Laurelwood Elementary presents The Nutcracker

Leo was part of the school Nutcracker again this year.  He acted in four shows.  In two shows he played the part of "James" and in two shows, he was a "party guest".  

He got to be James for one day performance and one evening performance. Here he is in costume.  

 During the evening performances, he also wore makeup.

 The parent volunteer applying the makeup had a bit of a heavy hand.

 Here's the group of actors goofing around.

 And then posing for a nice picture.

 Here's a video from dress rehearsal of Leo as "James".

When he wasn't James and he only played the part of a party guest in the first few minutes of the show, he also got to be a Candy Flute Escort and walk a Candy Flute out on the stage.

Here he is taking his bow during the day performance as James.

There were 132 kids in this year's show.  Way too many, in my opinion.  I was the "volunteer director" so I was in charge of rounding up helpers for the rehearsals and shows.  I also helped organize the kids during rehearsals and shows.  It's been exhausting but I know how much these kids love it.

Annual Cookie Exchange Party

After a rough morning (see previous post), it was nice to have the afternoon to recover and focus on preparing for the annual cookie party.  I made jam thumbprints using the butter cookie recipe I make every Christmas Eve. 

 I also made Haystacks.  I remember these from childhood but my mom claims she didn't make them so maybe one of my aunts did.  They are just clusters of chocolate covered chow mein noodles.  I made some with peanuts and the rest with vegan marshmallows and sprinkles.

My friend Ashli made these amazing looking sugar cookies.  

As usual, everyone stood around the kitchen instead of sitting in my comfortable dining chairs or on my couch.

 Beautiful spread of cookies.

 Speaking of beautiful, here's my lovely co-host, Aida.  I didn't get a picture of this year's party favor but she decorated stemless wine glasses with polk-a-dots and the words "Jingle Juice".  They were a big hit.

My mom brought over this apron for me to wear.  It was made by my aunt Martha.  I have my own aunt Martha apron but it is stained and faded from lots of use and love.  

Coach Dan

On Monday, December 4th, I got the most devastating text.  Our friend and Leo's former baseball coach, Dan had died suddenly the night before.  Dan coached Leo when he was in kindergarten and first grade.  His son Kyle has been Leo's good buddy and classmate for a long while now.  I spent most of the day numb and wasn't able to tell Leo the terrible news.  The next morning, I spoke to his teacher who told me she needed to tell the class because many kids already knew and she didn't want rumors to spread.  I felt terrible that I hadn't already told him, but she assured me it would be okay.  She texted me later in the morning to say he was shocked but seemed okay and distracted by school work.  That night, he allowed his sadness to fully take over.  It was heartbreaking  He has also expressed an immense amount of compassion and concern for Kyle.  Over the last two weeks, we've both done a lot of crying and feeling sad about Dan.  He was so much more than just his coach.  We saw him regularly and he was always incredibly compassionate and supportive of my sensitive little guy.  In addition to baseball, Dan coached soccer and basketball.  Tons of kids knew him as Coach Dan.  

Saturday morning, Leo, Tom and I attended Dan's memorial service at the local Good Samaritan Church.  It was extremely heartbreaking and I cried and cried.  Dan was just 43.  His son Kyle is nine and his daughter Karina is seven.  His father-in-law, his wife and kids and his childhood friends all gave extremely touching, personal speeches.  Then the floor was opened to anyone who wanted to say something.  One little boy started things off saying he would miss Dan, who was his soccer coach.  Another one of their classmates/teammates got up to share that he would miss Dan too.  Both boys were teary and very sweet.  Then Leo decided he wanted to talk.  He went up to the microphone and said, "Kyle is my friend.  Dan is my friend."  He went on to talk about how great Dan was as a coach and how much fun he had with Dan when he would go to Kyle's parties.  He closed it by tearfully saying how much he'll miss Dan.  We all will. 

Starting Arts dances and Literature presentation

Serafina's class demonstrated the dances they've been learning at their Starting Arts dance classes over the past week.

I took videos of all the "dances through the decades" they performed.  I didn't pan out to show the entire class but I can assure you Serafina is taller than all the other kids.

Here's the Charleston from the 1930s.

The Hand Jive from the 1950s

The Hustle from the 1970s

Voguing from the 1980s. 

Hip Hop from the 1990s. 

After I was done watching the dance, I happened to catch Leo's "response to literature" presentation.  He did a timeline about a Lemony Snicket book he read.

A Pic with St. Nick

Leo walked out of school today and announced he was going to take "a pic with St. Nick".  He was pretty proud of that rhyme.

Both kids were kind of nervous as they waited to see Santa.  When it was their turn though, they talked his ear off.  He misidentified them as twins but my kids didn't seem to notice.

Here's the pic with St. Nick. 

There were plenty of other photo ops around the mall.

 Serafina was a fan of this red carpet inside Nordstrom.

Weekend with Grandpa Skip

On Saturday, Grandpa Skip came to visit us all the way from Vietnam.  We haven't seen him in a while, and during his time away he went and got married.  Unfortunately because of visa issues, his wife didn't join him on this trip but she will next time.  

Skip was pretty jet lagged so he took a nap in the afternoon and we decorated the tree.  

 Isn't it pretty?  Tom and I realized that it looks just like last year and every year before that.  Guess that's the downside of having an artificial tree.

 Today we took a little outing down the road to the Apple Visitor Center.  We walked there because it's less than a mile from our house.

 They had a cool map experience using iPads.

 There was a cool rooftop deck too with a view of the big spaceship, which is their new main campus. It's official name is "Apple Park".  It isn't fully operational yet but once it is up and running about 12,000 employees will flow into the office building.  It's going to be hell and our neighborhood isn't thrilled about it.

Skip leaves early tomorrow morning, but he expects to be back next fall and that time he'll bring his wife.

Mission San Juan Bautista

Today I traveled with all of the fourth grade to Mission San Juan Bautista, about an hour south of here.  We filled three buses with just over 100 students, but I was in charge of just four. We were on our own to do a self-guided tour and answer questions on a worksheet.  We were given a map and a specific order for visiting the buildings.

Here's my group right after we arrived.  From left: Tomoe, Hasini, Leo and Solomon.  

 Our first stop was the cabin that was built by an early settler.

 It has a lovely garden.

 Then we visited the historic Plaza Hotel.  I prefer the one in New York.

 Next to the hotel was a the Castro-Breen Adobe. The Breen family was part of the Donner Party; they survived (clearly) and settled here.

We learned this type of oven is called a "horno".  It was a question on the worksheet.

 We also visited the jail.  Tomoe is taking her turn with the clipboard to answer worksheet questions.

 We also visited the cemetery, which had a lovely view of nearby farm land.  

 The teacher took a picture of me and my crew.

 The mission and the church were our last stops.  I didn't take any pictures in the church; it was very beautiful and peaceful inside.  My group did a good job of being quiet and respectful.  The gardens here were also stunning.

 One final shot out front of the mission before the long bus ride home.

It was really a lovely place to visit and a good field trip since we weren't at the mercy of a cranky docent.  It was still exhausting though, like all field trips.