Piano Recital

Erin had a piano recital last night.  She asked her teacher if she could play Mario's favorite Christmas carol, Carol of the Bells.  Mrs. Black said that the only copy she had was a duet.  So Erin suggested that Eric play it with her.  The teacher was thrilled when Eric agreed to the duet since Erin is her most advanced piano student.  Now she would have two advanced students in her recital.   Eric has never been a fan of recitals so he was hesitant to play when he's not even a piano student.  But Mario said it could be his Christmas present and Eric quickly agreed.  I think it is the best Christmas present ever from both Eric and Erin.  We love when they play the piano together.  Erin played Santa Clause is Coming to Town also.

Owl Art

Nathan and Zach drew and painted these in their art class.  I thought they were beautiful.

Nathan's Owl

Zach's Owl

Christmas Picture Outtakes

I have been trying to get our Christmas letter written and a family picture taken to include with our card.  I finally gave up on the family picture and decided to just put a picture of the kids from first day of school and then a small picture of Mario and I in the corner.  No one liked the double picture on the 4x6 print, so here's the outtakes from our photo session with Erin today.  I'm still growing out my hair, its been about 13 months now and I have thought about chopping it all off about a million times.  I'll be happy when it's long enough to put in a ponytail.

Nathan and Zach's 9th Birthday

We celebrated the boys' birthdays on Saturday.  I allowed them to each invite two friends and we had a little party.  I decided that since there was only 1 girl coming, I probably should have some organized games so she didn't feel overwhelmed with the video games.  Erin and I came up with about 11 or 12 Minute to Win It games and the party turned out to be a huge success and the games actually made the hours go by very quickly.  We finished the day with hot dogs roasted over a fire and of course, Nathan's favorite, Macaroni and Cheese.   They loved their new Robot.  In fact, the big kids love it too. Good thing, since they have to help program it once it's built.  It was a great day and I still can't believe it was 9 years ago that I gave birth to a huge set of twins.  No one believes me when I tell them that they were both over 7 lbs.

Making donuts for breakfast

Their big present was the Lego Mindstorms Robot

The first and easiest robot to build

Zach, Anthony, Nathan, and Olivia

Minute to Win it games

Tossing mini marshmallows

Christmas Tree

We sold our fake tree at a yard sale before leaving Tucson. Now I'm having major regrets. Nice, artificial trees are so expensive. We opted to get a real tree this year and so for FHE, we went to Home Depot and picked one out. We won't be home for Christmas so I didn't care about getting a really nice, expensive one. We picked out the cheapest one they carried. With a military discount, it came to a whole $12.50. Despite being so cheap, I think it actually is a pretty nice tree. We enjoyed decorating at as a family and Eric and Erin each took turns playing Christmas carols as we decorated.

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Florida

We've decided to escape the cold and go to Florida for Christmas.  We haven't been to Florida for Christmas in many years.  Mario and I are big on being at home for Christmas especially since we still have young kids.  But Mario's little brother, Alex, is getting married the week of Christmas and Mario planned to go.  I didn't think it was quite fair for him to escape the Nebraska winter without me.  So I talked him into taking the whole family.  The 3 younger kids and I will go for 2 weeks and Mario and Eric for 8 days.  We are all excited to see our extended family and to THAW out.

Thanksgiving

Grandpa came to visit this Thanksgiving.   On Wednesday, we all went to the Trail Center and took a shortened tour upstairs and then went to the basement where they have a huge gingerbread display.  The wards in the area ask members to decorate gingerbread houses so they can display them at the Trail Center.  Then they invite schools and families to come see all the houses.  It was quite an impressive display.  After visiting the Trail Center, we went to the zoo.

 After our big Thanksgiving dinner and nap on Thanksgiving, we taught Grandpa and the twins how to play Settlers of Catan.  The twins are hooked and want to play daily.  I am impressed with how fast they learned the game. It was a great visit with Grandpa.  We are all so glad he was able to come.

Trail Center

Made by Papillion YW and leaders

Houses twins made in Cub Scouts

Table full of houses made by Mario's co-worker

Zoo

Hanging Christmas Lights

Home Depot Gingerbread House with Grandpa

Game of Chess, they haven't played together in over 20 years