Merry Christmas 2007!

Scenes from Christmas Day at the Brooks' house...








































...games and books and toys for all!

a pirate ship and hot wheel track from Santa...

...his and his Bronco's jerseys...

...and what every girl wants, a toilet seat!

Jamie had fun playing with his cool new stuff!

Sledding

Jamie went sledding with Parker's family this afternoon and from the looks of the photos, they had a great time!
(Thanks for the photos, Lynn!)

Parker & Jamie

Parker

Jamie

all smiles

piggyback on Tony

We've been RAK'd!

We don't know who, but some kind soul came and plowed our driveway! We thought it was our neighbor, Don, but he said he didn't do it. So, I'll just throw a huge "thank you" out to the universe and hope that the person responsible feels our appreciation!

New Snow!

We woke up to six inches of new snow today so we are, of course, going swimming this afternoon! We love the Hooper Pool! With daytime temperatures in the teens, this snow isn't going anywhere. White Christmas!

Christmas Fun

These are the treat bags I made for Jamie to give to each of his classmates for Christmas.

The last day of school was a busy day. They watched the Evans Choir (4th and 5th graders), had a visit from Santa and their class party.

This is such a fun time of the year!

Toothless in Alamosa

Jamie noticed his first loose tooth back in October and it (and the one next to it) has grown more and more loose in the past month. Jamie was home from school today (no school for AM kindergarten) and I took a look inside his mouth. I used to work as a dental assistant so I guess I'm qualified to look in people's mouths, right? I noticed the permanent teeth breaking through Jamie's gums and told him that those teeth needed to come out soon. I tried to pull out the loosest one but Jamie complained that I was hurting him so I told him that he needed to work on it. A few minutes later, he ran through the living room to look in the mirror. He had pulled the tooth out...he was SO excited! He eventually worked the other one out, too, so he now has a nice gap in the lower front region of his mouth. He can now truly sing the song, "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth".

This was after Jamie pulled the first tooth...you can see how loose the other one is, it's just hanging on by a thread.

This photo was after losing the second tooth...Jamie was so proud that he pulled them out all by himself. He has decided to take the teeth to school tomorrow and show his teacher and classmates. The tooth fairy will have to wait another day.

School Christmas Program

Jamie's kindergarten class had their Christmas program yesterday morning. Ms. Armenta, the PE/Music teacher, coordinated the program which included dancing and singing. Jamie's partner was Taylor and they were so cute together. (By the way, I think Jamie has a little crush on Taylor!)

This video is so cute! Unfortunately, I shot it in vertical orientation and haven't figured out how to rotate it. Lean your head to the left and enjoy the show. (If any tech-geek out there knows how I can rotate this, PLEASE let me know!)

EDIT 08/25/08 - figured out how to rotate video...woo-hoo!

After the dancing, the kids stood on the risers and sang a few Christmas songs. Jamie had been practicing them at home for the past few weeks and it was fun to see the full production.

singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" with Ms. Armenta on guitar

Parker gave the performance "two thumbs up"!

Church Christmas Program

So...what do you do for a Church Christmas program when all you have to work with is six boys? It doesn't lend itself well to the "traditional" Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus re-enactment. The creative masterminds went to work and came up with a unique twist...the boys depicted the stories of the snakes, ants, mice, ticks & spiders who also anticipated Christ's birth and came to the manger to worship. The Bible says that all creation will worship and, yes, I guess that includes rodents and insects.

the snakes

the ants






































the mouse





















the spiders dropping from the balcony

Sing We Now of Christmas

Despite the sub-freezing temperatures, our small church group ventured out on our 2nd annual Christmas caroling hayride. Our minister, Todd, brought his Clydesdales but they weren't shoed properly to pull the wagon on snow and ice. Instead, they walked the horses and pulled the wagon with a truck. It was soooo cold but we managed to stay comfortable by bundling up and wrapping in blankets. We did "drive-by" caroling on our way to and from the two nursing homes in Alamosa.















Lots of people acknowledged us (in a good way, not just because we were holding up traffic) and the people at the nursing homes were so delighted to have us.


The Faver's had a huge turkey dinner and warm beverages waiting for us when we returned to the church!









Next year, we're thinking about going out at an earlier time...before sundown and before the temperatures plummet to below zero!

Gingerbread Trains

Last year, our playgroup (and over 500 other kids) went to the Gingerbread House Christmas Carnival. It was crowded, it was chaotic and crazy! The kids had fun decorating the gingerbread houses but the line to visit Santa was too long and, at that time, we all vowed that "next year" we would do something different. We wanted our kids to have a fun time but the parents did not want to have to deal with the stress and commotion of such a large event. Fast forward ten months to October 2007 when I find an article in Family Fun Magazine about building and decorating gingerbread trains. I saved the article and when the info for this years Carnival came out, we "cooked" up our own anti-Carnival, complete with Santa. (No offense to Tu Casa, the local shelter program for battered women and their families, who sponsors this event.) Our group consists of mostly boys who are wild about trains, so this was the perfect activity! Some of us moms met on Friday morning to assemble everything so that the kids only had the chore of decorating the engines on Saturday afternoon. We had ten kids (eleven, if you count Tony) who participated and we all had a wonderful and stress free time! The afternoon ended with a visit from Jolly Old St. Nicholas who was happy to visit with the children and pose for photos.

pre-assembled trains, ready to be decorated

Jamie decorating his engine

Tony "in the zone"

a great playgroup activity

Jamie & Parker

Jamie with finished masterpiece

a little talk with Santa

Frosted Flakes

It's nice to look out the window and see blue skies once again This is, afterall, the "land of cool sunshine". There are also "flakes" falling but they are not snow. Instead, they are pieces of frost. So, the skies are blue and the ground is white and everything is covered with at least an inch of frost...so beautiful. It is 12:30pm and it is currently 11º so the chances of the frost melting off are slim.




Jamie is spending the afternoon at Parker's. I'm baking the gingerbread pieces for the train engines that our playgroup kids are going to assemble on Saturday. Feels like the holidays are upon us...

SNOW DAY

Bill got "the call" at 6:30 this morning...no school because of snow!!

Our school superintendent actually prides himself in NOT using snow days, so this is a rarity. I think this is the second snow day in the six years that Bill has been working for the district.

Jamie had fun painting and playing trains and, of course, playing in the wet snow! Bill enjoyed having the day off too.

The Golden Nuggets

The Golden Nuggets had their individual and team photos taken before their game today. Two girls are missing from the team photo.

The season is still young enough that I don't know the names of all of the kids yet. I am still NOT convinced that the big kid, Chris, is a first or second grader.

Dawndee is the coach...the irony is that I coached her when she played volleyball as a freshman in high school (15 years ago).

Jamie's first basketball game

Jamie and his team, The Golden Nuggets, had their first pee-wee league basketball game this morning. It was great fun! I took a few photos but they just don't capture the experience as well as video. Jamie did make a basket in today's game but, of course, I didn't have the camera rolling at that time. The kids are so cute as they continue to learn the finer skills of dribbling, running AND dribbling, passing and shooting. I guess the concept of offense and defense comes much later!
It's all about having fun and Jamie sure managed to do that!

Weird Weather

So, today is the first day of December and it has been raining off and on all day and has melted all of our snow. It was 40º last night at 11:00 and it was pouring down rain. The moisture is needed and much welcomed, however, be it rain or snow. Believe what you want about Global Warming but it is just NOT supposed to rain in December in Alamosa!