Student of the Month

Congratulations to Nicole and her friend, Emma, for being selected as one of the 5th Grade Students of the Month for December at Vistancia Elementary!!!!!

Nicole's Accomplishments

Well they say things happen in 3s, but this week, Nicole had 4 great things happen to her. Me, being the proud mother that I am, needed to share her good news.

First, while she was in Math class this week with Mrs. Bracht, Nicole's homeroom teacher, Miss Ghaster, came in and called her and another student out into the hallway to talk to them. Even though Nicole has never gotten in trouble before, that was the first thing that crossed her mind. Miss Ghaster took pictures of Nicole and Josh with their "Presidential Campaign Poster" that she created a few weeks ago (see December archives) for the school Yearbook.

Then today Nicole attended two celebration parties with those eligible classmates. One party was recognizing those students that met 4 of their 5 performance goals for this marking period. The other party was a Behavior Reward party for those students who received positives on their Character Cards.

Lastly, Nicole was one of those chosen as Student of the Month for December. The ceremony is next Thursday, so stay tuned for pictures.

Meteor Shower

I'm so tired. There was a meteor shower early this morning, so I set my alarm clock for 5:00 a.m. It went off and I got Dan out of bed. He turned to his clock and it was really only 3:30 a.m. For some reason, the time on my clock got switched.....must've been a "twilight" moment. So we went back to sleep. At the real 5 am, all 3 of us woke up, bundled up and sat outside in the back for 45 minutes. Max was smart enough to stay inside where it was warm.

It looked like falling stars about every 5 minutes or so. I think in total I only caught about 5 from my eyes. It happens so quickly that if you're not looking at the right part of the sky, you could easily miss it. Had hot chocolate and warm oatmeal and went back to bed AGAIN. Sorry no videos, it was impossible to catch on tape.

Santa Caught on Tape and Christmas Morning

Nicole being the ever-most clever and creative movie producer these days, had an idea to catch Santa on video. She set up the webcam that is built into our laptop and showed me how to press the start button. When I went to bed, I pressed start. There was a long gap by the time Santa made it to our house, so I edited that wasted video footage out. You can see Santa delivering Nicole's gifts under the tree. When he bends over, you can even see his beard. It's dark because only the xmas tree lights were on. Nicole was thrilled to have caught him on tape as a memory. Nicole got alot of clothes from Mom and Dad. You'll see her opening up presents from our relatives in Michigan. One of Nicole's gifts, is Dan's favorite. He has been jamming with her new Guitar Hero World Tour from Santa which came with a second guitar (we already had one), a drum set, and a microphone. Now we can rock out as a family. Other toys included a Wii fit from her Aunts and Uncles (My wii fit age was 50!!), and a microphone stand that hooks up her ipod with speakers so she can sing along. Hope everyone stayed safe and healthy this Holiday!

Christmas Mass and Christmas Eve

Instead of attending a traditional Catholic midnight mass, we attended a non-denominational Christian service on Tuesday evening at CCV. Being a day early, it wasn't as crowded, but pretty filled. The service started out with the stage filled with all Christmas theme decor such as snowmen, trees, gifts, etc. The band played some great xmas carols with a rock and roll band. It was a great sing along. The message from the Pastor was that we shouldn't be forgetting what Christmas is all about. It's not about the gifts, the parties, etc, it's about the birth of Jesus. Towards the end of the service, all the decor was slowly and quietly removed from the stage as well as the singers. We in the audience, were left singing Silent Night, Ocapella style, with all but a baby jesus on stage. The message was loud and clear... Christmas Eve dinner was spent at Brenda's parent's house with an awesome Italian dinner! Thanks guys for the invite! This was our first Christmas that we haven't spent in Michigan and Patsy and Mike are such warm gracious hosts and made us feel like part of their family. Later we attended an Open House at Erin & Mike's to finish up the evening with good friends. Stay tune for Christmas morning....

Caroling and Vistancia Lighting Contest

The other night, I heard some chitter chatter outside the front door. I knew at Halloween time, we have a tradition of "booing" when someone rings your doorbell, runs off, and leaves a treat. You're suppose to catch the person in the act. Well, I thought maybe there was a Christmas "booing" tradition that I didn't know about.....as soon as I heard the voices come up to the front door, I SWUNG open the door, before they had a chance to ring the bell!! I Yelled "BOO!". These four tiny little girls under the age of 5 jumped back 2 feet. Then they all started singing holiday carols with their families. I'm going to guess there were about 30 people in total from a mix of the Vistancia neighborhoods. It was so special and I ran to film what I could and followed them to a few neighbor's houses. Our Vistancia community hosts a xmas lighting contest each year. Nicole and I took a ride one night at all the houses on the list. I had two favorites but forgot to vote. One house was in the gated "Entrada" community and the gate was locked after hours. I could see it from the distance, but didn't get a photo of it. The owner has vertical stripes on all his roof tiles. That must've been fun installing.

Christmas Online Scrapblog

Enjoy this Christmas Scrapblog that Nicole created of photos since she was born.

Vistancia Band Concert

On Tuesday, Nicole's school, Vistancia Elementary, held its Winter Band Concert. The participants are grades 5th thru 8th. As you watch the short video, you can see how the children progress through the years. Watch the 5 min. mark at this young man who had a saxaphone solo (WOW!). I was thrilled to see Nicole and her friends play and read music. What an awesome program at their school. Many Kudos to the Band Director, Mrs. Carlson! Press Play and Enjoy.