchase two more extra gifts to give away. It was really fun getting to watch them do something generous for someone else on their own initiative. It was a good reminder that kids will respond to our leadership and initiative when it comes to serving others and they are eager to help and desire to make a difference.

And now for our parting shot. This would be Josh in the Sam's parking lot sporting his new tiger tail (from Michael's). These tails bought us at least another hour of productive errand running. Whatever it takes.

The kids wore their Christmassy clothes for church on Sunday and then got to go to the Awana store on Sunday night.



















Monday night was our mad dash to clean and finish our Christmas decorating. It's always interesting cleaning and doing stuff figuring out ways to entertain the kids at the same time. We had to move all the chairs out of the dining room to work on it and we happened across one of our greatest discoveries to date, 'the chair bridge'. Josh entertained himself for hours on this sucker. He would start at one end and walk all the way down and do it again and again and again.

The family Christmas tree (with Boyd's bear angel on top). Josh helping?

Emily continues to practice her balet dances each Wednesday. They have been working on a dance to 'Frosty the Snowman' where they use little black top hats in their routine.

On Thursday Joshua's school had Polar Express, Pizza and Pajama day. He was all decked out in his monkey sock monkey pj's and his elmo slippers.

Joshua has developed and addiction to cinnamon toast. Is it just me or does the aftermath (all of the cinnamon and sugar plastered to his face) bear a strange resemblance to the Joker? Kind of freaky.

Lastly, I have really enjoyed driving Emily to school. It's a special time where we can have Father/Daughter chats. Today we talked about my sticker collection I had as a kid and how I took stickers and placed them in a notebook. I also told her about scratch and sniff ones and she thought that was pretty cool. Then she wanted me to teach her how to whistle so we worked on that for awhile. I told her that I actually knew three whistles. The regular whistle, the Gaddy whistle (Aunt Debby), and the Grandpa whistle (the loud obnoxious one that gets everyone's attention in a crowd). She thought the grandpa whistle was pretty funny.

And for random entertainment value a Joshua video from this morning where he decides to do pantomime and take a vow of silence as I ask him questions: