Okay, so I am way behind in my blogging. I hope that once James gets back to be more consistent posting! November flew past(which is great since that means James will be home sooner!). I will do my best to give an overview of a whole month without boring you to tears. First, our school did their fall book fair at Barnes and Noble this year. It was amazing! We had a great turnout, and it sure was fun getting to shop B&N! The handbell choir performed and did a fabulous job! I was so proud of Alysse! She has really enjoyed handbells, and I am so excited that she has this opportunity!
The Friday that the kids got out for Thanksgiving break, Alysse's class had a Thanksgiving feast in her classroom. When I was growing up, one of my favorite things was the Thanksgiving meal in the cafeteria. The parents would come and eat lunch with us that day, and I always enjoyed that time. We have been at three schools, and only the one in Texas still does that. I talked to Alysse's teacher to see if we could do our own feast. She was sweet enough to agree, so here is the result. It turned out very nice, and I really enojoyed spending this time with Alysse. Just so you didn't think I left Ashlea out, her room parent talked to her teacher. However, the other first grade rooms weren't doing a feast, so Ash's teacher didn't want the others to feel left out. Maybe next year!
For Thanksgiving week, my parents came in town which was super nice to be able to have adult conversations and to keep me sane while the kids were out all week. My parents are really into bowling. They go to all sorts of tournaments including the national tournament every year. Therefore, when they come in town, they always enjoy taking the kids bowling. I took this picture of Ashlea, and then put the camera down and forgot I had it the rest of the time which means that I, unfortunately, don't have pictures of anyone else bowling. The kids did a super job! I think Austin or Alysse even beat me in one game!
On Thanksgiving, we all ate at the club on base. I thoroughly enjoy this tradition as I don't have to cook or clean! If we had a huge family gathering, I would love cooking and cleaning, but since there aren't usually very many of us, I prefer to enjoy the delights at the club. We always watch the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade and vote on our favorites, got eat, nap, and then head out to the movies that night. We usually see our first Christmas movie of the season, but there weren't any kid-friendly Christmas movies out this year. Boo Hollywood! Anyway, the next day, we all headed to Canon City to ride the Royal Gorge train. It was a very nice trip with beautiful scenery. Here we are in front of the train. Austin, our budding photographer, took this picture. He's pretty good, huh?
Normally, we decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, but after the train ride, I was pooped. Mom and Dad were leaving the next day, so we just enjoyed being together one last evening instead. On Sunday, I pulled our small tree up from the basement as well as our Christmas village. Everything else was too heavy or bulky. Here are the kids decorating the tree. Austin did all of two ornaments so that I could take a picture, but the girls were excited and decorated the whole tree! They even crawled underneath and put ornaments on the back!
Here is the finished product! Don't you love the leaning star? As hard as I tried, I couldn't get that star to stand up straight!
I just read over my post, and I had to laugh because apparently any form of "enjoy" was the word of the blog. I probably said it at least 10 times. I would usually go back and re-word it; however, it is 3 in the morning! My brain isn't up to being a thesaurus right now. Gosh, I hope I spelled thesaurus right, too! :)
The girls had a tea party with their ginger people, and the rest of us enjoyed ours with the wassail I made. Nothing like wassail on a cold, snowy day!
