I'm FINALLY getting around to blogging about Samuel's Christmas program. After coming back home I was able to LOTS done around the house before packing Callie back in the van to go back for the program. Upon walking into the school, it was a complete Ghostown. No one was in sight. I heard the faint sound of children singing, so I followed the sound and discovered where the program was at. The place was packed. I spotted some empty chairs on the front row. I walked up and asked the lady if she had all those seats saved. Have I mentioned I can't stand it when parents arrive early and reserve HUGE blocks of seats up!!! Well, she said I could have ONE of the seats. So...Callie had to sit on my lap! That was VERY interesting with trying to take pictures and videos! We made it work though. Samuel and all the little kids (3-5 year olds) were adorable. At one point, Samuel started picking his nose. This was, of course, when I had the camera zoomed in on him during one of the songs!! :) On Go Tell It On The Mountain, all the kids were jumping up and down during the chorus. Samuel was looking around at all the kids like 'what in the world are you doing?'. Meanwhile, his sister, Callie, is jumping and twirling madly in the aisle. At that point, I just let her jump. You will see the camera jerking around when she crashes into me!! Finally, on the third chorus, Samuel decides to give a little hop up and down along with the other kids. He then rolls his eyes as if to say, 'Why on earth did I do THAT!" Oh, and did I mention at one point his shirt goes up and I see his UNDERWEAR band sticking out the top of his jeans!!!! I could have died laughing! Especially when I discovered that he was wearing his 11 year old brother's underwear!! That might be the reason why they were sticking out and bagging over the edge of his jeans!!! lol You can see it all in the videos below. Definitely worth watching to see all the kids antics! On a side note, there were supposed to be 3 teachers there for the program. One for each class. 2 were sick, so Samuel's teacher had to run all 3 classes and the program by HERSELF!! I thought she did a wonderful job!
All the kids waiting to start the program.
The 3 & 4 year olds are sitting down. The kindergarteners are standing.
Whew....all done. We can walk off the stage now.
They had a cookie decorating station set up for the kids. Samuel & Callie got to decorate their own cookie to eat.
My son, Samuel, should've rode the bus today. If he had, I wouldn't be writing this. On a normal Friday, I am up around 6:30AM fixing breakfast. Samuel is on the bus by 7:07AM, I sit down and eat. Today was NOT a NORMAL morning. The phone rings a little after 7:00AM. I am still in bed, and it's a good thing I was when I heard who was on the other end. It was one of my nocturnal friends that rarely get up quite that early. It was a rather unexpected suprise to hear from her so early in the morning. I laid in bed and chatted for awhile. After all, I was taking Samuel to school this morning for his Christmas party. There was really no reason to get up early because he didn't need to be there 'til 8:15AM. Well......I FINALLY get off the phone. It's 7:45. I need to leave by 8:00. Samuel is dressed. Callie needs to eat breakfast and get dressed. I get her dressed. She eats while I fix breakfast. I race to my bedroom. Throw on clothes and slap a headband over my unruly hair. Add some gel to tame the frizzy mess and we're good to go. Then....I CAN'T FIND MY KEYS!! Panic sets in. I have 3 sets and not one of them are to be found. They're not in my purse or eithre of my coats. I don't see them ANYWHERE!!!! Finally underneath a stack of mail that needs to be sorted, I find them. Breathe a sigh of relief and pack the kids into the van. We race across town to Samuel's school. I pull into the parking lot with a few minutes to spare. I realize I missed clipping the threads to the sleeves of the shirt I made to wear to the party. Grab a pair of fingernail clippers and clip the threads!!! We hurry inside. I send Samuel to his classroom. Callie & I follow behind. I asked the teacher about the party. She said, "Oh, it doesn't start until 10:00AM!!!!!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!!!! She had JUST told me that it would be best to bring him in MYSELF(instead of him riding the bus) and just stay all day!! I peek into his classroom and discover that just maybe he didn't dress right today. I see freshly pressed dress pants, shirts, ties, sweater vests. A little girl is dressed in red velvet with white tights and shoes. I want to scoop my jean clad child up(that INSISTED upon wearing a faded red shirt), race him home, and re-dress him. I feel like a BAD parent for not ironing his Sunday best and sending him to school in. On the other hand, WHY would you send your cihld to school dressed up sooooo much to eat loads of junk food at a party???? Oh well.....the teacher was in jeans. Now to get on with my day.....I wonder how much I can accomplish at home before I need to leave at 9:45AM???? The house looks like a bomb exploded!!! I've sewed FAR TOO MUCH and neglected cleaning in a TERRIBLE WAY! Now to pack all my sewing stuff away and become a lean, mean cleaning machine!!
