Dancing with Daffodils

 Last Monday was my piano recital. I made all sorts of treats and cleaned my house and set it up for the recital. I was really proud of my 12 students; everyone played their songs well and it was a nice evening. It is always fun to hang out with the parents and I enjoy hosting them in my home at Christmas time. Some students brought me little gifts too which was so thoughtful and sweet. My Australian student is moving back to Australia soon so we said goodbye to her family but they told me a new Australian family is moving into their house and they have a daughter who wants to take piano lessons so I may have a new student in January. It did get a little crazy with kids running around and my older kids had homework to finish and we hadn't eaten dinner yet so it was good when everyone finally cleared out. Lily said I'm just too good of a hostess that people don't like to leave, which is good. :) But it went well and I was happy to check it off my list. I also didn't take...

 What a week. My mornings were all actually pretty calm so I got some reading done and tried to prep as much as possible knowing that the crazy is coming. I went to the grocery store and the gym twice and finished shopping and did a lot of wrapping. But by afternoon, things always got crazy. Brandon had play practice and Curtis had track and a long band rehearsal one night. Then he had a meet Wednesday and didn't get home until 11pm. Wednesday was Emma's concert and it was nice. There were a lot of conflicts this week and I'm so grateful for my friends who helped. Michelle got Lily for me at dance and brought her to Emma's concert and then Thursday when Josh was out of town and I had to take Brandon to basketball, Sarah C brought my girls home from dance for me and then Saturday night my neighbor brought my boys home from Curtis's concert so we could head straight to Nutcracker. We couldn't have done it without the help and I was so grateful.   It was Nutcracker...

 It was a bit shocking to get home from Thanksgiving and have it be December! We usually decorate the house the Sunday after Thanksgiving but here we are putting up our advent calendar that is a train with candy inside, only I hadn't thought to get the candy yet so it was empty. The kids were asking when they could open the train since it was Dec 1 and I kept telling them later. Luckily I found some old Christmas candy in my closet and stuffed some in the first day while hopefully on one was looking and then the next day I had to go out and get candy and fill the train before they came home from school. But, the house got decorated and luckily we had put up the lights the Saturday before we left so that was done and I already had a good amount of planning done for the ward party so that was good. It has been a busy week though as I have tried to finish up my shopping and I got the presents I needed to ship all set and off to the post office and I did my Christmas cards and finished...

 We drove up to Rochester on Tuesday for our Thanksgiving break. We normally go up Saturday and spend the whole week but between Nutcracker rehearsal and Brandon's play rehearsal and the fact that my kids missed three days of school for Disney and Josh had a lot to do for church meant that we waited and went later. It meant we didn't get to go to the temple like we usually do on Tuesday and we didn't get to eat all of my favorite foods at home but it worked out fine. We made good time Tuesday and even let Lily drive us up to Annapolis.  We had dinner and just relaxed that evening talking with my parents and KayLee and we played some games too. Then Wednesday Kara and my mom made pies while Josh and I went to Wegmans and then I made my pie and strawberry pretzel Jello salad. We helped my mom take down all of the fall decor because she was tired of it and ready for Christmas. We also went to Abbot's for lunch and it was so tasty. Josh and Curtis also helped my dad with a ...