The Gingerbread Man Musical

Last Tuesday Drew's Kindergarten class put on a Musical for the parents...

Here is the program

Yes our son was the fox.  While we learned what his part was a few days before the show (because he had to be dressed a certain way) we didn't realize what this meant.  So Dave and I walked him to school and I saw him starting to get into his costume - a red turtleneck made to look like the body of a fox.  We were told to have black pants on underneath.

So when he arrived on stage we were shocked he wasn't wearing the costume rather the sweat pants and shirt we sent him in.  We'd have dressed him a little nicer if we knew he was going to refuse to wear the costume (he said the turtleneck was choking him).

So here's the class before the performance... Drew is off to the right between the stands and his teacher.

Here's a close-up of our little fox.

Low and behold our child had a solo!

Here is part 1 (our video camera lost it's charge so I was grabbing them on our point and shoot)



And here is part 2



My camera's battery died at this point - oops.

Here are a few final photos from my phone.


And Drew's wanted poster for the Gingerbread Man....


It was really cute - and we were so proud of Drew for having a big part in the show!

Living Bethlehem

While we were winetasting picking up our wine shipments last Sunday we were reminded that Livermore had a weekend long event for a living nativity.  I remember hearing about it for the first time last year, but we never made it out there with my being sick and just before Christmas it would have put me over the edge.  But this year, healthy and all, we ventured back out to Livermore for the final night of performances last Monday.  The show was breathtaking!

Once you arrive you wind your way through the outside of Bethlehem where they have Middle Eastern Dancers, and you can see shepherds and suddenly the Angel appears announcing the birth of Jesus - this we later found out was timed with the performance inside.

And they only allow a certain amount of people inside the gates of Bethlehem - to be registered.

So I could see how the lines would be really long on the weekend.  We happened to go closing night and it really went pretty fast to get inside the gates.

Once inside Bethlehem we saw an actual recreation of what it was probably like.  With sheep and llamas...

And there were different "booths" or shops where you could experience fruit stands, metal works...

.... games... Drew had fun playing Dradel.

... and wood working where Drew made his own hammer!

So there were a lot of things for Drew to do and experience what he's heard and learned about.  But for a 6 year old to experience hands on was priceless.  It was great how we were only talking about incense at his Sunday School a week or two earlier and none of the kids knew what it was... they had some in one of the "shops" and I could show Drew and we spoke of what the Wisemen brought to Jesus.

Suddenly the soldiers appeared announcing the decree that all should be registered...

This paved the way for Mary and Joseph's arrival into Bethlehem.
(The soldiers had to protect the crowd from the Donkey who did get a little stage fright at one point).

So while Mary and Joseph were seeking shelter at an inn, we were allowed inside the next set of gates.  We made our way toward the main stage (stable) while Mary and Joseph continued to go from inn to inn.

Once they settled into the inn, the doors opened showing the baby Jesus was born - and the star shown above the Manger where he lay.

There was a beautiful performance then of Oh Holy Night -

And then the three wise men arrived to offer their gifts... coming in on a camel and chariots.

Shepherds were also there to worship the baby....

And at the end, the angel appeared while they sang Silent Night... and it was so moving.  Everyone in the audience began singing along.

Dave admitted he actually got a bit choked up seeing this show - shhh I kind of did too.  It really was a moving performance.

Drew told us unprovoked how much he liked it too and the next morning while I was helping him brush his teeth he brought it up again saying "Mommy that was really awesome what we did last night."

Here is the link for the Living Bethlehem - shows are over for the "season", but I recommend doing this next year if you're in the area on a Thursday - Monday while it's running.  Even better - it's free!

Visiting the Ice Princess

While we saw Santa at the free town tree lighting earlier this month, it's not the "official" Santa you can see at the mall.  So when my co-worker told me her daughter got a job as the Ice Princess at the mall, we made the trip to see her - and well Santa of course.  See my co-worker's daughter has babysat for Drew on several occasions and he refers to her as "Big Audrey" all 5 feet and 90 pounds of her.

