Sixth Grade Band Christmas Concert

McKenzie's Christmas Concert Tour continued last night with her Sixth Grade Band Christmas concert.  It's amazing to see how far the kids have come since they first got their instruments just three months ago!  McKenzie and three of her friends stood up and played by themselves when the director gave any student who wanted to play a solo or in a group the opportunity to do so.  We didn't know she was going to do it and they sounded good!  Here are some pictures of McKenzie before the concert and a short video clip of the band playing Jingle Bells.

Show Choir Christmas

McKenzie's school show choir Christmas concert was Tuesday night.  All of the choirs did a great job.  McKenzie had a solo in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  She always enjoys singing and dancing and it's fun watching her do something she loves.  Here are some pictures from the show.

Children's Choir Christmas Program

Sunday night was the Children's Choir Christmas Program at our church.  McKenzie had a couple of solos and was "Mrs. Evans".  The kids did a great job!  Here are a few pics of McKenzie and a video of her solo.  The pictures and video were during the rehearsal since I am one of the Children's Choir teachers and can't take them during the actual performance.

Poor little Matt was sick and wasn't able to sing in his first program with the big kids choir.  He did a good job learning the songs and the motions but he just wasn't able to make it to the performance.  Here are a few more pics of him from his school play.

Finally, here's Nick in a little Santa outfit we got for him!  He hated it!  He made a good little St. Nick, though!

Matt's Christmas Play

Matt was the GPS in his school Christmas play today.  He did a great job!  Here are some pictures and a short video clip of his speaking part.

Christmas Mantel

Today I am linking up with The Lettered Cottage and showing our mantel all decorated for Christmas. I am using the same decorations that I always use each year since we have been in this house. I have always wanted a fireplace and so thankful we have one now and that I get to decorate the mantel! Now if it will stay cold long enough to use our gas logs...

This is sort of a close up of it. I use a garland that has several types of greenery and pine cones. I really like it because it looks so real. I used a different kind of red ribbon in it to add color and also used a red pom pom garland that I had to add something to it. I have tried colored lights in it before but I keep going back to the pretty white lights.

 

These are our Land's End stockings. I like traditional and these are perfect. We added Nick's cute little stocking last year. Can't wait to fill it with the cute little toys we found last weekend at TJ Maxx!

Lastly, in front of the fireplace, Matt set up his Polar Express train set. It's perfect to have out during the holidays since Matt loves trains and it is one of his favorite Christmas movies.

Don't forget to check out all the other mantels to get inspiration!

Anniversary Eat-A-Thon

This past weekend Betty and I celebrated our 19th anniversary a little early.  Cassie volunteered to keep the kids and this was the only weekend we could match up with her.  Friday was McKenzie's six month check-up with her eye doctor in Jackson, Dr. Mungan, so we ended up doing a lot of driving that day.  Dr. Mungan said McKenzie's vision has stabilized long enough and her cataract looks good so we will only have to see him once a year now.  Here are a few pics from her appointment.  I think everyone knows about her cataract but I thought you might like to see some of what she has to do at these appointments.

The first thing they do is check her vision and like I said, her vision has stayed the same the last few appointments and maybe even a little better this time.

Don't let the smile fool you!  She hates this part.  They give her drops to numb her eye and then press this instrument against her eyeball to test the pressure in her eye.

Then they dilate her eyes and wait for 30-45 minutes and do some more tests.  She always handles all of it very well.

After the eye doctor we started our Eat-A-Thon!  Hamil's was the first stage!

This was Matt's reaction to his first taste of Hamil's BBQ ribs!  I think they have another fan!

We skipped out usual Target trip (don't worry, we more than made up for it later) and headed back home to drop the kids off with Cassie.  They love for Cassie to keep them and had a ball with her, as usual.  Thanks Cassie!

Betty and I headed on to Memphis and checked in at the hotel and then went straight to The Side Porch Steakhouse for the next leg of our Eat-A-Thon.  The Side Porch is one of our favorites and we almost always go there for our anniversary supper.

The next morning we went to another of our favorite Memphis places, Miss Polly's on Beale Street.  We knew that the St. Jude Marathon was going on that morning but we've been downtown before when it was going on and didn't think it would be a big deal.  Well, this year seemed to be a bigger deal than ever!  We had to walk a little to get to Miss Polly's and then had to stand in line outside to get in for the first time ever.  We laughed at ourselves as all these fit runners passed by while we stood outside Miss Polly's waiting to stuff ourselves once again!  Hey, we all have our different talents!  The breakfast was wonderful and it was fun seeing all the runners and hearing all the music and festivities going on.  There was even an Elvis impersonator performing!

Wordless Wednesday