Gib and Helen's teacher planned a special all day field trip for her class this week. Becky came along as a chaperone. The class dressed in their Christmas best. They started with a tea party at the Fairy Godmother's Tea Cottage. The fairy godmother gave them a short lesson on manners before they had tea. The most important rule: Be Kind.
The kids feasted on yummy finger foods and their choice of pear-vanilla herbal tea or hot chocolate. Some kids mixed their tea and hot chocolate together.
As they left, the fairy godmother gave each student a special cookie decorated with a ballerina or a nutcracker. From the tea cottage, the class walked to the high school where they watched select scenes from The Nutcracker ballet.
Sofi joined us at the ballet. When the show was over, we ate lunch in the high school cafeteria. The lunch ladies reserved a section of tables for the elementary students and served chicken nuggets, spaghetti and nachos to be especially kid friendly. This was Sofi's first time eating lunch from the cafeteria. Helen and Gibson liked saying hi to Sofi's friends as they came to get lunch.
Back at their own school, Becky noticed Gib was using the bench he made for a chair. There aren't many classrooms that will let you bring a homemade chair to school.
Brandan's office held their Christmas party at an ice rink this year. Brandan, Helen and Gibson went. The rink has walkers to help beginners skate without falling.
After some time to build their confidence, the kids could skate without the walkers.
This is another fun photo from the party.
Helen and Gibson played some Christmas songs for their class on Friday. It was also pajama day at school.
We played two more Christmas concerts today. Helen and Sofi tried a duet of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" this afternoon. They liked it well enough to play it tonight. This is a photo of their 2nd time playing together ever.
More duet fun with Helen and Gibson. So far our concerts go something like this -- Abe starts out with a beautiful piano arrangement of the "Coventry Carol". Gib plays "Away in a Manger" and "Good King Wenceslas" on the piano. Helen plays the violin. She knows a lot of songs, but she limits herself to 1-2 per concert. Some favorites are "Feliz Navidad," "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," "Mary, Did You Know" and "Winter Wonderland." She has a lot of piano selections to choose from, too. Favorites this year are "What Child is This," "I Saw Three Ships" and a swinging version of "Jolly Old St. Nicholas." Sofi plays "I'll Be Home for Christmas" on the piano. We end with Helen and Gibson's duet of "Joy to the World."
Last week Brandan was released from our stake's high council where he served for almost eight years. His new calling is high priests group leader for our ward. He loved being on the high council. But he's looking forward to a calling that combines family history, ministering and teaching.
1 comment:
Between our kids and some of our friends, we will have quite a string ensemble going in a couple years!
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