our annual card

a merry christmas!

smiles all around! santa's gifts were a hit.

'twas the night before christmas

we started the day decorating our sugar cookies for santa.

then after 3pm mass, the girls got to each open one gift.  little sister chose a gift from grandpa mel: nail polish, and big sister chose a gift from grandma pat: snuggly owl pj's.

 then after dinner, after watching elf, when it was time for bed - we set out the cookies and eggnog (big sister's idea) for santa.....and went off to dream of sugarplums and dancing snowflakes....goodnight all!

holiday baking

big sister decided she wanted to bake a layer cake, no doubt inspired by all of the holiday baking shows we've been watching on the food network.  so, we baked a dark chocolate cake mix in two 9" round pans.  she frosted them with peppermint icing.  then we added decorations like mini peppermint canes and circles, peppermint kisses, and christmas trees we made from white bark tinted green and colored sprinkles.  i think it turned out pretty awesome, almost too pretty to cut & eat!!

party friday

today was the last day of school before the tw0-week holiday break.  both girls only had school for half of the day.  

  

the rest of the day we spent hosting our 2nd annual cookie bake n take.  we had a house full of kids playing and decorating gingerbread houses, and moms baking sweet treats.  we were all exhausted by the end, but it was tons of fun!

holiday concert

 

big sister's winter band concert was tonight.  first the concert band performed, then her band (symphonic band), with the honor band ending the night.  it was nice to hear the holiday songs and get into the christmas spirit.

eqyptique

swing, santa, swing

caroling around town

little sister had a field trip with her choir today - caroling around town.  she was so very excited.

christmas choir

what better way to spend a cold rainy saturday than getting into the holiday spirit?  all the elementary school choirs serenaded us with holiday songs in the gym of the high school.

better bundle up

season of the bells

and the finale: have yourself a merry little christmas

turkey day

happy thanksgiving!

cookie crafts

cut, bake, decorate!!

fall tournament

the cRaZy sOcCeR mOnKeYs competed in the 2nd annual fall tournament today.  they were one of eight teams in their 10U double-elimination bracket.  they ended the regular season in 2nd place last weekend.

game 1 was at 8:45am, and they defeated the #3-ranked pink attack in 2 sets.

at 11am, they faced their arch-rivals - the #1-ranked diamond diggers.  this is the only team that beat them in the regular season.  after losing in 2 sets, csm was sent to the "loser" bracket.

after a short rest - they played game 3 against #6 sassy pants at 2pm.  victorious there, they moved on to game 4 at 2:45pm and beat #3 pink attack.  next up was game 5 at 3:30pm vs. #4 spike girls.  winning there, they earned a spot to compete for the championship, facing the #1 diamond diggers.  and with the double-elimination, since the dd had not lost yet, csm would have to beat them twice to win.  the girls were thrilled for the opportunity.

the finals game (game 6) started at 4:15pm.  in contrast to csm, who had been playing non-stop games since 2pm, dd had not played a game since 12:30pm.  csm was warm and dd were cold.  csm won set 1 - which was pretty unbelievable considering they had not been able to overcome this team all season, nor earlier this morning.  set 2 went to the dd, so set 3 was the tie breaker.  it was a super close set, but csm came out on top!!!  they had done it!!  but now they had to do it again.....;-)

game 7 - the final final final game - started at 5pm.  you could tell which team had the heart to win and which was out of steam.  (or maybe just in shock from the loss...)  the monkeys came out with the win in 2 sets, and it was AWESOME!!!  i wish i had it on video to share.