One of the busiest weeks of that month! Goodness!

Monday was Nye-Nye’s Christmas choir concert. This is probably my favorite concert of the year. Mr. C, the director, always has a great mix of songs - spiritual, secular, and each choir gets to do a fun one, as well. The men’s choir sang "Mr. Grinch!" It was cute. The Choral Edition group always does a great version of the 12 Days of Christmas - they have 2 sets of 2 people acting it out in front of everyone, competing to see which set does it better. After all the choirs are done, they set up for the Hallelujah Chorus and invite members up from the audience to sing if they’d like. After that, it’s the final song.

The final song always makes me cry. All the kids from the various choirs (I think there are 6 different choirs - over 300 kids, I think?) sing it in surround sound. They line up across the stage, around the auditorium, in all the aisles - everyone gets a battery-operated candle and the lights are turned very low.

They start to sing as the kids walk to their positions, then once everyone’s in place, they sing this beautiful song about peace…. "Peace, peace, peace on earth, and goodwill to men…" They sing it in unison once through, then the girls repeat it while the guys sing "Silent Night." Ah, it’s bringing tears to my eyes just remembering it. I wish I could record it & play it for you. It’s just beautiful.

And I’ll admit to crying extra that night, knowing it was Nye-Nye’s last Christmas concert there. Doesn’t he look great in his Choral tux?

The next night was Sweet Girl’s first choir concert. The music teacher at her school offers an after-school choir for kids 3rd grade and up - they practice twice a week, and this was their first concert. They did a great job. I couldn’t get any really great photos of her because of where I was sitting, but she looked adorable and they sounded great.

I’m pretty sure she was the shortest one in the choir. LOL

A day or two after that, it was time to do Nye-Nye’s seminary cake for December. It had to serve as both his birthday cake and the December/winter one, so I came up with snowmen (winter) singing (representing his choir involvement) happy birthday (duh) wearing orange (his favorite color) hats/scarves. I think it turned out pretty darn cute, actually.

A day or two after that was Nye-Nye’s birthday… which deserves its own post.

Sweet Girl and her Aunt Tammi had a delightful Girls’ Night Out on the 10th - Tammi got tickets to The Nutcracker and took Sweet Girl to her first ballet. Of course, before the big night, we had a fun girls’ day out shopping - because you have to have a properly fancy dress to wear to the ballet!

Ballet night came and she was so excited, we got dressed early and took some photos. I even convinced her to leave her hair down for the evening (a new sparkly headband helped).

She looks so grown up! She came home tired and happy, clutching a new ballerina ornament for the tree. Thanks Aunt Tammi!

The next night was Nye-Nye’s Choral Edition Dessert Show/Fundraiser. Each kid was in charge of their own table to decorate - another stressor for me last month! LOL He went with a ‘fire and ice’ theme, and it turned out lovely.

The first half of the show had a few group numbers, but was mostly solos/duets. Nye-Nye sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and did a fantastic job.

During the first half of the show the kids brought around desserts (from the Cheesecake Factory! score!) for people to munch on; Nye-Nye was our waiter & made sure we had enough to drink. After intermission, the kids changed out of their ‘fun holiday’ outfits & put on their tuxes and gowns to do the rest of the group songs. His choir director has done such a fantastic job with these kids - I can’t think of a single concert we’ve been to in 4 years that hasn’t been magnificent, and the dessert show was no exception.

 

The first week of December found us scrambling to finish the last-minute preparations for Bubba’s Eagle Court of Honor…. arranging participants, typing and printing programs, printing and framing photos, gathering mementos of his Scouting career, baking & decorating a cake, getting the rest of the refreshments. It went off without a hitch, for the most part.  His Court of Honor was December 5, 2009.

Bubba went with a red, white and blue theme for the decor and refreshments.

closeup of the cake

standing in front of part of his Scouting memories

repeating the Scout Law? Oath? taking the Eagle Pledge?

pinning on the Eagle medal

recieving the Eagle neckerchief

pinning his dad with the mentor pin

Scouting family!

And now for my ‘bad mom’ confession…. in getting this blog post typed up, I tried to remember which photos I’d used & how I’d written up the blog entry for Nye-Nye’s Eagle Court last year, so I looked it up. Gasp! I didn’t blog it! Ah, yes, last December was crazy busy too and I meant to post/back-date it after the holidays were over but never did. Yep, I’m a bad mom. So to make up for it, here are the photos from Nye-Nye’s Court of Honor held December 6, 2008. The boys’ courts were held 364 days apart, how cool is that? LOL

photos, trophies, and his little tiny Cubs shirt 

cake

repeating the law, or oath, or pledge…

pinning the Eagle medal

new Eagle neckerchief

proud mom and dad

proud new Eagle!

I didn’t blog about it in October, but Kiddo Nye Nye asked me last fall if I could make a cake for his seminary class when he gave the devotional each month. We sat down & figured out what type or theme each month’s cake would be - for October, I made a cake that looked like a trick or treat bag, complete with candy sticking out the top. I didn’t get any photos of it, though - I wasn’t happy with the way it turned out. November’s devotional cake was a Thanksgiving table complete with turkey, bread, pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes & gravy. Nye Nye helped make the decorations, then placed them on the cake… turned out pretty cute, if I say so myself.

I thought I was done for the month… but the next week, the night before the last school day before the holiday, Nye Nye came home and casually said, "So, BroMo said we should bring a snack to share tomorrow…. and I was kindawonderingifyou’dmakeanothercake?" Mind you, this was around 9 PM. We negotiated a bit, and while I made no promises as to whether or not I’d do anything (or if I did, if it would be cute) I told him I’d probably try to come up with something. The next morning, Nye Nye found this waiting for him:

Sigh. I’m such a sucker.

A few days before Thanksgiving, Little Man came downstairs clad only in jeans and a Viking helmet, carrying a magazine. As soon as I stopped giggling, I asked him what was up. He held up the magazine, so I could see the front cover:

"I’m him, see?" he grinned. Sure enough, there was an uncanny resemblance.

Then he made ferocious Viking faces for several minutes while I laughed so hard I could barely hold the camera. This pic makes me giggle each and every time I see it.

Ahh, I love my silly Little Man.