Christmas Programs and Christmas Cookies

It's been a big week for our Emmy girl! We had something almost every evening, which meant several fast-food dinners and late nights. But it also made for some fun memories. On Tuesday evening, Emmy started Upward basketball with Daddy as her coach. The mighty Green Waves had their first practice from 6:15PM - 7PM. Boomer led them in drills and the basics of passing, dribbling, and shooting. Afterwards, Emmy said "It's just so hard to dribble 10 times in a row!" She was a little upset when she had to leave early to jet over to play practice. We had double booked ourselves, and that evening was also the final rehearsal for the Christmas program. Emmy dried her tears when she found out she got to wear an angel costume with wings. The performance was on Wednesday, and Emmy did a great job! Zander and Maddox did excellent too, with solos during a few of the songs. Emmy and I have been listening to the CD during every car ride the last couple of weeks, and during the performance, she sang her heart out and knew most of the words. Uncle Zack put together a collage of some of Emmy's expressions throughout the performance. Grammy and Grandpa bought cake pops as a treat for the performers, and we captured some classic family photos afterwards.

In other news, Eli was out of school on two different days this week. He was at home with Grammy on Monday and again on Thursday. On Sunday night, he was up from 1AM to 4AM, just general fussiness and a runny nose. Boomer and I took turns going in to hold him, until finally Boomer moved to the guest room for a final hour of sleep before our alarms. Boomer and I have gotten spoiled with our uninterrupted sleep at night. Both kiddos have always been great sleepers, so we were all out of sorts on Monday. Mommy and Daddy still had to go to work, while Grammy watched Eli so he could get some extra rest. He was much better on Tuesday and returned to school. However on Thursday morning, I got a call just after leaving the house saying that Eli's class was closed. There were several staff with the flu, and they did not have a teacher for his class. We had to make a quick change of plans, and luckily Grammy was able to watch Eli again. I think he rather enjoyed being back at "BeeDee's and Granpa's." 

The week ended with a second Christmas program, this one for Emmy and Eli's preschool. Boomer wasn't able to attend since it was during the workday. I came in on two wheels and just made it in time to see Eli up on stage. Luckily Grammy and Grandpa had gotten there early and saved seats. Eli's class sang two songs which were a bit hard to decipher. Emmy's class sang two songs and also recited a verse of Scripture. Overall, I have concluded that preschool teachers are saints and are not paid nearly enough!

This weekend, we fit in several holiday traditions, like seeing the Christmas balls in Greensboro and making cookies at Grammy's. The cousins had fun using the cookie cutters and decorating with sprinkles. Eli was a little impatient and didn't quite understand the whole baking process. He kept hollering for "cooo-kies" before we had even put the first pan in the oven. Maddox and Emmy were the most involved and did an excellent job making Christmas trees, angels, snowflakes, and snowmen. We have enjoyed eating their Christmas creations the rest of the weekend.