The final post for the year starts with the Messiah that I was able to play in again this year. They started only performing the Messiah every other year, so this was the year to play. I was super excited because Abby got to play with me. One of the ladies over the orchestra is a middle school band director, so she was able to get us a French horn for Abby to borrow. I helped Abby with the music and she was able to play the Horn 2 parts and it was so fun to play together with her again. The week before our big performance, our church held its annual Nativity weekend and the Messiah group performed a few numbers at that event. I was able to have some pictures taken at the Nativity of Abby and me with our French horns and then one with Abby and Aubrey who came to hear us perform. I loved the background for both of these pictures because they were decorated so beautifully, including paintings like this one of Jesus and the sunset by my friend, Dee Bowden.
We went to the church to see all the Nativities during the day on Saturday because the girls had each invited people to attend and we wanted to be there in case they showed up. The decorations and hundreds of nativities are always a sight to behold, so I took this picture of the backdrop they used to do the Live Nativity and they always have a room set aside for pictures. I thought it was a really cute picture. Abby was gone to a volleyball practice and Tyler didn't want his picture taken, but the rest of us look really good. I loved how the picture turned out.
Another event in December was our ward Christmas party. It was an ugly sweater party, so we decorated our sweaters and headed to the church for dinner and company. The primary kids sang some Christmas songs, so I took this picture of all the kids while they sang. It was really cute.
Santa came and the younger two girls waited in line to have their picture taken with Santa and got a candy cane after telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas. The kids were also able to do some activities like decorate ornaments and hang them on the tree by Santa. You can see the tree and some of the ornaments in the picture with Taryn and Santa. The decorations for the entire party were so cool; the committee did a great job.
They had a backdrop for family or group pictures, so I did get everyone in the family to pose for this family picture. Tyler even got in the picture with his awesome ugly sweater that he ordered online for the Christmas season. They always have an ugly sweater day at work too, so he was happy to have multiple reasons to wear his sweater. I thought this was a cute, fun picture and posted it on Facebook saying it was probably the only Christmas family picture we would have this year and I was okay with that.
On December 15th, we performed the full Messiah that we had practiced and we took a few pictures before and after the performance. Abby and I made friends with the brass section which was all high school students besides me. I had them take a selfie of all of us before we started the performance. They were all really nice to us and we had a fun time practicing and playing together.
After the performance, we saw all of Abby's friends who had come to hear it and they thought it was so funny because Abby looked so short surrounded by the tall boys and her friend Braelinn with high heels, so Abby looked really short compared to them in her ballet flats. They're a great group of kids that support each other and they all gave Abby nice compliments about the performance and her playing. She had fun and even though she doesn't play horn anymore at school, it was so fun having this time together to play great music together and be a part of a great group of performers from the community.
On December 19th, Abby turned 15. I didn't get any pictures as she was getting ready in the morning at home, so as she hopped out of the car at seminary, I grabbed this picture so I'd have something to show for her actual birthday when she was dressed up nice for the day. She was so excited for her birthday mainly because she had been looking forward to getting her driver's permit. She had been taking the online courses needed to be able to apply for her permit, so she had been looking forward to her birthday and the Christmas break for awhile.
Abby started playing with a new volleyball club this year and they had practice on her birthday. She's playing with Sol Volleyball on their 15s team, coached by Martin. Most of the girls are from Franklin and Abby was excited to go with a new team this year. She really wanted to focus on setting and they needed a second setter. She really liked all the girls and when Coach Martin started talking to Abby during the school season, Abby was the one who had all the discussions with the coach and made the decision to join this team. She had a couple other teams wanting her to join them as well, but she made the decision on her own and was very excited about this team. We took cookies for her birthday, so after practice, they sang to Abby and everyone got a cookie. It was really fun.
Abby opened presents and had an actual cake as well. She got everything she asked for which included things like new church shoes, a lanyard (to hold her money and driver's permit when she gets it), and a Kendra necklace. Those were at the top of her wish list. It's a little weird having a 15-year-old, and I remember talking to a friend when Abby turned 10 and saying how I couldn't believe I had a 10-year-old, and she told me, "Wait until she's 15!" Now here we are. I love that Abby and I get along and we talk like friends. She's an awesome student, a great friend, and works hard on everything she does. She's a great example to all of her sisters, and she's an awesome example of a disciple of Christ to all of her friends at school and church. We are so proud of her and the beautiful young woman she has become. Happy birthday Abby!
We had a Sunday dinner at my parent's house and I was happy to take a picture as I looked across the table and saw all four girls sitting together. These girls make me smile and we love having Grandma and Grandpa so close that we can enjoy meals and other fun activities together.
