December, Part 2 - Abby Turns 15 and Christmas in El Paso

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.

December, Part 1 - School Events, Concerts and Banquets

In October, I started working at the office in the girls' elementary school. I'm the campus clerk and I answer the phone and the security door, and keep track of and run other reports like payroll, supplies, and technology. It's been fun to work again; the ladies in the office are so nice. And I love being close to the girls. I've been volunteering with the PTA at the school for years, so I knew most of the office staff already, but being able to be there every day and get paid has been a nice bonus. I only work part-time, so I still have the mornings to run errands and get things done around the house, and then I work in the afternoons up until the girls get out of school. So it's a perfect schedule for me. There are fun perks too like being able to dress up with the girls when it's pajama day.

Abby had her final volleyball banquet in December. We both went, but as soon as we got there, she left me to go sit with her teammates. Had I known that you didn't sit with your family, I wouldn't have paid to eat a dinner by myself or with strangers, but that's ok. I sat at a table by myself for a little while until a couple more parents I knew came and sat with me. We had dinner and then they did awards and showed a slideshow. Here's Abby getting her certificate and then we took a picture of her with Sabrina, one of her good friends from the Freshman team.

I took one last picture of the 2019 JV volleyball team once the banquet was over.

On the first Friday of each month, you can go do PE with your students and it's called Fun Fit Friday. Taryn still likes for me to come. Her PE is early enough that I can join her for PE before rushing home to get ready and eat lunch before heading back in for work. I took some pictures at this Fun Fit Friday and Taryn wanted to show me how she could climb the rock wall all by herself. I noticed the interesting lighting in the first picture and when I looked to the side, I saw this second picture. The sun is blocked by the playground bar, but this circle of light was shining through the clouds around the sun, so I had to take a picture because I thought it was so cool looking.

After we walked our mandatory laps, I watched Taryn play on the playground. She likes to show me her skills on the monkey bars and then I watch as she plays with her friends. I did get a selfie so we could remember the fun times we had together while she was in 2nd grade.

Tessa's school had a fundraiser at a Barnes and Noble one Saturday and the school sent different groups to perform to get people there. It was mostly choir and orchestra groups, but Tessa's drumline was asked to come perform too. I thought it was pretty funny considering it was a bookstore. We thought they were going to play outside to attract costumers, but they ended up playing inside like a little performance. I kept thinking to myself, just what someone wants who's enjoying a quiet spot in the bookstore reading - a drumline to play some songs! Well, most of the shoppers were parents of students from Tessa's school so I guess they were accepting of the loud performance. I loved it and it was fun to hear them play again.

Tessa had a Fine Arts concert in December as well. The top band, top orchestra, and choir each perform and then they play a piece all together. Tessa's band played two numbers. One song she played the cymbals and one song the bells. Taryn found some friends in the audience who were there to support siblings too, so I took a picture of them. Here's a closeup of Tessa with the cymbals and Taryn with her friends, Priscilla and Ashleigh.

The entire gym is filled with performers and audience members, so it's hard to get good pictures. Tessa's group was facing to the side of the bleachers, so we could kind of see her when she played the cymbals. She's next to the bass drum in the first picture. And she was facing us when she played the bells for the second number, but that made her farther away from us. Both songs were Christmas numbers and it was fun to hear them perform. I love watching Tessa play. I had to leave for a rehearsal so I didn't get to hear the combined number.

Aubrey's first orchestra concert was also in December. She was very excited to perform. The crazy story about her was her cello broke about a week before the performance date. And we're not talking a broken string, but broken broken. She brought it home one day and when she went to open up the case to practice, she saw that the neck of the cello was no longer connected to the rest of the cello. We took it into Mrs. Cedillos the next morning and gave her the bad news. I was so nervous because I didn't want to have to pay for entirely new cello, but luckily she said that happens sometimes and she would see what she could do about getting a cello for Aubrey to use for the concert.

Luckily, the Fine Arts Department had some extra cellos and she was able to get another one for Aubrey to use while hers got fixed. Aubrey was so happy that she was able to still perform with her class. I stood across the cafeteria from where Aubrey sat so I could see her face. She was at the end of the row, three rows back from the front, so she had a good spot for us to be able to see her. After the concert, we took pictures of everyone she could get to stop long enough to pose with her. Here she is with Hayden, a fellow cello player.

They played a handful of little tunes and even some Christmas jingles and songs. The majority of these kids had only been playing their instruments for about three months and there are over 100 5th graders in the orchestra. Mrs. Cedillos is an amazing teacher and gets the kids playing decently in just a couple of months. It's fun to hear them play. Here's Aubrey with some more of her friends, Vivian who plays the violin. And also Maggie, who plays the violin too.

Here's Aubrey with Maliyah who plays the violin and then with her friend, Rianne, who plays the cello.

My friend who sat on the floor at Aubrey's feet took this closeup picture for me when the kids stood up after one of their songs. I loved the closeup but you can see that if I had sat over there too, I would have been looking at Aubrey's back and not her face as she played. And here's a picture of Aubrey with one of her best friends, Milan, another cello player. 

