Pre-Christmas Fun

The kids had all kinds of parties and presentations the week before Christmas.  Caroline's class started things out with some holiday crafts on Wednesday.  Here are Caroline and her friend Brooke making snowmen out of sand play-dough.  Caroline's sand was really wet, so it kept slouching.  It still came out cute.

Here are Caroline and her friend Lina making their snack/craft.  A Christmas tree made out of an ice cream cone, frosting, sprinkles and m&m's.

The next day Kevin's class had his party.  I was busy at the snack/craft table.  Funny I didn't get assigned to Bingo or sticker wreaths.  The kids also made the same ice cream cone trees.  His class had many fewer parent helpers and the Kindergarteners needed a bit more supervision, so I didn't get any pictures.  Kevin's teacher, Mrs. Meadows wouldn't let the kids eat their snack until after lunch.  I thought this must be some sort of cruel torture method, so didn't stop the kids too harshly when they ate a little frosting or m&m's (or a lot!).  They didn't complain about not eating the snack, which I was really surprised about.  They just walked them over to their tables and sat back down, ready for the next center.  (Kevin is on the left near the back in the red shirt).

Silly picture!

Caroline had a Character Counts award ceremony at the same time as Kevin's party, so Tom went to see her get her award for Trustworthiness.

Then on Friday, Caroline had a cookie exchange party.  She had to help bake the cookies that she brought into the class.

Here she is melting the chocolate chips and butter in the double boiler.  The triple chocolate cookies turned out really well.  Lucky for me, she only needed to bring in 24 cookies and the batch made 30.  Yum!

The Saturday before Christmas, Caroline had her Christmas piano recital.  She played Silent Night and Jumpin' Jazz Cat.

She did a wonderful job.

After the recital, she was asked to perform Jingle Bells during the after party.

It was Christmas Eve and we had yet to make cookies for Santa.  We were a little stressed about getting it done.  We had some last minute shopping and cleaning to do, as well as make it to the Children's Mass at 3.  (As a side note, during that last minute shopping I mistakenly let Kevin look at the Legos.  He knew there were Lego sets under the tree already... and knew that we had bought him some...and knew that Santa would probably bring him some...  Well, I did NOT expect him to even ask for a new set... and I did NOT expect him to throw a huge tantrum in the middle of the store.  In fact, I thought he was joking for the longest time.  Really?!?  Christmas Eve and I need to buy you a brand new Lego set?  You've got to be kidding me!  No he wasn't kidding.  In fact he was in a pissy mood for the next hour.  Grrrr!  I even debated cancelling Christmas because of his behavior - OK  Back to cookies...)   Let's do this!

Kevin wanted to help roll out the dough too, but...

he refused to listen to me about how I needed to put a bit more flour on the rolling pin.

Before church, we got all of the cookies made.  When we got home, they were cooled and it was time to ice and decorate them!

Caroline took special time to add the right amounts of each color to make brown for her gingerbread man.

I must say, I finally found a good recipe for the cookies and used a buttercream recipe for the frosting.  Delicious and much easier for the kids to maneuver.