Evergreen Place

We were blessed to be part of a Christmas music concert for the residents of Evergreen Place today.  It is the 7th year Joyce has invited us to join her family in what has become one of my very favorite holiday traditions!

Joyce and Allison and Ashley started off with Carol of the Bells today.

Then Juana had her first piano performance, playing Jingle Bells. 

Her mom, Grandpa Tim, and brother Timi (who also started taking piano lessons just a few weeks ago!) watched her play.

Then Juana watched her grandpa Tim play!

Tim played Away In A Manger.

Midnight Blues sang Joy to the World and Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming.

Carly played Go Tell It On the Mountain.

Grown Up Christmas List by Sylvia

Marshmallow World by Annah

Kyle and I came up with a fun medley of White Christmas and The Christmas Song that was really fun for him to perform.

Anna played We Three Kings.

Chloe had her first piano performance today too, playing The First Noel.

Ryan and Annah did a duet of Winter Wonderland.

I played an arrangement of What Child Is This?

Allison sang Gesù Bambino.

And Midnight Blues came back with The First Noel and Silent Night.

Here are a few video clips from a few of the performances:

Joyce led off Joy to the World as we all gathered in to end the program, then we ended 

with We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  

My piano students who played today all did a great job!  I'm so proud of them!

It is always such a blessing to be part of making music and sharing it with others!  

Clinton

Today, the RHS wrestlers competed in the Clinton Tournament.  

Caeden came in 4th place in the 138# weight class.

And the team came in third!  This is pretty incredible with only 8 of them competing.  

(There are 14 weight classes, so they don't even have 6 of them filled!)

Congratulations, guys!!

Side-by-Side

This evening, Isabella and Señora Lovitt came with me and Annah to watch Sylvia perform in the Illinois Symphony Orchestra Holiday Pops Concert side-by-side with the Bloomington Normal Youth Symphony!

We dropped Sylvia off for her rehearsal at the BCPA and went to Green Top Grocery and Kroger in the half hour rehearsal time.  Then we came back and parked by the BCPA and walked to dinner.  On our way past the front of the BCPA, we stopped to recreate the statues of lawyer Abe Lincoln and his Bloomington colleagues discussing legal matters.

This one was not an exact replica...

Just having fun.

We ate at Lucca Grille, and Mr. Lovitt joined us for dinner.  

Señora participated in the "Family Friendly Activities" the ISO provided before the concert, and built marshmallow snowman and made friends with everyone at the table.

The concert was wonderful!  The ISO is fabulous, and their director, Ken Lam, is wonderful and very entertaining too.  And the BCPA is so beautiful!

VIDEO: A few clips of the performance...

Well, the semester is over, final exams are done, and both Sylvia and Caeden lived through it all.  

Academically, Caeden was definitely a freshman boy--unorganized and unfocused for most of the semester--but, he did really well on all of his exams.  I don't know many kids who actually bring their grades UP with final exams, but he did.  Just proves that he is capable and needs to focus better. 

Sylvia works so hard on her classes all of the time, and studied extra hard for exams.  She even got A's in Chemistry 2 and Pre-Calc.  We are always in awe of her drive and academic determination.

The school Winter WonderCan drive has been going on during December, and this week the mentoring classes competed to build a holiday display with their cans.  

Here is a video "commercial" Sylvia's class made during the campaign to remind students to bring in their cans.

I am loving having Annah home!!!  Everyone else is super busy this week, but I'm not really needed to sub during finals week so I've been off and more available.  

Sunday  she and Ryan helped me and Jeremy bake several dozen candy cane Christmas cookies for Jeremy's cookie exchange at work.

Monday, Annah and Ryan baked and decorated a double batch of Christmas sugar cookies while watching The Grinch at our house, then watched the first 2 Star Wars movies with his buddies in preparation for the new one being released this week.  They're going to watch them all this week.

Tuesday morning, Annah went with me to the Kia dealership for routine maintenance on the Soul at 8am.  

Then we caught a 10:15 showing of Frozen 2!  We loved it!!

Porta

The HS wrestling team went to a tournament in Porta today.  

Caeden came in at 8th place in the 138# weight class.

JV

I was subbing as a floater today while teachers were doing technology training, and I had no home base classroom to keep my things in.  So, I hung out in the music room when there were teachers who didn't want to attend the training and I had an open hour.  I did get the privilege of rehearsing some Christmas songs and accompanying Mr. R while he sang for some of his elementary students.  And, not surprisingly, my own kids hang out in the music room when they have study hall or lunch or no home base.  So, this kid was there, rather than in the lunchroom since he is cutting weight.

There was a home HS meet tonight.  I won't go into the details or speak the very raw emotions that are in my heart right now, but will just say that Caeden did end up having one JV match tonight, and one of the other wrestling moms was so kind to run to get me from the concession stand to watch most of it.

I love my wrestler.

Caeden pinned him!

Accompanying

I accompanied the 6th grade and Junior High choirs last night at their concert, and my friend Tracie took this video of me doing one of my favorite things.  

I've been volunteering in the Ridgeview music department and accompanying all of the choirs for 11 years now, and this was the first time in 8 years that I haven't had one of my own kids performing in the concert too.  Thought it makes me feel old that my kids are out of junior high, I love making music with these kiddos!  Several of my piano students performed in the concert tonight, and all the ensembles did a great job!  It's a privilege to get to be a small part.

Messiah

Sylvia and Jillian didn't plan to dress exactly the same for church today, but we were all thoroughly entertained by the fact that they both wore khaki corduroys, cream turtlenecks, tassel earrings, and gray/green nail polish! 

After church, the 4 of us stopped at Culver's for lunch on our way out of town.  We got on the road towards Greenville from Bloomington, but had some extra time to kill before the concert.

Driving through Hillsboro, we stopped at CVS to get Annah some treats to help her study for finals this week.  Jeremy saw a sign for a coffee shop, so we stopped in at Black Rabbit Coffee.  It was so cute, and the coffee was yummy!

Caeden was excited to read a Calvin and Hobbes book that was on our table.

Jeremy bought me a bag of whole bean coffee to take home.

We still got to the concert early, but Joyce suggested seeing if we could sneak into the balcony while they were rehearsing.  We got great seats!  Sylvia sat behind me and braided while we waited.

President Filby welcomed the audience with an invocation.

(You can see Annah right over Dr. Wilson's left shoulder.)

It was a wonderful concert, and we are so glad we came!

VIDEO:

Allison and Annah

Benton and Lopshire "kids"

Fam photo, thanks Ashley!

Sylvia and I followed Annah up to her room.  

She decided to change clothes quickly.

We took Annah and Ryan out for pizza at Joe's before heading back home.

It was worth it to make the drive, and we really loved seeing Annah get to be part of such a beautiful performance of a timeless work of music!