For Christmas this year, we knew we were staying in El Paso. We found friends who were also staying in town for the break and we decided to celebrate together. We planned a group Christmas Eve gathering together and I told my friends all the fun activities that we do with the Gibbons family on Christmas Eve and they were all excited to join in our festivities and add their own traditions as well. We started with Appetizers at the Andersens house and everyone brought an appetizer to share. We also had a hot chocolate bar and all of the food was so yummy. With it being a progressive dinner, we knew we had a lot of food planned for the evening, but it was hard not to try a little of everything that was brought. We set up a timer on someone's phone and took this picture with everyone who joined us for the evening. So fun! We love our El Paso family!
The first activity was the pinata. It happened to be drizzling, so we tried putting down a tarp so the candy and scraps of pinata pieces wouldn't get too mushy in the wet grass. The kids took turns, youngest to oldest, taking a swing at the pinata while blindfolded. Then they took turns hitting the pinata without the blindfold until the candy finally came out. Despite the rain, the kids thought it was fun.
We moved along to our house for the main course and talent show. We made our traditional chicken balls but forgetting that everyone had already kind of filled up on appetizers, we ended up making way too much food. Everyone said it was good and we were definitely full by the time dinner was over. Everyone prepared for the talent show and almost everyone did something which was so fun. We had a lot of instrument performances, dances, and singing, but we also had magic tricks, stories, and even bubble blowing. It was really fun. I took pictures and videos of my kids' performances. Aubrey played some of her class tunes on her cello and Tessa learned the Christmas song, O Come Emmanuel, on the steel pan.
Abby and I relearned The First Noel for the talent show and Tyler even pulled out his tenor sax and played a little bit. He did more dancing than playing, but it was for the entertainment factor anyway, which everyone loved.
Abby did a dance with Braelinn that was pretty funny. They had a little skit at the beginning and then they put on tutus and finished the dance. It was great.
We took a group picture at our house too after the talent show was over. Everyone was having a great time.
We finished off the progressive dinner at the Kasallis house with dessert. One of the Kasallis traditions for Christmas Eve is to bake a cake and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, so we had cupcakes for everyone and each cupcake had its own candle, so each kid could blow out the candle. We took pictures with the lights off to see the burning candles and one with the lights on to see all the cute kids' faces.
We hauled the hot chocolate bar stuff over to the Kasallis's too so we could include hot chocolate in our dessert assortments. This cute picture of Taryn and Ashleigh was taken by one of the other moms and she sent it to me. It's such a cute picture. We had a longer night than we had originally planned because the Kasallis's have rabbits and one of their rabbits had just given birth to a litter of bunnies. The kids kept checking out the newborn bunnies and attempting to help them stay warm and alive. The kids were supposed to be getting ready for the nativity, but that just ended up taking longer as people kept checking on the bunnies instead. We did get this picture of all the adults (and Teagan), while the kids were finally getting dressed for the nativity. The families that celebrated Christmas Eve with us were the Andersons, the Decas, the Kasallis's, and the Andersens. We really love our friends.
The kids all dressed up as part of the nativity and one of the older teenagers read the story from the bible as the kids acted out the scenes. We had a lot of angels and the three Wisemen, the king, the innkeeper, some shepherds and some farm animals besides Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. It was an awesome way to end the evening and get us all ready for Christmas morning.
We got home pretty late, but we still had time to open one Christmas Eve present - our Christmas jammies! Tyler found these Frozen pjs and the girls loved them. I wondered if Tyler would be ok in baby blue pajamas, but he said since his pajamas had Christoff and Sven on them, that made them manly enough for him. I was happy to get a cute picture with our entire family on Christmas Eve.
Christmas morning came and the girls were so excited to open presents. It was nice to be home and have it just be our family for Christmas morning. The girls all got what they asked for from Santa. Abby got Airpods, Tessa got a video camera and vlogging set that included lights and microphone to hook up to her phone or recording device. Aubrey got a hoverboard with a go-cart attachment, and Taryn got salmon-colored headphones, just like she asked for. The girls were happy with all of their new gifts and we enjoyed the day playing with all the new toys.
My final picture of 2019 is of Aubrey. I had to show everyone that you can get more help around the kitchen, and around the house if you tell your kid they can do the chore on their hoverboard. Aubrey helped clear the table and was much more willing to help using her hoverboard to go back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room table.
We ended 2019 with a board game night with our friends, the Kuntz family. We played games all night and drank sparkling cider to ring in the new year. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but we had a good time and look forward to being able to get together again for more game nights. Overall, we had a great year in 2019 and are ready to see what 2020 has to offer.
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