This December we visited Santa at multiple events, built gingerbread houses with the Martins, played holiday pieces at a piano recital and had school lunch with Grammie. Olivia was awarded as Star Citizen for 1st Grade, built winter nests with her girl scout troop and sang All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth...toothless. Isabelle ran as fast as she could between the school spelling bee, dancing as a Frosty Dancer in the 5th grade musical, winning 1st place at the district robotics tournament and visiting the ENT several times.
A highlight of December is always dancing in The Nutcracker and both girls shined this year on the stage in multiple roles. Isabelle danced with the "big girls" as Clara's friend and mastered a cartwheel in her ballet shoes on a slippery floor. She also was slow and thoughtful as a Sugar Plum Fairy Attendant and loved her romantic tutu. Ballet really challenged Isabelle this year and she greatly improved in both technique and performance. Olivia was happy to dance as a naughty Bon Bon and did a great job acting as well as dancing. She also danced graceful as a Sylph who welcomed Clara into the land of sweets. This was her first time to perform two dances so it was a lot for her little brain and body to remember as one dance was quick and silly and the other slow and timed. It was an exhausting weekend like usual but so rewarding as well and the girls loved having so many guests come to support them and left with quite the bouquet after each show.
Once the class parties were over and the school holiday break starts, the real fun begins! The girls loved baking treats for neighbors one day with Grammie and had so much fun when we spent an afternoon ice skating with cousins from both the Christensen and Cosby side. Of course Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent opening gifts, visiting with family and eating lots of yummy food, including our traditional holiday nachos. Both girls were thrilled to find Legos from Santa and Isabelle loved her new bike, which is the same size as mine! Olivia was ecstatic with her new art table and 16 rolls of tape and Ben had fun trying out all of the girls new Techy toys.
We finished the month and year off celebrating Grandpa's 70th birthday with hearts so full they could burst. 2016 was a year JAM PACKED with adventure and I am so glad I documented it...even though it took me until MAY 2017 to finish.
