The Ballet Performance

Ahh.  So behind.  But now looking back on all the December pics, I remember why I'm so behind.  It was a crazy month.  Full of fun.  Busy.  Thankful for a slower pace now.

So Allie's taken a ballet class this fall.

Here's our girl.  And yes, that would be another little ballerina climbing the pole behind her.  This is a very serious ballet class, in case you couldn't tell.

And here's our girl with the reindeer antlers I had no idea she was supposed to have.  Thankfully another mom had an extra pair.  (What mom has extra pairs of antlers on her??  Not me, that's for sure.)  I depend on the kindness of other moms, is all I have to say about that.  (And why yes, that would be the ballet teacher's son perched atop that punching bag looking thing behind her.)

Comparing antlers.

She loved her antlers.  Or maybe was so relieved to have antlers on her head, rather than be the only one antler-less.  In any case, she didn't mind a bit that they were brown.

Allie's enthralled audience.

One more rehearsal.

With her game face on.

Dancing to the Beach Boys' "Little Saint Nick".

The Christmas Recital

Then it was time for the kids' second piano recital.

He played "Joy to the World".

His look of sheer relief.

She played "Holly Jolly Christmas".  She worked really, really hard to learn this song and pulled through in the eleventh hour.

This is how we make it through long periods of having to sit quietly.

Group shot.

So, so proud of her.  Of them both.

Daddy slipped out and bought her flowers.  Because that's what her daddy does.

And because Mikey wasn't really into getting flowers, this little sister got flowers too.

Thanks, Uncle Tim for teaching piano to these two.  And more importantly, for teaching these two about God's love through His gift of music.  So thankful for you!

Oh Christmas Tree

And then it was time to decorate the tree.  Not as early as we usually do it, but still well before Christmas, so I considered us golden.

This "four kids sitting on our tree" picture appears to be turning into a thing for us.

He tried to be more helpful this year with actually hanging the ornaments on the tree instead of just chucking them into the tree.  He did however, resort back to chucking method if it kept falling off.  Which is why I only gave him non-glass ones to hang up.

With so many helping hands, we got the job done in no time.  And they did such a nice job that neither Phil or I felt the need to go back and redistribute some of the ornaments.  Either that, or we were just too tired to care.  Or maybe it was a little of both.

This year, Lauren got to hang the star on the tree.

With a little help from her daddy.

Good job, team!

Let's Go, Bruins!

Just doing a little Tsai family style celebrating after UCLA's victory over SC in football last month.  Timelier now given UCLA's victory over SC in basketball this past weekend.  Go Bruins!! Ahem.

As for me and my house, we will root for the Bruins.  ;)

Oh and we started decorating for Christmas that weekend, too.

My silly, goofy, favorite guy.

Love my crazy crew as much as I do not love our crazy cluttered garage. This shot is missing Jonah who was taking a nap at the time.  Thank you Lord, for naps.  And family.  And Bruins.  Amen.

Thanksgiving

This seems like a great time to wrap up the Thanksgiving posts.  You know, now that we're finishing up the first week of January.  Sigh.

Anyway, plowing right ahead...

Each grade of our kids' school puts on a performance at different times of the year.  The third grade got Thanksgiving, so Lauren, Jonah, and I settled in to watch the turkeys going on strike.

I had a pretty good view of Mikey until this turkey, uh, older gentleman marched up and plunked himself smack in the front of the aisle with his trusty iphone whipped out.

Since he's our oldest, I tend to often forget just how young he still is.  That is, until I see pictures of him like this and it makes me sad to think of how I often don't see him as the little kid he really is. 

Love this kid so much.  (BUT THAT ANNOYING GUY WITH THE PHONE IS KILLING ME!!)

Last minute pic before he dashed off to rejoin his classmates.

The next day was Thanksgiving.  Clementines and pine cones in vases is as Martha Stewart as I get.

Turkey's ready!  This was just before I almost tipped the bird right out of the pan.  Sucker was heavy!

Almost ready to eat.

This year, we invited the family of one of Allie's classmates to join us for the meal.

So, so much to be thankful to the Lord for and it was so nice to have time to celebrate and be together.

And now it's finally time to move on to Christmas!