Christmas 2009-Post I

Piper was very interested in all the Christmas decorations this year and was quite the helper with getting ornaments on the tree. We had a large concentration of ornaments on the back lower third of our tree this year, and to be honest, it made it all the more special.

Her pure excitement leading up to and during Christmas made it quite a joy this year, which was quite a blessing.

Piper also had her first ever school performance. We had the video recorder and digital camera and were there to cheer her on. Below are shots of both kids before we left for her big night.

Piper's teaches gave the kids plenty of descriptions of what would happen that night, i.e. parents would drop them off in their classroom and then would head to the fellowship hall, they would come into the hall with their class and perform and then go find mommy and daddy. So Piper spent some time relaying this important information on to us on our way over the school to be sure we were up to speed on what was going to happen-so cute!

And here's a picture of Mrs. Theresa's class (along with Mrs. Melinda and Mrs. Tiffany) and their big performance. All their rehersals were on the stage, but minus the audience and the lights, so Piper spent the first half of the performace quite mesmerized by both. After that she started getting into it and sang rest of the songs. They performed four songs, and I even got a "Mommy" shout-out during the performance, as she tried to squint and see through the stage lights at the audience to find us. We didn't quite make it through all the class performances that followed (i.e. "the older kids"), as it was getting late and out little pumpkin Boone was getting very tired. So we opted to head out of the fellowship hall to get everyone's coats on, and ended up running into many of the families with kids in Boone's class already out in the hallway! We loaded everyone up and headed to Sonic for dessert, we all enjoyed ice cream in the car, while Boone happily snoozed away in his seat!

We also went to the Lights of Lugoff Christmas parade. It was a really cold night, so we bundled the kids up and all had a great time. Boone opted to stay nestled under layers of clothes and blankets in his stroller and managed to wiggle his hands out once the floats started and waved at them all as they passed by. Piper sat as close as she could to all the action and watched all the floats come by and she would yell, "There's Santa, hi Santa, I been a good girl" at every man on a float that had a beard. We also scored lots of candy and I think she ate her weight in candy canes that night. We waved and wished everyone a Merry Christmas as they passed or "Merry Ristmas". Finally, the last float we got to see the real Santa and Piper was speechless. It was such a fun night and I think we'll look forward to going every year. Ger was busy taking pictures and got some good ones of everyone enjoying themselves.

Piper has been enjoying reading all her Christmas books that have been up in the attic. Her babydolls have gotten quite the earful. I think she can almost recite the Night before Christmas, as we've read it so many times and she loves it.