Sewing like mad the last several weeks. Every spare moment has been focused on sewing gifts for Christmas. Well, I needed to make Callie's Christmas dress so this morning I cut out and sewed up this dress for her to wear on Sunday. I just have to hand sew the hem in the sleeves and the dress is finished. Here are a couple of shots of her while she was modeling it for me this afternoon. Silly girl!!! Couldn't get one single 'normal' shot of her! :) Later this week I will make a pettiskirt to go underneath to make it 'poof' out more! She loves her new dress. I'm just glad to cross one more thing to sew off my sewing Christmas list.
Here goes.....keep in mind the sleeves are not hemmed in this picture yet! She insisted on a picture with her arms up in the air.
Don't know WHAT this face is! I was told by someone that she looked just like ME in this picture! :)
The green taffeta sash and rose are made with the scraps leftover from the bridesmaids' dresses from our wedding more than 13 years ago!!
All of my kids have been begging for me to teach them how to sew. I saw an idea for making rice bags. I thought that would be an easy project for them and they could give them to their teachers for Christmas gifts. The boys picked fabric from my stash, cut out the pieces they needed and we got started.
Here is Simon sewing all by himself. I'll have to admit, he did pretty good for his first try. He needs to work at sewing in a STRAIGHT line, but that will come. He LOVES sewing and wants to do more now. He learned how to sew a straight stitch, reverse, pivot at a corner and clip the threads. He also used the iron to press his project.
Simon with his teacher's Christmas present. I found a cute poem on my sewing forum that I'm a part of that we will type up to go along with the rice bag. These can be heated or chilled for aches and pains.
Seth was very nervous about the whole sewing machine thing. I'll give him credit, he stuck to it and finished it. I don't think he'll want to do to much in the future. He absolutely REFUSED to use the iron. He definitely is my cautious child!!!
Seth is very relieved he's finished with his project!
Samuel helps pour rice into the bags.
Since he can't reach the foot pedal, I ran that and he helped guide the fabric through. Before we were through, he was telling me that HE could do it all by HIMSELF! He was pushing my hands out of the way and guiding the fabric through on his own.
Samuel is proud of the bag he made for his Grandpa for Christmas.
A picture of all 6 bags we made tonight. With all 3 boys helping, it went VERY FAST!!
Callie poses with the Christmas tree she helped me decorate for the church dinner. One funny story about this tree....On Sunday afternoon, the kids along with Duane & my father-in-law helped me finished up the decorating. (Thanks guys!) I brought a white lace tablecloth to use for the tree skirt. We didn't have one that matched and I didn't want to buy one. I asked Seth to arrange it underneath the tree for a tree skirt. A little while later he calls, "Mom, does this look ok?" To my shock, it was PERFECTLY arranged around the middle of the tree. He had covered up the entire tree with the white lace!!!!!!!!!! I nearly died laughing!! I wish I had brought along my camera to take a picture of that! :)
I wanted to have pillar candles in logs. My wonderful husband, with great effort, carved out 4 of these BY HAND! I wanted several for each table, but after seeing how much work it was for him, I told him 1 for each table would be ok! I LOVED the way they turned out though!
I decided we need new curtains for the windows to match the theme. I bought the fabric on Saturday morning. After lunch, I sewed & ironed for 4 solid hours to produce 8 of these for the windows. The fabric is a deep forest green sparkly satin backed crepe. I LOVE it! Very nice fabric to work with. Of course, I had to use my 'new' vintage black singer to sew them! :) The windows have fresh cut pine branches and pine cones picked up in the woods by Dad, Callie & I. I dried them out in my oven! Boy, did that make my kitchen smell good!!!!
I thought putting out some luminaries would be a neat touch. This is with the flash on....
...with the flash off....much prettier!!!
What the Family Life Center looked like with the lights out! I LOVE candles!
The following are a TON of pictures of the crowd. Pastor Mark had the camera....sooooo....if you don't like your picture....it's HIS fault!!! :)
I love this picture of the two of them.....they look so relaxed!!
Simon, Lauren & Seth played a violin trio. The video is at the end of this post if you'd like to hear them!
Pastor & his wife
The teen table. They did an awesome job serving the drinks and desserts to everyone!
This girl grabbed the camera and took her OWN picture.
Duane gets ready to sing his solo.
Yours truly, getting ready to play 'O Come all ye Faithful'. Tina decided to hijack my camera and video me!! :)
Pastor giving his sermon.
This is what one dedicated listener did during the sermon....cracked walnuts, brazil nuts, almonds...
...oh did I mention...he used his hands...it was quite amusing to watch. Yeah....this is my brother-in-law! :)
