Saturday, December 18, 2010

December Update

The Christmas Pageant is over, and so I finally have the time to sit down and write a post. (Please forgive the crazy length of this post--I have a lot of catching up to do!)Coordinating the pageant was a lot of work, but the result was worth it. We had 360 people come for the Christmas dinner, and over 200 of them participated in the pageant. Someone forgot to turn on the oven(!) the afternoon of the pageant, so things didn't go entirely according to plan, but everything still came together. Henry was thrilled to get to be a shepherd boy in the pageant with his daddy and seemed impressed that his mommy was up on stage with a microphone telling everyone what to do!

In between meetings and emails, we've managed to have a lot of family Christmas and winter fun. We had our first snow a couple of weeks ago and got Elizabeth outside to enjoy her first snowfall.



The kids and I also went for an afternoon walk at a nearby nature center. Henry thought it was hilarious when he threw rocks in the pond and they skidded across the frozen surface.



Elizabeth was pretty unimpressed.



We've also been enjoying Advent together. It's delightful to watch Henry's anticipation as Christmas gets closer and closer. The Advent wreath and calendar have been a wonderful way for him to have a sense of the passage of time in December.





Making gingerbread cookies and decorating a (pre-made) gingerbread house:







Decorating the tree:









In other Henry news, we've decided to have him start preschool two mornings per week after Christmas. I'll continue to homeschool him the other days, and we still intend to homeschool long term, but Greg and I have decided that he just needs a little more practice at not being the center of the universe. We've chosen a play preschool that a lot of our friends send their kids to (and in fact, our neighbor Quinn will be in his class). For me, it will be nice to have a couple mornings per week to focus on Elizabeth and to do the grocery-shopping with only one kid.

We visited the preschool this past Thursday. Henry was a little tentative at first but eventually joined in the activities and enjoyed himself. He still seems a little anxious about it, but I expect he'll adjust quickly.

Last, a few cute pictures of Elizabeth. She's beginning to roll more and her little laugh is the sweetest sound. We've also started to do a little solid food (gumming a banana and trying some rice cereal) but so far she's pretty skeptical.









Okay, maybe more than a few. There are just too many cute pictures to choose from.