Tis the season to be jolly

Jonah and Micah's Christmas Concert was on the night of Wednesday December 16 in the high school commons. Their beginning band group played 4 songs: Jingle Bells, Up On a Housetop, Jolly Old St. Nick, and an excerpt from the William Tell Overture. This was their first year playing an instrument, and everyone in their class is in 6th grade. Jonah plays the trumpet, and Micah plays the trombone. Their favorite song was Jingle Bells, because they said it was the easiest. I loved watching them play in their first instrumental concert!

The high school does a holiday door contest, so I took
their picture by one of the doors as we were leaving.
Jonah is wearing his new tie he got from his band
teacher Mr. Anderson. Micah borrowed his tie from dad.

On the last day of school before Christmas Break, the elementary had a "Holiday Hat" day. Kanyon and I were both excited to wear santa hats to school. Mine has a crown on it (but you can't see it in this picture), and I bought Kanyon a new hat to wear just for this occasion. His has silver snowflakes all over the red fabric (which is also hard to see in this photo). 

Kanyon's class had a fiesta class party that same day, with a pinata that they took turns trying to break. Kanyon had so much fun that day! He got some candy, balls, and a new knit hat when the pinata broke. 

On the last day of school before Christmas Break (December 17), Micah's science class had an anatomy lesson and they got to decorate Gingebread cookies during the class. He saved his cookie all day, and brought it home before he ate it. I thought he did an outstanding job with it! It was so colorful!

We went to the Jackson's house 4 times over Christmas Break, and had so much fun with them every time! The week of Christmas, we watched 3 of the Star Wars Episode movies and played the game Cranium. I just love that game but haven't played it in a long time because you have to have the right people to play with (there's a lot of singing, acting, and smart stuff integrated in the game). We had a hilarious time playing it together!

I couldn't decide on what to make for neighbor goodies this year. When it was the week of Christmas, and I still didn't know what to do, I just fell back on what my mom always makes: cherry cheesecake tarts. I love those things, and I have fond memories of eating them every year at Christmas time when I was a kid because my mom made them for the neighbors. I thought it would be cute to arrange them to look like holly berries and then add a green leaf tag. But they didn't take up enough room on the plate, so last minute, I decided to make caramel popcorn balls, too. I'd never made caramel popcorn balls at all before in my life, but I found a recipe that looked pretty easy and I'd seen a pinterest photo on facebook where the popcorn balls looked like ornaments, so I thought I'd try that, too. They turned out alright (but not quite the photo I'd seen): I put a small candy cane in the center of each ball (to look like its hook) and Kanyon helped me pour pink sprinkles on the fresh balls (to add color). The plates looked so festive, and we enjoyed delivering twenty of them to nearby neighbors and local friends on two evenings (the 22nd and the 23rd). One day, we did deliveries in town, and the next evening we did deliveries around the loop where we live.

On Christmas Eve, we went to the party at the Linger's. There was SO much good food, and the company was delightful! We ate and played games until about 11 that night. The adults played competitive board games in the living room (and the men pridefully won--much to the ladies' dismay). The younger kids watched movies and played downstairs, and the teenagers played XBox and board games in different rooms upstairs. It was an enjoyable night for our entire family!

The winning team: Dustin, Mark, Jason, David, Josh, and Justin
(Justin wasn't in the photo)

Camille brought these cute, colorful, healthy food trays to the party