Katie's Christmas Concert

The Kindergarteners at Katie's school put on a great Christmas concert yesterday.  They sang good old fashioned Christmas songs like Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bells but also included the Dreidel Song and a song about Kwanzaa.  It was nicely done.  It can't be an easy task to put together a Holiday show that pleases everyone but they pulled it off.

Katie was given the task of reciting the first two lines from the Night Before Christmas.  For the last month she's been saying them flawlessly.  She can even say most of the first half of the poem now.  She was very confident and excited about the play, which made us worry that she would freeze up and fumble her lines.  But, much to our delight, she did great!  She delivered her lines flawlessly and confidently.  And then proceeded to sing and dance enthusiastically throughout the show.  Afterwards, she was excited that she got to speak her lines into a microphone.

The concert started with Katie leading the Kindergarteners into the auditorium while she was doing "lip and hip", a sign the students use to remind each other to be quiet and stay in line.

The video is a little long (about 10 minutes) so make sure you're sitting comfortably if you watch it.  The video is a little grainy and shaky at times.  That's because I zoomed in on Katie while editing the footage together because I shot it from too far away to see her very well.




Katie on her way to the concert.


The concert's program.


Peter was so light that the chair kept trying to fold up while he was sitting in it.


Katie (on the far left) singing "Frosty the Snowman."  The boy that is the 6th person from the left is Alex.  He told his Mom that he knows who he wants to marry -- Katie!  I asked Katie about him and she couldn't remember his name.  I guess he has some work to do.

Santa 2012!

Katie and Peter met Santa!  Peter didn't cry (unlike last year) and Katie asked him for an American Girl doll but couldn't remember the name of the one she wanted.  We'll send him a follow-up email with the doll's name (McKenna).  Peter was a lot more serious than we expected. We're not sure what he thought of Santa.  Before, he had been pointing at every image of Santa he sees and saying "Yo yo!" (his version of "Ho ho ho") but he clammed up around the real thing.  Hopefully they won't put him on the naughty list.

Click here to see last year's photo with Santa.  The kids have changed a lot in a year!






Katie posing by the tree before meeting Santa.


Waiting patiently for their turn.


Santa!






Santa gave the kids fun hats to wear.

'Tis the Season, 2012

DC is a great place to be during the holidays.  It's decorated beautifully and there's lots of things going on.  This year was a little different because Katie gets out of school later and it made it harder to squeeze in more fun Christmas activities during the day.  Maybe next year she'll drop out for a few months so we can do more stuff.

Despite Katie's insistence on book learnin', we managed to do a lot of fun things.  We went to the Alexandria Scottish Christmas Walk with our friends Randy, Nikki, Cooper and Sophie.  Then we went to the Del Ray Christmas Tree lighting, got our own nice Christmas tree, went to Zoo Lights at the National Zoo, saw the great trains and trees at the National Arboretum, and saw the US Capital Christmas tree.

Click here for more photos.


Katie and Sophie at the parade.


Mr Cool wears his sunglasses upside down.


Katie and Pete cheer as Alabama scores a late touchdown to beat the dreaded Georgia Bulldogs.


Zoo Lights at the National Zoo


Riding the zoo's new carousel.




Watching the apes get ready for bed.  Seeing them put the baby ape to bed was pretty neat, but unfortunately didn't convince Peter to sleep all night.


Hugging a panda with their friend Olivia.


Watching the great train displays at the zoo.


Katie at The Nutcracker at the beautiful Warner Theater near the White House.


The Nutcracker and the nut.


Singing Christmas Carols at the Del Ray tree lighting.


The Del Ray Christmas Tree


The luminaries in our neighborhood.


Making a yummy gingerbread house


Peter volunteers as a taste-tester.


Watching Christmas shows on tv with Rusty.


Getting in a leaf fight after school.


Watching a train at the Arboretum near the Capital.


At the Arboretum


Visiting the huge US Capital Christmas Tree.


Standing in front of the platform being constructed for Obama's upcoming inauguration.


Katie shows off her missing front teeth.


Much to our surprise, Peter has mostly left the ornaments alone... so far.


Ready to slide.

Thanksgiving 2012

We spent a lovely Thanksgiving in Georgia with Grandma Thomason and the Cockrells and Schneiders.  We stayed a week and it was great spending so much time with everyone.  We visited the Georgia Aquarium and Macy's Pink Pig which was fun.  The Pink Pig is a Christmas train ride that has been an Atlanta tradition since 1953 (it was originally a monorail).  But mostly we hung out and enjoyed watching the kids play with their cousins and aunts, uncles, and Grandma.  Nancy and I even snuck out for a night for a nice dinner at the Chateau Elan's Irish pub.


Watching the enormous stingrays at the Georgia Aquarium


Going through the cool tunnel with fish all around


Katie imitates the "grumpy fish" (so named by Nancy)


Too bad the tunnel didn't play the music from Jaws while you went through it.


Peter waves to the fish


Katie goes for a swim (not really, it's a concave window that she's standing in).


In front of the great big window


Touching some stuff


Watching the baluga whales.  Nancy said she used to see them when she lived in Alaska.


Peter watches a penguin dive in


The girls pop-up in the middle of the penguin habitat.


Katie touches a stingray.


Peter meets a fish that can walk on land.  Is this the beginning of mankind?


Peter watches a dolphin... and checks out the girl next to him.


We tried to leave Katie in one of the exhibits but she eventually escaped.


The great big window at the aquarium was one of our favorite spots to sit and watch the ocean go by.


Posing with a dolphin


Peter tries to roll the giant ornaments in the park next to the aquarium.




The kids with the aquarium and CNN in the background.







Peter sound asleep while in line for the Pink Pig.

The girls on the Pink Pig

All aboard!

Kaylyn and Peter play with his new train.  Kaylyn was great with playing with the kids and helping us relax a bit.

Peter slides down at a playground

The kids play softball in a park.  Katie was the umpire and loved yelling "Ball!" or "Strike!" seemingly randomly.

Rounding up the kids to go home

Katie playing skeeball at Dave and Busters

Katie playing the game that gives out oodles of tickets.  She saved enough (and borrowed some from Peter) to get a Hello Kitty pillow.

Peyton helps Peter with one of the games.

The girls

Aunt Melinda spits on the cookie dough before handing it to the kids

Katie helps keep Uncle Tim propped up

Peter loved seeing Spiderman during the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  He kept imitating his stance.

Yay Spiderman!

Katie helps out in the kitchen

And helps to plant a flower next to Grandma's mailbox.

Peter helps too...

...until he loses interest.

Katie and Kaylyn paint their nails

Daddy dozes off while Peter watches a show on the computer.

Snuggle time with Mama.

Peter plays Connect Four.

Snuggle time with Kaylyn

Peter shows off his new puppy slippers


Peter milks a fake cow with Grandma at Mayfield Dairy.  Water would come out of the utters when you squeezed them.


Katie gives it a try


The kids rest for a spell outside Mayfield Dairy


Aunt Melinda finds someone she can beat in Connect Four.


Katie helps Kaylyn make gingerbread men.


Playing with the new train


A cool tree made from wine bottles at the winery Chateau Elan.


Bye cousins!  Thanks for the great visit!