It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

My girls love to perform. It must be something they inherited from their dad, although he would beg to differ, but I was never much of a performer myself. Sadly my girls will probably grow more self-conscience as time goes on, so for now I will relish in their love of being on stage.

We started the Christmas season off with a Reindeer ballet performed by Olivia and her class. Livi had double ear infections at the time as well as broncilitis but she was thrilled to get on her tutu nonetheless. Grammie made the trip over for the special performance and we all loved watching little Livi dance and twirl to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and feel so special.

Next, was Isabelle's Christmas piano recital. Two of her favorite little girlfriends also take piano lessons so she, Emily and Abigail always look forward to seeing each other at recitals. Isabelle is seeming to be a bit of a natural at the piano, again something she inherited mostly from her dad, so Mrs. Abbott decided to give her a level 2 piece to try and tackle for this recital. Isabelle loved the challenge of a more difficult piece and played her first chord. This time Grammie and Grandpa were both able to attend and even brought her candy cane striped flowers to celebrate. Isabelle played We Wish You a Merry Christmas beautifully and Olivia almost sat quietly for the whole recital.

Lastly, we enjoyed a lovely ballet as well as jazz holiday performance by Belle. She had worked very hard on a special Christmas ballet called Sleep Well Little Children that I thoroughly enjoyed watching her dance. She has a long graceful body and it is fun when the steps start to make sense to them and you can see them learning and really feeling the rhythm. Again, Grammie made the trip over for the performance and even spent her 42nd wedding anniversary night at a celebratory dinner at Culvers with us.

The Christmas music and carols are one of the highlights of the entire holiday season and seeing your sweet girls perform to the likes of them is icing on the cake. Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la la la la la.