And finally, we grabbed a bunch of girls to take a picture together. There are so many kids in the orchestra that they don't all fit on the stage, so they have to set up on the floor and take up almost half of the cafeteria. But that left the stage available for pictures. Here's Aubrey with some of her friends, Riley, Anya, Valentina, and Shaelyn.

Taryn's 2nd-grade performance was the night after Aubrey's performance. I had a pretty good viewing spot from the side, so I was able to get some cute pictures as the classes walked in. Taryn was so excited to perform her songs. She was looking forward to her concert and knew exactly what dress she wanted to wear and what hairstyle she wanted too - curls!

Taryn's class performed two numbers with one other class. The songs they performed were Jingle Bell Rock and I Wanna Hippopotamus for Christmas. They had actions as they sang too and it was really cute. Taryn had been practicing them at home the weeks leading up to her performance, so all of my girls knew the actions by the time we saw them perform. It was really cute and fun to watch.

I loved this final pose after one of the songs and I loved that Taryn was front and center. After the performance was over, we were able to take a few pictures of Taryn with the Christmas decorations. Some 2nd-grade parents had made all the decorations for the stage and everything was so Christmasy. 

We also had to have a picture of Taryn by one of the Christmas trees that was set up by the stage. This tree was decorated in golds and reds so it looked awesome with Taryn's striped dress. We also were able to catch her teacher, Mrs. Bock, so we could get a picture of Taryn with her. Taryn loves Mrs. Bock and Mrs. Bock loves Taryn. She's always telling me how kind and helpful Taryn is and she's always having Taryn run errands for her because she's one of the more responsible kids in her class. She's definitely the teacher's pet and I couldn't be more proud of her.

During Christmas time, the hallways are decorated in the school, and Taryn's class made a Christmas tree that was put up right outside their classroom. I took a picture of it as I walked by one day because I thought it was so cute to see all of her classmates together like this.

Tessa had her second Christmas concert of the month when all the bands performed for their Christmas concert. Tessa's honor band performed the same Christmas songs that they performed at the Fine Arts Night, with the addition of a couple more songs. 

So besides her cymbal and bells numbers, she also played the tympani. She says she prefers the bells over the other percussion instruments because it usually has the melody parts, but she is getting more confident in her playing so that she'll play out more whenever she plays her part.

It's nice that the percussionists are standing in the back so you can see them clearly as they perform, but they're still so far away for pictures, so as they were cleaning up and putting away instruments, I kept asking Tessa to pause so I could take some closeup pictures. She thought I was being silly since I was taking pictures of her holding random instruments that she didn't even play, but I really wanted some pictures where I could see her beautiful face.

Tessa's final event for December was her sports banquet. It was the first year that her school, Hornedo, held a sports banquet that honored all of the Fall and Winter sports. There were so many people there since it included football, volleyball, cross country, cheerleading, and soccer. Since it was the first one, they didn't quite have it very organized either. They kept trying to save tables for the athletes, but then there weren't enough tables and seats for the parents. We got kicked out of our table twice and finally just sat down at a table and took down the sign saying it was for athletes. It was crazy because they were saying they were running out of food, but we all had to pay to go as parents, but the athletes didn't have to pay, so I don't think they knew how many to plan on. Tessa sat with her cross country friends, so I took this picture of her and Jayden when they first found their table. They had a cute backdrop so throughout the night I kept getting pictures of Tessa with her friends there. Here she is with Mireyda and Isabel.

 

Once the kids had finished eating, they started dancing. Tessa found her group of friends and they danced the group dances together. I grabbed some pictures during this line dance when they finally turned the right direction so they were facing me. They were having a lot of fun.

They also planned a program that didn't start until after they let the kids dance for a while, so it was making for a long night. Each sport had speeches by the coaches and then some guest speakers too, so it seemed to drag on. Luckily, cross country was the first sport presented, so people weren't antsy yet and no one had left. After the coaches said a few words they had the different groups come up to the front so they could accept their certificate. 7th-grade girls were the first group to go so I grabbed these pictures of Tessa as she received her certificate from her coaches.

After all the sports were presented, I took a few more pictures of Tessa with some friends. Here's one of Tessa with Ethan and Reve from church who are good family friends. And then I had to get a picture of Tessa by herself with the cool backdrop.

I also had grabbed another picture of Tessa at her table as they ate their dinner. It took a while for the servers to get all the meals out to everyone, so Tessa's table finally got their food after my table had already eaten. Luckily the night was a lot more fun since we were there with our friends. I sat with Ethan and Reve's moms, Niki and Jessica since we had driven together. Audrey and Tony came later but were lucky enough to find seats at the table right next to ours. It made for a more enjoyable evening to spend it visiting with friends while all the kids hung out together.

Finally, here's one more picture that a friend took and sent to me from Aubrey's Christmas party on the last day of school before the Christmas break. The kids had a party with their class that included food and games. Here's Aubrey with her closest friends this year: Kristen, Hattie, and Bailee. She's really enjoying her final year of elementary school.