Winter Fun

 We kicked off December by celebrating Dan's birthday! My parents joined us for delicious food at one of his favorite restaurants, Macaroni Grill, and the girls loved drawing all over the paper tablecloth!

Dan opened some gifts, including this sweatshirt with Charlie Brown in "The Scream" painting by Edvard Munch. Haha!

A few days later, we celebrated our favorite guy again with the Jester family!

The ladies at my office had our traditional holiday brunch and white elephant gift exchange.

Hallie was invited to her classmate's Christmas cookie decorating party, along with the other 1st grade girls.

She decorated about 10 cookies and enjoyed passing them out to all our family that evening.

Dan and I ran the Busch Gardens Christmas Town Dash the first Sunday in December. It's a fun race with lots of great swag! Unfortunately, the porta potties didn't get delivered to the race site (!!!), so we joined a lot of desperate people waiting in a loooong line for two bathroom stalls. By the time we had finished using the restroom, we were the very last people to begin the race!

We ran a couple of miles at the beginning of the race, but then both of Dan's calves cramped up, so we walked the rest. Walking gave us the chance to talk more and enjoy the decorations at Busch Gardens.  After the race, we rushed to McDonald's for another bathroom break (without the long lines) and breakfast!

That evening, we enjoyed the Colonial Williamsburg Christmas Parade with the Jesters.

The pre-parade entertainment was charming.

They used to have the parade at 8:00 in the morning, but they've recently changed it to an evening parade. It was cool to see the floats and cars lit up. This was a Dominion Energy truck, with every square inch covered in lights!

Santa and Mrs. Claus at the end of the parade

We decorated our house for Christmas and the girls had fun opening up the boxes of ornaments and hanging them on our tree. As they found their homemade ornaments from past school years, Hallie said, "My eyes are crying because I'm so happy to see these again!!"

We also visited Papa and Nana's house one day to help them decorate their tree and set up their Bethlehem village.

Hallie loves doing crafts, and she recently had her first sewing lesson from Nana.

She had her first 1st grade field trip to the Virginia Living Museum.

We stayed with a small group of 1st grade girls and explored the museum and grounds together.

Hallie the Tortoise

Hallie the vet

These girls had a great time that day. So did the parents!

That evening was the girls' Christmas concert. 

This is the first year that they've been in the same school Christmas performance, which includes 1st-5th grades.

Emma was an understudy for one of the major acting parts. Although she wasn't needed to perform in the play, she did get to pass out tickets for the "Christmas Express" at the door before the show and take a bow with the other understudies after the show. She loved having a special role!

Emma sang songs with her 4th grade classmates

And Hallie performed with the 1st grade classes.

Dan played bass for our church Christmas concert two nights in a row that weekend. We attended the first night, and as soon as it was over, we drove Emma to a party with her classmates. 

The girls in her class had a Christmas pajama & gift exchange party at a classmate's house.

Emma became fast friends with the family's dog.

The following afternoon, our family attended a roller skating birthday party for Emma's friend, Brooklyn (2nd from right). It was lots of fun! 

Hallie and Brooklyn's younger sister, Bellamy, were big skating buddies.

During the final week of school before Christmas break, there was a dress up theme for each day.

I only got a photo of the girls dressed up for "Christmas Character Day", but they dressed up each day that week. Emma was an artic fox and Hallie was an angel.

I helped Hallie's teacher organize the 1st grade Christmas party. The kids were broken up into small groups and each group visited activity stations. There was ornament making, a Christmas memory game, cookie decorating, and "snowman soup" (a hot chocolate station). 

Hallie with her friend, Brynleigh.

The kids brought a gift and they passed the gifts around a circle while their teacher, Mrs. Gross, read the Christmas story to them.

No one is happier than the staff when Christmas break finally rolls around! Dan is wearing his "ugly Christmas sweater" and a big smile on the last day of school for 2022!

The first weekend of Christmas break, we saw "The Nutcracker" ballet in Virginia Beach. It was a very nice performance, and we love Tchaikovsky's music.

The girls got a kick out of seeing the "hidden" orchestra.

After "The Nutcracker," we ate at the Cheesecake Factory and walked around Virginia Beach Town Center to see their festive decorations.

They have huge snow globes at Virginia Town Center, and at nighttime, Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance in one of them! It was a bit odd to talk to them through the bubble (with a microphone held by an "elf"), but it was a good way to keep Santa warm and germ-free. Heh! Hallie was willing to wait in a line to talk to Santa and make sure he knew exactly what she wanted for Christmas! 

The next morning, Hallie asked for a bun in her hair and ballerina clothes so she could dance to "The Nutcracker" soundtrack. 

Emma is her agent, and she's happy to accept cash if you'd like to book a performance by Hallie. 

Since Dan and the girls had two weeks off from school, he took them out to do fun things on the days I worked.  They went on a top-secret Christmas shopping trip and to a trampoline park.  We can't wait for Christmas!