Callie's Choir Concerts

Callie worked hard with the Valley Elementary school choir this fall, joining late since we were in Vermont when choir began, catching up with lots of practice at home, early morning rehearsals twice a week, and lots of ups and downs with the emotions of the director. But it all came together beautifully on 6 December at Ogden's Christmas Village. We have made a little tradition of eating at La Ferrovia before the concert, which is always a delicious choice. And this time we came prepared with hot cocoa in the thermos and camped out under a heater to stay warm during the concert. Score! And we, of course, had fun wandering around the village peeking at the Christmasy scenes inside each house and enjoying the brilliant lights. Fun evening!

Dinner of champs!

I'm not sure what I was taking a picture of here.
But cute.

Lego house was a hit!

Love the lights!

Always love the nature center display.

And the nutcracker house is a classic!

I call this the Grinch tree because of that color.

I took this so I could remember to make some of these
big snowflake stars to decorate the house. And, wouldn't
you know? I never did and only remembered now
(at the end of February when I'm posting this). Womp, womp.
Maybe next year?

Another fun collection of nutcrackers.

Sam soakin' up the heat and slurpin' the
good stuff!

The stage backdrop was a cute Ogden skyline cardboard
cutout.

Here are the kids!

Blurry action shot.

That's Cal under the giant green arrow. (Thanks, Gregg,
for the handy visual!)

I spy Cal on the second row from the bottom,
second kid from the left.

bonus video!

two minutes of the long medley they performed at the village stage

The Christmas Village is the first concert of the season, but it's not the only one. We were looking forward to her school assembly performance on 19 December, too, since there are extra songs that they sing only there. Both grandmas and grandpas came to watch and listen and support. And luckily they both planned to come to the first show (there were two assemblies scheduled during the day) because Cal was sick. She rallied just enough to get through the first assembly (but did so rather in a rather pale, tired, weak state) and then she went home and slept through the afternoon show. Poor, sick little chick.

Grandma Blanchard brought Cal flowers
which brightened our piano all season long.

Aggies and Burgers and Lights

The Aggies were scheduled to play in Salt Lake at the Delta Center on 16 December, so we made a party out of it and met up with Mugs and Heather and Terrell and Grace and Cooper. We had the best time sitting right down close (the kids got on the jumbotron multiple times!) and watching such a whirlwind game that the Aggies won!

After the game, we all walked over to Crown Burgers to get some grub. Yum! And then we wandered around temple square to see what Christmas lights we could see (spoiler alert: it wasn't nearly as many as the old days before construction on the temple, but there were still some to enjoy, including a red tree!). We peeked inside both the Assembly Hall and the Tabernacle, where we sat for a minute to listen to a choir sing a few songs before we popped back out. We enjoyed the lights and fountain in City Creek before we split ways and headed to our cars in the parking lots. It was a fun and festive evening with the fam!

The perfect, festive listen for the drive
back home. A favorite and must-read
every Christmastime!

 

Nativities

Last year we enjoyed a fun Community Nativity Display event at the library in December, complete with music by local people who shared their talents for everyone there. So this year we were looking forward to going and perusing again. Then we got a sign up sheet in church asking for people to share their nativities and Sam whispered to me as the sheet went around the primary room that he wanted to make one and display it, too. So he did! He made it out of LEGO (of course), and Cal finished her felt ornament that she had started a couple years ago, and I brought the Amish-made one that Kim and Paul gave us from their mission, and we set them up on the table in the library on 9 December along with nativities from other community members and from around the world. What a fun tradition I'm glad to be a part of!

These were some cute puppets on the touchable table
for the kids.

And this one made of felt was adorable.

And I love the block ones, too.

Since I love nativities and we have so many, I thought it would be fun to document our own nativity display at home.

I was excited and surprised to find that puzzle nativity in the center
in my box of nativities. I had forgotten that Ky gave it to me for
Christmas last year! A gift that delighted me twice!

Here's Sam's LEGO nativity close up.

And here's Cal's finished felt nativity ornament.

I love our advent nativities, too. This one was
made by my mom.

And Laurel made this one for us, after the one
that their family grew up with.

I was reading and participating in an advent study of Bitter and Sweet by Tsh Oxenreider with the Mama Book Club at Read Aloud Revival. Each day also had a painting or art piece linked to it, and I saved some of my favorites. Aren't these cool?

And of course, I love books about the nativity. We own a few, and my favorite is probably The Friendly Beasts illustrated by Tomie dePaola, but I always like to check some out at the library, too. (I know you're shocked!)

These are wonderful. I may need to buy them someday.

And this was fun! We learned about St. Francis as part
of Christmas school, and he is credited as the first person
to have a nativity display! Love him!