Ryan's December School Art

Along with December came projects about Advent, Christmas, and Mexico.  We made luminarias (Mexican lanterns) and "Advent Loops".  With the loops we cut one off every day to remind us how many days until Jesus' birth.  We learned about St. Lucy (our school's patron saint) and St. Nicholas this month.  St. Nicholas even paid us a visit at school leaving us oranges, candy canes, and gold coins.  We also made a Nativity scene and poinsettias.  We began discussing the Feast of the Three Kinds as well so that we can celebrate it when we come back to school in January.  We have been busy with our ipads during Technology, and this month we worked with the Writing Pad and made cards.  The month was full of music too with our Christmas program being held on December 13.  We practiced a lot, and our hard work paid off because we heard we were the stars of the show!

Lily's December School Art

Christmas Party

We spent our last day of school before Christmas break celebrating all things Christmas.  The celebration was capped off by a little classroom party where lots of yummy treats were had, especially by me.  The treats included chocolate covered marshmallows that looked like Rudolph and bananas and strawberries in the shape of a candy cane.  Mom was even there as a classroom helper, and she didn't even have to ask me if I wanted to try anything as she helped serve the food.  We decided to squeeze in a class picture (even though 4 kids were missing) before the sugar kicked in and I think we made it just in time, because before long the silly faces came out in full force.  I think we're all ready to have some fun this Christmas here in our world!

BIG or little

With only one week left until Christmas we've been trying to squeeze in all the holiday season has to offer.  Today, Santa surprised us with a visit at school.  We were pretty excited to see him again, as was everyone else in our class, which resulted in a little (or should I say BIG) group hug before he left.  Then, as we were leaving school it just started snowing.  We can't remember ever seeing such BIG snowflakes so we had to try and catch a few.  This didn't last long though because Mom had promised us that we could bake with Lily's new Easy Bake Oven today.  We whipped up a quick batch of the world's smallest red velvet cupcakes, sprinkles and all! The good thing about them being so little was that we each got to try two cupcakes instead of one.  Oh what a day here in our world!

Rivera Christmas

We headed down to Illinois today to celebrate Christmas with the Rivera family.  After some yummy food and a horrible loss by the Bears/or an awesome win by the Packers (depending on who you ask) we opened presents.  We were spoiled yet again by Titi Molly, Uncle Craig, and Marc; and Gigi and Pop Pops must have talked to the man in red because they got us the number one item on each of our lists.  With full bellies and lots of new toys we'd have to say it was a very merry start to Christmas!

Dear Santa...

Now that we have accepted the fact that Santa is one of the good guys, we were pretty excited to head up to Cabela's to see him today.  We have been reciting our lists all week in anticipation of this day, and we were ready...that is, until I walked around the corner and actually saw him, red suit and all.  I suddenly decided seeing Santa wasn't such a good idea and that Mom should maybe jump in the sled with me.  This wasn't happening though so up I went making sure to not sit too close, unlike Lily who jumped into his lap.  She wasn't completely fearless though as I watched her little fingers make their way to her mouth which is what she does whenever she gets shy.  After Santa placed his arm around me though, it was all good, and I was ready for the photo.  Neither of us was shy when it came time to recite our lists either - a Barbie House, scooter, makeup case, and Easy-Bake oven for Lily; and a hot wheels track, super fast scooter, and switch n' go dino for me.   Notice I mentioned one less item than Lily...that's because I forgot to spit out drum set...I was devastated!  Luckily, Cabela's was prepared for moments like this, and they had letters to Santa so we could let him know anything we may have forgotten.  Mom helped me spell out drum set, and I even added a thanks for good measure.  Keep your fingers crossed that my letter arrives in time for Christmas!

Jammers

With karate coming to an end, I thought I'd squeeze in a little basketball.  Lumen Christi holds a basketball camp called Jammers for all of the 4K and 5K kids.  Dad even gets to help coach which is lots of fun!  I have to admit I am pretty exhausted after a full hour of dribbling, bounce passing, and shooting; but I'm learning some cool stuff and I even got my own basketball!

Christmas Goodies

We finally found some time in our busy schedules to bake Christmas cookies.  It was pajama day at school so Mom figured we'd just continue in the fun once we got home.  We got out all of the jimmies, sprinkles, and sugars we could find; and then we were off to help Mom make the dough.  We of course had to sneak a taste while Mom had her back turned.  She was quick, but we were apparently quicker!  This year we got pretty elaborate in our designs making stripes, hair, eyes, and we used so many different colors.  We were very specific on where we wanted each color as well, and by the time we hit the twentieth cookie or so I think we had officially driven Mom crazy!  She was a trooper though, and held out through all 4 dozen, which resulted in a "fabuloso" batch of Christmas cookies here in our world this year!

The Holy Night

Tonight, all eyes were on us, as we sang our hearts out for the 2012 Christmas program at Lumen Christi.  Grandma Jackie, Gigi, and Pop Pops even made a special trip just to see us on our big night.  Not that we're biased or anything, but we think the 4K stole the show!

St. Nick

We woke up early this morning and ran downstairs to see if St. Nick had paid us a visit overnight.  Sure enough he had, and our elves had even helped in filling our stockings (or they were just being nosey and trying to see what we got).  We scored some new Christmas jammies again this year along with some other things including a candy cane and mini stilts which are so much fun.  After a quick breakfast we were off to school because we heard St. Nick may have paid us a visit there as well.  This St. Nick guy has definitely made the good list here in our world!   

Kiai!

After working hard for the last three months I finally earned my white belt in karate.  Tonight was the belt ceremony after Sensei ran us through some drills, and I was pretty proud of myself.  The belt may only be white, but I feel like a karate master...KIAI!!!!

Here's what happens when you're the only people left in a restaurant and the adults are in no hurry to leave.  We're not complaining though because we had front row seats to the TV and all of the mints a little tummy can handle!

Cutting Down the Tree

With this weekend shaping up to be pretty busy, we headed out early this morning to take care of one of the most important things in regards to Christmas...cutting down our Christmas tree.  Lily was tasked with the important job of picking out the tree.  She accomplished this in no time, and then Dad and I were left to cut it down.  I had both of my trusty Home Depot saws with me, but unfortunately they weren't of much use so Dad was responsible for all of the dirty work.  After loading it onto the tractor, we rode back to the "treat shack"  where we overindulged in salami, crackers, marshmallows, and hot chocolate so much so that it wasn't really a treat, but more like lunch.  We can definitely say mission accomplished here in our world!