Ready. Set. Go.

We did art shows in old downtown buildings.

We surprised the heck out of my oldest brother Greg for his 60th birthday!

We celebrated the best Daddy-o EVER and invited our friends and their kids to celebrate his birthday, too.

The weather was unseasonably warm as seen by the brat pack here who ran line drills outside on the sidewalk...with no coats in mid-December!

We visited Bethlehem at the church a few blocks away from us. (And yes, a camel.)

We baked. Nothing like having two left-handed cooks in one kitchen! Ella is quite good at following a recipe. We did an awful lot of sampling that night.

We watched this group of first graders perform at the holiday musical on the last day of school.

We celebrated the performance and the kick off of winter break with Panda.

We did a whole lot of this...

And THEN we celebrated my niece Allison's graduation from college. We are so proud of her.

After months of prep, piano recital day appeared. I fully expected Ella to melt down at the last minute petrified to perform in front of a church full of people. She was first up in the program and she sailed it out of the ballpark. I was ridiculously happy for her.

The Roz-Ella Silent Night duet was just as awesome.

And Roz and Aubrey did so well too!

Miss Gail is a keeper. She is a perfect fit to Ella and we are beyond thankful for her teaching. I am brushing off the cobwebs at the piano during practice sessions at home, too. We are even getting Larry to sit down and read music!

We spent way too much time shoo-ing Thomas out of the Christmas tree this year. He's huge. He doesn't realize he's huge. It makes for delicate removal.

We enjoyed some very special quiet moments too...

...more to come. ~H