Friday, December 31, 2010

Annual Homeschool Christmas Wrap

I can't believe December is almost over. Boy have we been busy! I have a lot of catching up to do here. Over the next week, before school ramps back up, I am going to try to get caught up on what we've been up to lately.



For the past few years in December our homeschool group has organized a Christmas wrap. This is where we wrap gifts for a donation. We then take the proceeds to support a needy family for Christmas.

Early in December, on a Saturday, we gathered at the church and waited for the gifts to start arriving. We were excited because we had more people sign up this year than we've ever had. We found out that the family we were going to buy Christmas for was a single mom with four young kids. I really hoped the families that signed up to let us wrap their gifts would be generous so that we could really spoil this family with lots of gifts.



Hey Seeeth!!!!!!!!!!!......



The first gifts arrived and all the kids were excited to wrap. That is once they woke up... we had our first drop off appointment at 8:30AM, but since we had to help set up we were at the church by 8AM.



I love this service project because at a time where my boys are tempted to focus on what they want, it reminds them that there are some kids that might not be getting anything for Christmas.



Some how this is the only picture of Joshua that was taken. He had just gotten back from an overnight lock-in with the church. He was exhausted! All the kids worked extremely hard, even the sleep deprived ones! I was so proud of their efforts. Wrapping presents is hard work.



Sometimes they worked together with friends.



As the day was coming to an end all the presents beautifully lined the gym walls.



Now all that was left to do was wait for our families to come pick up their presents decorated with love. We couldn't wait to see how much money we had earned.



Then out of nowhere came the unexpected... SNOW! What a great treat for the kids after a full days work. One mention of the word, snow, and they were gone!



What a special blessing. It was really starting to feel like Christmas!



Another blessing... we ended up with almost $500 to spend on our adopted family. Thank you Lord! A few days later we divided the family members amongst the group and we went shopping. The boys and I chose to buy gifts for the 3rd grade boy and a few gifts for the mom. I thought it was really sweet that the mom did not request anything for herself. But we made sure that we spoiled her too. We bought her a gift card to a clothing store, a bible, jewelry, and some awesome smelling soap. I wish we could have seen them open their gifts. This service project is one of my favorites. Can't wait til next year!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas Recital 2010

It's that time again... time for Seth's piano recital.



I was really looking forward to his recital. He has worked so hard perfecting his songs. Seth played Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. He changed the arrangement of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It sounded really cool.



Here is our family in front of the beautifully decorated tree at the recital. Don't mind the girl with her eyes closed... this just happen to be the only picture where we were all smiling.

Okay, without further ado here's Seth...

click here

We are so proud of Seth's hard work. Even though he messed up a tiny bit during the recital he had preformed it flawlessly a million times at home. It sounded so beautiful with his own arrangement.



Every year his teacher, Mrs Denise, gives out awards. Seth received the very special Bass Clef award. This award goes to the one student who goes above and beyond what is expected of them. Seth was shocked. He never thought he would be the one to receive that award. Needless to say, I was one proud mama!