Casidee's Christmas Concerts

Playing a bit of catch up here with Casidee's Christmas concerts.

Somehow she ended up in choir as well as orchestra this year.  It's interesting since she didn't actually sign up for choir, but whatever.

Also, it's helpful that the orchestra teacher and the choir teacher are the same person.  So the concerts were all held on the same night, which I appreciated since having three nights of concerts the week before with Tayler and Cali.

It struck me how much better Casidee's orchestra is sounding since they started last year.  I'm really excited to have her grow in the talent.

A big thank you to Brynn who was willing to crawl up to the front and get the videos for me.

Concert Season is in Full Swing

With concert season being in full swing we had a busy week filled with music last week.

Cali and Tayler kicked us off by singing at our City Hall (here) on Monday, Tayler had her Christmas orchestra concert on Tuesday, and on Wednesday Cali and Tayler had their official Christmas choir concert.  That's a lot of concerts for Tayler too, since she was in all of them.

Next week we have Casidee's orchestra and choir concerts, but luckily those will be on the same night.

This week we're excited because The Man is having a birthday.  We have plans to spoil him and celebrate him, and show him that we love him.

I love pinterest for the ideas!

And now... for some concert pictures and videos.

All I wanted was a smile.  Just one smile.

Turns out this is as good as I was going to get.

Sometimes, as a mom, you come to learn that cutting your losses, at times, can be better than trying to win, and you just walk away while shaking your head.

And I'm sorry for the sub par phone pictures.  

You know that child?  The child that does weird dance moves while singing?

That may have been my child during this concert.  And the girl in the blue and gray stripes next to my child?  Her mom probably was not enjoying my child's influence on her child very much.

Thanks to Casidee for being my photographer and videographer for the night.



Cali's favorite song:



Tayler's favorite choir song (she liked it because they sang part of it in German):



Tayler's favorite orchestra song:





I like to post the orchestra concert songs because I think it will be fun in a few years to compare how they sound as they practice and learn and play longer.

Today is my math final and then I'm free to enjoy the holiday season with my Circus.  The tree is up, the porch is lit up with lights (I may or may not have picked a cold snow storm to accomplish that in?  I don't know why, I think it was more or less: "let's just get this done already").

This year my aim is to keep it simple yet focused.  I think sometimes I lose the feel of what I'm doing in all the busy details. We have the list of things we need to finish buying but the kids want to help wrap, which I think will be fun, and take a lot of busy-ness off of me.  I skipped decorating the inside of the house on Halloween and ended up loving how simple it was so I think I'll do the same with Christmas.  Aside from the tree and stockings of course.

I'm looking forward to this month.

Thanksgiving. And the Jolly Old Elf Himself. As Well As Some Magic.

Thanksgiving came with a little bit of ceremony.  Mostly in the actual foods that were prepared and the setting up of tables, and finally the watching of "While You Were Sleeping" while the big stuff was in the oven and it wasn't quite time to start the little stuff yet.

That's a big part of Thanksgiving ceremony, "While You Were Sleeping."

Cali learned how to make a Dutch Apple Pie.  Cas learned what it was to make pumpkin pies with Grandpa Dick and why that's a treat.

Our house was full to the brink.

 I posted this picture of Casidee on my Instagram:

And then this happened:

The yelling didn't start until the playing cards came out.

Slapjack for the younger crowd and nertz for the older and slightly more violent crowd.

And we may have come out of the experience with a broken stair banister, but you can't have family holidays be all good, right?  If that's the worst then all is well.

And then it happened.

December is here and I hardly even had time to realize it.  It takes me by surprise every year.

We kicked December off last night with Cali and Tayler's choir singing at our City Hall for the lighting of the city's lights.

And a visit with the Jolly Old Elf himself.  Cali asked for Monster High dolls.  Tayler for earmuffs.  Blue ones.

And it struck me, with the growing of my Circus, how very little time I have left for Christmas to be full of magic.

It will be always be magical.

But it changes from magic and wonder to a more specific awareness of giving and love, which is not bad, it's really very good, but I realize how little time I have left with the added bonus of a child's magic and wonder at it all.

Though when it's all said and done I suppose it's the awareness of giving and love that creates the magic for children, and whether they realize it or not, that will always be there, so we'll lose nothing in the growing of our children, the reason for it all will just change.

And that, perhaps, might be even a little better.

To have the magic with a purpose instead.