Caroling at a Nursing Home

Tonight, Grady, Alice and I went to a local nursing home with our Tiger Cub pack and other children. We met last week and made some crafts and practiced carols.
When we got there, they had already started rehearsing the carols. There were probably 25 children there. We went down to the memory impaired unit and sang 4 carols. I think the moms were louder than the children!
The mom organizers had pre-made milk-carton/graham cracker ginger bread houses. After singing, the children went and decorated the houses. Grady ended up sitting at a table with two other residents. The man didn't talk or move very much at all, although he looked young - maybe late sixties. The woman at his table had about a five minute memory. She kept asking Grady where he lived and he answered nicely every time.
The mom organizers had brought cookies and the facility had punch. Grady handed out some drinks and spoke clearly to each resident. He had such nice manners - I was so proud! The residents seemed to really appreciate our being there. We handed out the crafts the children had made. It seemed to brighten their day. The woman said they normally didn't have such a fun evening.
As we were leaving, I had Grady say thank you and goodbye to our table mates. The man shook his hand and seemed to make eye contact. I was really glad we went.

More Christmas-y things

Grady, Alice and I decorated a gingerbread house last weekend. We had a great time - now we're just trying to keep Alice from eating it!

It was Grady's idea to write "Hello" on the back of the house. He was so proud of himself for this idea. He made sure anyone who saw it knew that it was his idea!
We have been watching a Christmas movie or show just about every day (more on the weekends!) We introduced them to the Bing Crosby classic, "White Christmas," this year and I think they've seen it 4 or 5 times already. Grady has started quoting lines from the movie - which is better than when he was quoting lines from the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie!

We went out looking at Christmas lights the other night. Stephen and I have decided that more people decorate for Christmas here than in Tennessee. In our neighborhood alone we saw all kinds of figures, lights, inflatables and a few nativities. Even Pryor gets into it: "Oh look there!" We are all experts now on Christmas light decorations!

School Christmas Program

Monday afternoon, Stephen and I joined about 500 other parents and family for Newlonsburg Elementary's Holiday of Lights Celebration. We were not able to enter the school earlier than thirty minutes before the show. I got there 25 minutes early and got one of the last parking places along the road! Crazy! Stephen parked at a church across the way.

Alice was in the back row! Although I was only in the second row of the gym, I still had a hard time zooming in enough. She has the red bow in the back. She got to raise the sign for, "R for reindeer." Of course, her favorite song was the Hanukkah song they sang - but I didn't record that!

Grady loved this song, "Mary Had A Baby", and sang it at home. He, too, is in the back row almost in the same place as Alice, wearing a red sweatshirt. They are "signing" the song as well as singing it. We were at a Tiger Cub event and singing Christmas carols last week. The boys started singing this song. Even though none of them go to our school, they all knew the words! It was precious!

Rip Roarin' Roller Coaster

Stephen went out sledding with the children on Saturday. He decided to sled down the hill in a completely different way. When I filmed this I was watching them for the first time. I was surprised myself.

I had a hard time holding the camera steady since I was laughing!

I also got a shot of Alice and Daddy sledding down the same hill. It's hard to get a feel for how far they actually go down the hill.

If you can believe it, it was 61 degrees this morning and Suzy is no more! Everything is gone. It's not supposed to snow a lot for the rest of this week, so the next sledding will have to be in the new year. The children are already looking forward to it!

The First Sledding!

Breaking news! It finally snowed enough last night (although just barely so) to go sledding this morning! Fortunately the schools complied and we had a two hour delayed start (although they still get out at the regular time.)

Of course Grady, being the expert that he is, had plenty of advice to offer to Alice! HA!! HA!!


The snow was pretty sticky so we had a hard time getting started. Once we did there was no going back!! Later on, I moved us to a different part of the yard. If the children dropped their sled, it scooted down through the trees almost to the storm drain and creek below.

Alice and Pryor took off their mittens so they didn't last long although we were very busy!!

They decided this snowman looked like a girl so they named her Suzy. Not sure where that name came from. Grady gave her his hat. They added more rocks for buttons later on, but it's snowing right now and I don't feel like going out and taking another picture! :)

Pryor loved taking snow, putting it in his shovel and throwing it!! We spent an exhuasting hour or more outside, raced inside for a second (or in Alice's case first) breakfast and made it to the bus stop right as it pulled up. PHEW!

Pryor Sings

Pryor wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas-y Things

We decorated the tree while the Arnold's were here over Thanksgiving. We had a great time cutting it down and putting up the ornaments.

This year, I'd say the children did over half of the ornaments. Since I'm a big-time control freak when it comes to my Christmas tree, it was an incredible release and act of love for my children that I let them hang so many. I didn't even re-hang that many - ha ha! This tree is so much smaller than our ones in years past that there were many ornaments that are still in their boxes.

Stephen's Aunt Kathy gave us this singing, jingling snowman and barking dog several years ago. It is one of the children's favorite Christmas decorations! Pryor "discovered" it this year and loves it so he is into hugging it while it plays. He laughs and laughs!

Grady and Alice had "Holiday Shoppe" at school today. The PTO buys items from the Dollar Store for $0.90 and sells it to the children for $1 as a little fund raiser for the children. I gave each of them $5 to get things for our family. Well, they both were so excited - and it was really cute to see what they bought! I won't give away the surprise but suffice it to say they loved the whole experience. When they got home they wrapped them and put name tags on them. They carefully put them under the tree - they thought they were so big! I thought Holiday Shoppe would be a waste of time and money - but the experience has been great for the children!