Christmas Eve in In the Meadow

I wish a Happy Christmas Eve to all who celebrate. My apologies as I have not been a very good writer or noter over this past month. I have been reading, but not a very good noter.

Kayla finished up the diving season. Kayla auditioned for the school musical “Oliver.” She is going to be in the chorus. The practices start after the holiday break. She was in musicals when she was in middle school. This will be her first time doing a high school play with seventeen and eighteen year olds. Through late November and December she has been taking dance and gymnastics lessons.

Timmy finished up soccer and is now playing hockey. There is a combined team with a few of the schools in the area. Timmy is on the ninth grade and also plays in some of the junior varsity games. He has played hockey for a few years on the youth team.

Timmy and Kayla’s school has a tutoring program during their study hall period. They have been able to get extra help with homework. This has been very helpful with their understanding of the material. Socially they have been adjusting to high school. They have been able to meet some of the other kids through their after school activities. They are on a team of ninth graders who have the same teachers, and that has helped them get to know the other kids on the team.

Aaron is doing well in sixth grade. This is his last year of elementary school. Most of the Catholic schools here are kindergarten through sixth grade. He likes math and science. His current interest is rocks. He has been studying the different types of rocks and where they are located. When we go to different parks he has been gathering rocks to add to his collection. He has gotten pretty good at identifying them. Aaron is playing on the youth hockey team. He also takes martial arts.

A couple weeks ago we went to get our Christmas tree. The kids came along and helped pick out the tree. We have had a Darth Vader ornament for years now. This year the twins figured out that we could unscrew one of the lights from the string and plug in the ornament. Now when we turn on the tree lights the ornament says, “Luke, you are not a jedi yet.” We have been tracking Santa’s progress through the Norad Santa tracker, even though my kids are pretty big for that sort of thing. It’s still fun, though.