As Christmas approaches I’m sure we are all busying ourselves with the typical bustle of the Holiday Season. I have a few stories that I’d like to share this week. A visit from Santa, snow falling fast and hard, work and ward Christmas parties, and music to brighten the Christmas Cheer.
Last Saturday we had our ward Christmas party. It wasn’t your typical evening festivities but rather a ward Christmas breakfast. There was a huge turn out of people (surprising for a Saturday morning, I think the food got people up and out of bed!) and standing room only in the cultural hall. All the families chipped in and brought a breakfast casserole and the ward provided drinks, fruit, and muffins. People sang, ate and had a great time. The best part (at least from the kids point of view) was the visit from Santa. Our kids are still deathly afraid of Santa… I mean I think I’d be scared of a big fat guy in a red suit that talked in a deep voice! Mya and Olivia finally sat down to have a little chat with Santa and Maddie and Kennedy… well maybe next year.
I want to put a plug in here for one of my favorite music groups, VoiceMale. A little known acapella group of six men, they tour around Utah and Arizona during the holidays. I think Carrie and originally came across them while attending BYU. We’ve been big fans of VoiceMale ever since. We own a few CDs and are headed to their concert this Friday. Mya and Olivia are coming as well so we’ll let you know how it goes. I highly recommend their Christmas CDs so check out their website www.voicemalemusic.com when you get the chance.
A few stories from around the house. We just discovered one of Maddie mysterious communications. I’m telling this second hand from Carrie so she’ll correct me if I’m wrong. Anyways, usually during breakfast when yogurt is on the menu we’ll ask Maddie what kind of yogurt she wants. She loves vanilla yogurt and in the recent past if you ask her what flavor she wants she’ll shake her head and beat her chest. Unsure of what this means we would eventually figure out what she wanted and she’d happily eat her yogurt. Well, just this week Carrie solved the mystery. She linked the shaking of the head and the beating of the chest (the ASL sign for Gorilla) with the flavor of yogurt Vanilla… Ahhh you say! That’s it. Maddie thinks that we are saying “Gorilla” when we say “Vanilla” so when we ask her what flavor she wants she gives us the sign “Gorilla”. We thought it was hilarious and are proud that Maddie knows so many signs that she even stumped us! Now we have Gorilla flavored yogurt for breakfast.
It has snowed about 12 inches in the last week and all the girls have taken advantage of the first big snow fall of the year. We’ve built a few snowmen, a snowcave (the girls won’t go inside and insist it is for the animals to use), and generally had a blast getting cold in the snow. We’ve gone sledding twice at Mya’s school (they have a perfect hill in the back for sledding) and we go to the playground and play in the snow as well. Who knew school playgrounds could be so fun in the snow. On the last trip to the snow playground Mya got banged up a bit when dad (that’s me…) launched her onto her head on the bridge (it was a little slick) and then she banged her knee on the bars while sliding down some bars at a high rate of speed! We’ve enjoyed the snow but it is getting cold with the weather this week hitting the low teens at night and only getting to the mid 30’s during the day.
Christmas Parties at Two Little Hands Productions are great! One of the great benefits of working with the de Azevedo family is the musical talent that abounds! Just a few weeks ago Carrie and I attended Lex’s wedding where we had a wonderful time visiting with everyone and listening to the beautiful music from the de Azevedo sisters, Lex, and even a impromptu duet by Lex de Azevedo and Kurt Bestor. Tonight we attended the Christmas party and heard wonderful music sung by the de Azevedo sisters, Chris Higbee (great singer and VP of Marketing), Lex played a duet, and a few other numbers. What a privilege to work for such a wonderful and talented company!
Don’t ever tell your kids about the time we were towed behind your Dad’s van in our sleds. My Mom is still upset about that.
Too Late, the kids have all heard the stories. It’s funny you should mention that because I was just talking to some friends of ours about that. I’m telling you that was serious fun. My dad hasn’t changed either so I fully expect some day my kids will have grandpa pulling them behind the car!! Actually he’s upgraded and now it’s 4 wheelers!