More Pre-Christmas Activities

December is always the busiest month of the year - and this year has not been an exception.

We kicked off the Christmas season with the Temple Symphony Holiday Concert. Our friends, George and Twila accompanied us. This year the first half of the program featured not only the orchestra, but also the Temple College Chorale, the San Gabriel Chorus and four soloists in a beautiful production of The Messiah. The second half was traditional Christmas music, including, at the end, an audience sing-along. Each year, as a fund-raiser, people can "vote" with their money for who, among a few well-known civic candidates, will get to direct the symphony in one number. This year the winner got lots of laughs, as he stepped on stage, dressed as the Grinch, and directed the musicians in Sleigh Ride.

Next came the City of Temple's 72nd Annual Christmas Parade, about which I've already blogged.

The next evening our book club members got together at Jean's house for a ham dinner with lots of side dishes and desserts. Jean is a lady in her 90s, and she loves to host meals at her house!!!

Our D.A.R. Holiday Tea was on Saturday, December 8, and our church Christmas party/luncheon was on Sunday, the 9th.

On Monday, December 10, our church small group went to visit our group's two "shut-in" members, taking some small gifts and singing Christmas carols with and for them. These two sweet ladies were so grateful for what was actually a great joy to all of us.

The next day, on Tuesday, I treated Rachel, my Literacy Council student, from China, whom I tutor in English once a week, to a Christmas lunch at the restaurant of her choice. She chose Mee Mee's, a Thai food restaurant. Rachel is such a sweet young lady to work with, and our lunch was both delicious and fun.

Our next holiday event was the Salado Community Choir's Christmas Concert. We know many of the people in this choir, and always try to attend. This year's was the best one yet! Among the singers are both Andy and Kay.

On Friday, the 14th, we went to a party at the home of George and Twila (who went to the Symphony with us earlier in the month). In attendance were some of our church friends and some of George and Twila's neighbors. We especially enjoyed having a number of adorable toddlers among us. Twila had two rooms set up with food - the kitchen with savory snacks and the dining room with desserts.

Next we loaded up the car for an overnight visit to see the kids - Chris, Kelsey, Clara and Robert. Our reason for the visit was to attend Clara's school Winter Concert. I really enjoyed seeing Clara's preparation for the concert. She let her mom do her hair and make-up, and got to wear a long, black dress, as prescribed by the school. Clara was glowing and beautiful when we headed to the high school, where the concert was to be performed.

Clara is now in the Philharmonic Orchestra II, and she is the concertmaster/first violin. Grandpa and I were as proud as two peacocks! 

 We drove home on Tuesday, in time for me to attend the Bell County Genealogical Society's Christmas get-together.

And tonight is Ladies' Night Out, when about 15 of us will meet at Long Horn Steak House for dinner and fellowship.

In between all of these festive events, I've been busy making Christmas cards to send out. I made them using my Cricut Maker, which is the fancy paper-cutting machine that Dan gave me for Christmas LAST year. I made five different varieties - 60 cards in all. Shown below aresamples of the five types of cards I made. Some of you may discover one of them in your mailbox soon!

And yesterday I finally started my Christmas baking! It's hard to let a Christmas sneak by without making our family's traditional French Cookies. Until recently I was puzzled about why these were known as "French Cookies," when they came from the Scottish side of my family - namely from my Great Aunt Agnes (who was a McIlwrath by birth). But last year I found the answer. Aunt Agnes' first husband, Fred Hubert, came to America from France when he was a small boy. The cookie recipe and the cookie irons belonged to his family before Aunt Agnes inherited them.

Finally all of the holiday parties are history, and we can relax and enjoy our own sparkling tree until the actual Christmas Day and Two-Days-After-Christmas festivities, yet to come. (There will be posts about them, afterward.) So until then, I wish you peac, love and stockings stuffed full of joy this year.

A Quick Run to Houston

Clara's orchestra teacher strongly encouraged Clara to participate in the summer Orchestra Camp, which took place last week. In fact, he even saw to it that she received a scholarship to attend.

Yesterday evening, to cap off the week-long camp, the campers performed a concert for families and friends. We dashed to Houston yesterday morning, spent the afternoon with Kelsey and Clara (Chris and Robert were out of town working a car race), had an early dinner, and then went to the concert. It was really enjoyable. Clara has improved so much this school year, and was happy to be sitting in the first violin chair for this concert.

Clara and Kelsey

Clara, receiving her award, with the conductor.

Proud Grandma and Grandpa, with Clara

 When the concert was over, we bade Kelsey and Clara goodbye, and drove home. We were home by 10:40 p.m.

Clara's First Orchestra Performance

On Wednesday Dan and I traveled to Houston to attend Clara's school orchestra performance. Clara, being a first year student, performed at the opening of the concert. I guess I'll never get past tearing up when one of my kids or grandkids is on stage. I can't imagine how I'll react when Clara, at some time in the future (I'm sure), performs at Carnegie Hall!

We were surprised at how far these first-year musicians had come already. And by the end of the concert, when we heard the cream of the crop of eighth-graders, we were amazed. Their teacher/director was obviously and justifiably button-popping-proud of them.

First-Year Orchestra. Kelsey was a little disappointed that they were asked to wear their Mayde Creek Jr. High Orchestra hoodies, instead of dressing up a bit. But that didn't seem to affect their performance at all.

Robert seemed to enjoy the concert, for the most part. He did rest his head on Grandpa's shoulder, at one point, and take a short nap.

After the concert, in front of the tree in the lobby of the high school performing arts building.