Snow Day

Salt Lake has been a winter wonderland this week.

And right in the smack dab middle of the busy Christmas season we got a snow day, and we slowed down and took advantage of it.

I had heard about Sugar House park having great sledding hills but had never been, so we decided to try it out.  

Adele and I had a pretty good wipe out.  Thankfully we both came up laughing.

Adele and Ceci had a good wipe out on this run down...

but Ceci didn't come up laughing.

It didn't last for long.

Tennie's friend Moriya came along too.

Had we had some mini marshmallows to go along with that hot cup of cocoa to warm us up at the end of the day it would have been a perfect day.  But things don't have to be perfect to be perfect, if you know what I mean.

More Holiday Cheer

Another fun-filled holiday week!

Aunt Britt took Adele to get their nails done, Christmas-style.

We made sugar cookies.

Ceci won the Dragon of the Week Award at school.  It was awhile ago, but she spent a good portion of November home sick so we're just seeing it now.

We had a multi-stake scavenger hunt on Temple Square.

We went to Ballet West's Nutcracker.

And stopped at this cute Boulangerie for a croissant on the walk home.

At our ward Christmas party Adele was one of Santa's elves.

And Ceci played Mary...

with a real baby Jesus!

I got out a heaping bowl of holiday popcorn to lure the girls out to help me with some Christmas party preparation.  It worked.  Tennie loved that bowl of popcorn.

Today we got hit with a good snow storm.  Much to the girl's dismay, their school wasn't canceled. Tomorrow it is supposed to keep on snowing.  I think we may play hookie...

Holiday Cheer

Last weekend was BUSY!  Ceci had a birthday party, an Indian couple in our ward threw a big baby shower, Indian-style, and Adele and I squeezed in a quick trip to the Christkindlmarkt at the This is the Place Heritage Park, which is really fun (but was very crowded!)

Saturday night Geoff and I met up with his dad and sister Brittany for the Utah Symphony performance of Ode to Joy, which didn't disappoint.  

Sunday we had Geoff's dad and sister Nikki, and some good friends, Anastasia, Lance and Elijah over for dinner and to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  I found this picture of a dinner plate from that night on my phone, so I thought I would include it.

The holiday festivities continue!

Broadway Rocks

Tennie and Ceci performed in AISU's Broadway Rocks last Friday night.  Ceci was part of the 4th and 5th grade number, and Tennie auditioned and got a solo.  They were told to come dressed like rockstars, and it turned out it was the hard rock kind of rockstars.  Every number was from a Broadway play, but they were pretty obscure and were performed with a bit of a negative energy (like hard rock).  Geoff and I didn't love the songs, and we didn't love the negative tone of things, but we DID love that it was an alternative genre to help encourage more kids to get into the performing arts, and it worked!  There were 200 kids involved.  There was a live band too.  The kids seemed to love it.

Tennie nailed her solo.  Boy does that girl have a set of lungs!  It was a song from the musical Aida, which I am not familiar with.  I tried to attach the video but it was too big, so a few pictures will have to do.

She performed in a few other songs as well:

Ceci's large group sang a song called, Revolting Children.  Yep, that is the title, and it sounded just like you would imagine a song would sound with that title.  However, Ceci looked adorable trying to be revolting.

The whole group sang a nice piece at the end and it just so happened that Tennie was conveniently standing right behind Ceci:

They had a very nice fan club in attendance.

My dad's supportive wife, Babsie.

Some of the young women and leaders.  (Tennie's faux leather pants came from her adorable young woman leader, Charlotte.)

And some of the Utah Davis clan was there.  We had front row seats.  I have a sense this will be the first of many AISU performances!

One Last Vivint Shoot

Vivint Solar called for one more day of shooting last Friday.  The girls were ELATED to get back with this fun group of kids and all of the awesome adults working on the project. Plus, another day of pay!

The stylist's sister owns a bakery and sent some goodies over.  It was another fun day on set.

End of First Trimester Intensives

Last week Tennie and Adele finished up two weeks of their end-of-trimester intensive.  Tennie chose to do a yoga intensive and did nothing but learn about yoga and visit and practice yoga at yoga studios throughout the valley every day.  She loved it.  

At the end of the intensive the school held a showcase so the students could display or show what they had been doing.  Tennie was home sick this day, but we went and saw her yoga mat.

Adele did a debate intensive where she learned public speaking skills, wrote speeches and learned the art of debate.  They had a few field trips to the University of Utah, a local high school to learn from the debate team and the Utah capitol.

And the 5th graders spend the last hour of the day for two weeks doing an "intensive". Ceci chose creative writing and produced some fun short stories.

This week Tennie lamented that intensives were over and she was no longer spending all day every day with her friends, but back in a classroom.  Ah, the ups and downs of SCHOOL!

Decking Our Halls

We hoped to go chop our own tree this year, but it turned out that Whole Foods would have to do given our schedule.

Our ornaments and lights sat in the living room for about five days.  We were waiting until we had a chunk of time to decorate.  Finally the girls were fed up waiting, and the three of them whipped up a festive tree on their own.

They quickly got some of their presents wrapped and had the first of our annual wrapping paper-tube sword fights:

Things are getting merrier and brighter by the day!