Holiday Recital 2013

Sunday I hosted my student holiday recital.  It was a full house - 23 out of my 27 students were able to attend.  When they first arrived they entered a "guess how many candy santas are in the jar".  Alana won with her guess being within 2 of the correct number.

Then the kids played their pieces for each other.  Everyone did a great job.  I also had 4 guitar students who performed and 6 who sang.  Ashton played Yankee Doodle and Bowen sang Silent Night.

After the performances I had some snacks for the kids.  We had sausage, cheese, crackers, pickles, chips, grapes, rice krispie squares and Cadbury chocolate fingers.

It was a great time.  I enjoy teaching these great kids and to see them progress in their musical studies.

Christmas Preview

I had a productive day yesterday.  It started in the morning when my friend Shelley (she's also my visiting teaching companion) and I hosted a brunch for the ladies that we visit teach at my home.  We served waffles with strawberries and raspberry sauces, whipped cream, fruit, syrup and bacon, and sent them home with a box of chocolates.  It was so yummy!

We had a nice visit but missed the one lady who was unable to come as her son was sick.

After they left Shelley and I got to work dipping chocolates.  Mom had been up earlier in the week and had made some fondant for me.  I hadn't felt well for a couple of days and hadn't had time to do it yet.  Such a huge help to me.  We had fun working together and getting the fondant dipped.  Our dipping is improving and we are getting much faster.

Now the rest of my weekend I'll get ready for my student recital on Sunday.  Once that is done then I can focus on getting the last few things done for Christmas.  Most of my shopping is completed, but I want to do some baking next week.  This year Christmas sure sneaked up on me.  I'm trying not to stress about it though and enjoy the season.  I'd also like to have a little get together with some friends - but we'll see.  Maybe we will wait until the New Year!  How are your preparations going?

Pregnancy Brain

Yesterday of course was another busy Sunday.  We had church and then I had choir for an hour afterwards.  After choir we were trying to quickly leave the church so we could get home and have some dinner before attending the Stake Carol Festival at which our ward choir was performing that evening.  I headed to the hall to grab my coat and noticed there were no coats there.

Jason and Ashton were elsewhere in the building shutting off lights and I thought maybe they had grabbed it for me.  They came back a couple minutes later and then didn't have my coat.  The sister missionaries and a friend of mine were still in the building and they started looking for my coat.  They checked all the classrooms - but no luck - no coat.  I couldn't imagine who would have taken my coat.  I was upset as it is new and I had bought it big enough to hopefully last me the entire winter even with my growing belly.

My friend Anna insisted that she wanted to buy me a new coat.  I told her, of course, that that was completely unnecessary but she was adamant that she wanted to do this for me.  She said it was going to get so cold this week and I had to have a coat and she was taking me out to buy one on Monday.  About 20 after 5 we finally decided it was no where to be found and headed home.

When we got home and I was taking off my shoes I slid open the closet door and low and behold - MY COAT!  Still on the hanger in the closet.  How did I leave the house in December without a coat on?  I felt so stupid.  That night at the Carol Festival I let Anna know I had left my coat at home.  She was so disappointed - she had already been online looking for coats to buy me.  What a sweet friend!!

Ashton informed me that maybe the more brains I lose while I'm pregnant, the smarter the baby will be!  I don't think it quite works that way.