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!

It's Craft Show Season

Bill has been busy with craft shows every weekend since November 9th and will continue through December 15th. This one is at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Alamosa. Jamie loves going to the craft shows...he gets paid 50 cents to help set up and take down. He also gets lots of free stuff from other vendors, he's learning how to work the "cute" factor.

Moonrise

This is a photo of the moon rising over the Sangre de Cristo mountains, taken from my front porch.

Awesome!

Deck the Halls

The Christmas tree has taken it's place in the living room and it's starting to look like Christmas at our house. We actually put decorations on it this year and also have other Christmas treasures displayed throughout the house. The house smells wonderful...nothing like the smell of fresh cut pine!











Jamie couldn't wait to get started...he kept asking, "what can I do to help?".

(I love this photo and how the sunlight coming in through the window highlights Jamie's hands!)

It's beginning to look like Christmas!!

Wow!!! We woke up this morning to almost 3 inches of snow on the ground. Jamie couldn't wait to get out and play. He wanted to build a snowman but the snow wasn't wet enough so he just made snow angels and played with his construction trucks. We're decorating the Christmas tree today and this snow is perfect for getting us into the holiday spirit.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a quiet day at home, watching football and cooking Thanksgiving dinner. We are so blessed and have so much to be thankful for. It was nice to just spend the day together.

We took dinner to the Burns' house and visited for a while. Baby Nicholas was sleeping...he's so tiny!

My mom is coming to Alamosa tomorrow, so that's when we'll have our "official" Thanksgiving dinner.

O, Christmas tree

We took advantage of having the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off to head to the mountains to cut our Christmas tree. There was no snow in the mountains, not even in the shadows...pretty sad for this time of year.

Jamie had a great time leading us around and through the trees and even helped Bill cut our tree with the saw.

So, here's our family holiday photo. For a true holiday effect, you'll just have to imagine snow covered mountains in the background!

Thanksgiving Feast

I took a chance that Jamie's Thanksgiving Feast started at 10am and actually got myself up and ready and out of the house in time to stop at Safeway and buy groceries for our own Thanksgiving dinner. I finished at the grocery store earlier than expected and headed over to Polston at about 9:45am...just in time to catch Mrs. Rodriguez' class parading through the halls dressed in their "native american" attire.

Each child made their own costume, complete with headband & feathers and necklace. So adorable! They also made pilgrim outfits but I never saw them actually wearing those.













After the parade, they posed for a group photo and then listened to Mrs. Rodriguez read a story about the first Thanksgiving.



I was glad that I got there early because they took off their costumes and packed them away in their backpacks before the feast began. If I had arrived at 10:00, I would've missed it!



















Then it was time for the feast, which included blueberry muffins, kettlecorn, raisins & nuts, cornbread and beans with dried corn. I've been impressed with Mrs. Rodriguez' parties because they are healthy...no junk food. She has a rule that everyone has to at least try a little bit of everything.

The room was decorated with different Thanksgiving themes and, of course, the kids had their art on one wall. Each masterpiece was accompanied by a feather where each child wrote something they were thankful for. Jamie wrote that he is thankful for his daddy. That's OK...when he's a professional football or baseball player and he gets some camera time, I know that he'll be saying, "hi mom!"

Jamie's First Report Card

OK, so...it's been a few years since I was in kindergarten (or any type of school, for that matter) and I had totally forgotten about report cards. When Jamie got off the bus today, I looked through his backpack for information about the Thanksgiving party at school tomorrow. Information about the party eluded me but, alas, I did find the report card.
Jamie also received a cool ribbon for perfect attendance.

The Lighting of Engine 169

With above average temperatures making it feel like mid September instead of mid-November, we donned our light jackets and met at the courthouse to celebrate the "official" beginning of the Holiday Season in Alamosa.

After a countdown, the Christmas lights & decorations at the courthouse came on and everyone hiked two blocks east to the city building, led by Santa's reindeer.

Another countdown and the city building lights came on and the migration to Engine 169 began; because, really, that is why everyone goes through this ritual year after year.

Everyone crowded around the Engine and waited for yet another countdown. The lights came on and 169 came to life for another holiday season.

While the weather doesn't indicate that the holidays are upon us, Engine 169 shines to remind us that this is the season of glad tidings and good cheer.

This was only our second year to participate in this event, probably because it used to be held on the Friday after Thanksgiving and we were usually out of town. It is awesome to be a part of this community and participate in these traditions that are meaningful to us now and will hopefully be meaningful to Jamie at some point.

Once the train lights came on, everyone walked to Centennial Park where Santa and his elves were awaiting the children. There are also vendors with burritos and hot chocolate awaiting the adults.

I remembered to bring the camera this year to capture these precious moments of Jamie talking to Santa. He asked Santa for a "pirate thing"...could he be any more vague? AAARRRGGGHHH!

This year's lighting of 169 went off without our group losing a child, something that we were all hyper aware of after everything that happened last year. Whew!

OK, bring on the holidays!!!