It Was The Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

Our Christmas tree

This holiday season made me think of the line "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Yes we had a lot of fun with Christmas programs, parties and the general excitement that comes with the holidays, but we also had to deal with a case of the stomach flu. Yuck! I had a slight case of it the Tuesday before Christmas. Jeremy got it the day after Christmas and Shaylee the worst of all the day after that. We ended up taking Shaylee to the ER because she couldn't keep even water down and was getting dehydrated. She had to have blood drawn and an IV to pump her up with fluids. I can now say that we are grateful to be on this end of it and continue to hope that no one else gets it.

All dressed up for Church

Enough of the worst part of the holiday here are a few highlights of our best part of Christmas. Around about the middle of the month I took the girls to the school for family reading night to hear a Christmas story, sing songs, have cookies and cocoa, and of course sit on Santa's lap. We also enjoyed Kelsi's School Christmas program. All the first graders sang "Hip Hop Reindeer," "Jolly Old St. Nicolas," "Jingle Bells" and a few others. The "Hip Hop Reindeer" song was cute they had some of the students dressed like reindeer dancing hip hop moves. Kelsi was also suppose to ring a bell for the song "Silver Bells" with several other children but didn't make it on stage. When I asked her later what happened she said to went the wrong way back stage and missed it. The poor teachers had to keep track of over 400 students on stage in the Fine Arts Center at the College. They had to rotate them around, each grade level getting there turn on stage. It turned out to be a really great program. I guess technically you can't call it a Christmas program because the also included at least one Hanuka song.

Family Reading night on Santa' s lap.

Cookies

Cocoa

Shaylee's preschool program was held at the Methodist Church in Safford. It was also a very cute program as always. Here teacher does a great job with the kids. The couple of weeks before the program where spent helping Shaylee learn her part which was "P is for Presents the wise men lay before Him." She said her part perfect. Loud and clear so everyone could hear her. She also spent several of the days before had singing bits of the songs she was learning for the program. One line she kept singing was "reindeer, reindeer shake your fluffy tail." The "shake your fluffy tail" was always done with her shaking her own tail end. It makes me smile just to think of it. There were also a couple of times she yelled "mom, clap." I guess I wasn't doing it right or soon enough.

The Shirt that was made with the white shirt talked about in the last post.

Picture of all three preschool classes in program.

It is fun to see my kids learn and grow and be involved in school programs. They are growing too fast.

We also saw Santa at the ward party at which he told about the birth of the Savior and the importance of remembering the real meaning of the season. This time Courtney sat on Santa's lap. It didn't go so well. She looked up at him, then looked out and that was the end of it. She cried and cried until I got her.

Christmas Eve we made a trip to Pomerene to see my family. We had a Mexican fiesta at my grandma Barney's home for lunch which was followed by the traditional presentation of the nativity by the children and a visit from Santa. Kelsi was so excited she got to be Mary this year. This is a privilege that is reserved for the big girls. She wasn't the oldest girl there but she was the oldest that hadn't got to be Mary before. She did a great job. Shaylee got to be an angel. She also did a great job. Courtney got to be a spectator. Actually I think she was asleep for most of it. This brings back great memories. Growing up Christmas eve was always spend at Grandma Barneys in this way. This was the first year without Grandpa. I am extremely glad that we got to be there to show our love and support to Grandma. She is doing great in spite of a crazy year for her.

Kelsi as Mary with her cousin Payton as Joesph.

Sheppards come to see baby Jesus.

The entire cast.

Kelsi on Santa's lap Christmas Eve at Grandma Barney's home.Shaylee and Santa

Courtney and Santa (She's not to sure about the bid guy in red.)

That evening we were home for our own little Christmas traditions. We opened the traditional Christmas Eve present of pajamas and Jeremy read the nativity from Luke 2. We also followed the star. It is a tradition we started two years ago. We turn off all of the lights except for the tree and take the big star off of the Christmas tree. Jeremy takes the star and holds it up high and shines a flash light on it. We wonder through the house following the star that leads us back to the tree under which the baby Jesus is lying. It is something that we really enjoy and the girls each want to take a turn holding the star and leading the way. It helps remind us to come to Jesus.

Kelsi and Shaylee's pajamas. They came with a matching robe. They were High School Musical for Kelsi and Hannah Montana for Shaylee.

Here is Courtney in her pajamas.

We hope your Holiday's went well and we wish you the best for the New Year!