December 2018 Happenings

December was of course filled with lots of holiday activities. At the beginning of the month we took Grandma and Grandpa to the Santa Lucia parade in Kingsburg. We met up with Nonna and Pepe, C, and a bunch of friends as well. There were lots of festive floats and vehicles all decorated with lights and all of the elementary schools had Willy Wonka themes including one of the schools that had Willy Wonka DJing which was pretty much the highlight of the night! Afterwards we went back to our house for tacos and to watch the Fresno State Football game.

Allie was once again able to get the horse drawn barge to tour Cindy Lane this year. The lady who runs the operation is cutting back on their rides and will only allow reservations (a year in advance) for repeat customers that she likes. We are so lucky that we have been grandfathered in to the festivities. The kids all had a great time together even though they don't see each other that often. Beth and Casey were so sweet and let us all meet at their house and fed us a delicious dinner as well.

In between all of the holiday festivities we did manage to fit in some regular things like Kieran getting a Happy Meal for the first time, the primos playing at Nonna and Pepe's, doing a centerpiece workshop at a cute new local shop, going to the HMC Christmas party which included a window decorating contest that Erin won hands down, getting to play with Aunt Jana when she was up for a visit, making ice cream cone Christmas trees, playing inside on cold days, and warming up by the firepit in the evening.

The boys had their school performances on the same day so we were lucky enough to go to Kieran's performance, then lunch, and then we went to Reed's concert. Lyla and Kieran were Mary and Joseph in their performance and it was even cuter that I had imagined. Reed did great at his concert and was so excited that we all got to go back to his classroom after. Reed also had his keyboard performance and did great playing both of his songs, unfortunately before he played he had to introduce himself and he totally spaced on the name of one of the songs. It was so heartbreaking watching him go blank up in front of everyone but luckily he heard the teacher whispering to him and all was saved. Clara, Ryland, and some other kids we know performed at the same concert so it was really neat to be able to see them as well.

To end out the month we took the boys to see the Nutcracker. I did ballet for 18 years and performed in a local production of the Nutcracker for many years. I was so excited to take them to the theatre and share with them something that holds such a special place in my heart. Before the show even started Kieran managed to stuff like 30 skittles in his mouth and when I figured out what he was doing he tried to explain and a waterfall of white skittles and color-filled drool came tumbling out everywhere. Despite the deplorable manners we had a great time and finished the evening at Eureka Burger much to the boys delight.