So off to the Ice Palace we go!


So despite waiting an excruciating amount of time on a Sunday night no less, we finally get to enter the second phase of the Ice Palace - that's code for yet another line.


Thankfully this part of the line had some fun hands on things for the kids.  You know to help alleviate the whining and the "how much longer is this line" kind of questions.  Drew got to put his hand into real ice where they had polar bear footprints.

And then he could get measured next to a polar bear....



Not even Daddy comes close to the bear's size when he's standing up.


And then we get inside the ice palace where it's "snowing".  The kids loved the powdery stuff, but you could tell the parents hated it. 



The darned snow stuck to every article of clothing on you and your kid just before s/he sees Santa and pays a ridiculous amount of money for one photo (although they force you to buy a package - you can't get just one copy of a photo).


My camera didn't focus well on the photo... I promise the real one isn't blurry.


And then after you finally visit Santa (over an hour after we arrived) we finally get to see who we we really came for  - the Ice Princess.


Drew and Big Audrey.  We loved that photo!

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Boys Day: Gingerbread Decorating

While I was off baking cookies with the ladies in the family, my boys were at home doing manly stuff.  You know, like decorating a gingerbread house!

I started doing this last year and Drew really looks forward to it.  I think Daddy had a big hand in helping this year, but doesn't his house look great?

Baking Divas

It's our annual tradition, Christmas cookie baking the first Saturday in December.  And these baking divas were hard at work while I was still running a 5K with Drew.  Yes I was late to the baking party, but boy did the house smell good when I arrived.

This year my sister Lisa joined in the festivities - I think this was her first time doing it.  At least in recent memory.  Also joining us for a bit - my niece Adrina seen below with GG.


She was put on task to decorate the sugar cookies!


I didn't get very many pictures, because well I was busy baking!  (And watching my Sun Devils lose to Stanford in the PAC12 Championship game). 

But we did grab one group photo before my sister took off. 

L-R: My Mom, my sister Lisa, my Sister-in-Law Rana, Niece Adrina, Grandma Geri and Me

I think all in all we made somewhere between 25-30 different kinds of cookies between the five of us.

And here's my other niece Avery - she was approving of all the cookies coming out of the oven.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

How the Grinch Stole 3.1 Miles

We skipped this race last year, but this year we did the Bah Humbug for the first time as a family - as in we all ran the 5K or 3.1 Miles.

Here is our Bah Humbug rookie - Drew.

And Daddy and Drew getting ready to start their warm ups. (Which is a good thing, I think it was about 37-degrees that morning).

And Mommy and Drew...

Family photo...

And then we were off!

Drew was having a really hard time with this race.  About a mile in he was asking "are we done yet?"  He was happy to see the 2 mile marker.

And congrats to Drew he finished!  Here is a family photo post-race

He came in 18th place out of 21 for his age bracket (ages 5-8) with a time of 49:12 as did Mom and Dad, but Drew finished 2nd among 6 year olds.  Not bad!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We did the annual tree lighting in our town at the beginning of December, however this year it was cold and wet!  We didn't have snow falling from the sky, but boy was the rain coming down.  But that won't stop us from enjoying the fun at Bishop Ranch (my work complex).

 

Here we are trying to stay dry in the line for Santa.  Don't let his face above fool ya, he really was having a good tine.

And then we finally made our way to the jolly old man.
We are normally one of the first in line, but we had a few lollygaggers this year and weren't as "prompt" as normal.

And then we ventured over to the snow!

Ok so this white stuff wasn't the natural snow, but brought in or made just for this event.... but hey Drew had a blast in there!

And this year there were reindeer!

After the reindeer Daddy and I had enough of the rain and we decided it was time to head home.  We had an absolute blast - this was our 4th year doing this I believe.  Can't beat free fun!