This month is full of fun holiday parties at school, church, with friends and in our community. While living in the States, especially for the Christmas season, I felt like I wanted to get the most out of how our country celebrates Christmas. As a family, we're going to be spending the next 4 Christmases in a country of only 1% Christians, so most Chinese do not celebrate Christmas. I'm not quite sure how our Christian holidays will play out, so we're enjoying the United States while we can. I can feel and see an extra level of philanthropy, unity and love here that started before Thanksgiving and will continue through Christmas. I love that about our country!
As part of getting into the holiday spirit, we went to our church Ward Christmas party. We had a wonderful breakfast (Bri made two wonderful breakfast casseroles of egg and sausage, and french toast) followed by some musical numbers, a sing along, and some games for the kids.
My friend Emily T.
Colleen G. and her family along with Amy and Mark M.
Colby H. was excited about his bowling game.
Heather, Zaya and Leith sang with their mom and then she performed a solo of a Christmas song she wrote. Beautiful song and voice!
Kennedy M. and Kathryn G. from my activity day girl group.
The kids all loved hanging out with their peeps. Here's Rhea with Sylvia G. and Soren and Tiancum C.
Savannah is with her friends from the Beehives (soon to be "12-13 year olds")
And Thomas hanging out with the boys, laughing as they make up their own words to the Christmas songs.
Cute centerpieces!
Santa also came! We also picked angels off the "Angel Tree" that showed us an amount of money to give in gift card form to the Bishop for him to hand out to those that need them. A great way to start the day!
In the afternoon, we went to the Wolf Trap National Forest where a free Holiday Sing-Along was held with "The President's Own" Marine Band and choir groups from surrounding communities. We started out in this line that looked long, but it moved fast once they opened the doors! We were told the venue holds 7,000 people, so we thought it would be a lot crazier. The organizers of the event were very organized.
We thought we were going to have to sit on the grass on blankets outside the covered area, but there was plenty of seating with stadium/theater seats. We had no idea what to expect, so we anticipated benches to sit on. We were pleasantly surprised by the nice back support. ;)
We all stayed bundled up in our coats, hats, and gloves, and were relieved that we each brought a blanket as well because it was in the 30's by the time the sun went down shortly after the program started. It was cold!
Before the sing-along started, kids were finding happiness rolling down a hill, and Rhea could not be left out. :)
Before the sing-along started, kids were finding happiness rolling down a hill, and Rhea could not be left out. :)
This sweet lady sitting by Rhea let us borrow these festive head bands! She also offered us brownies but my girls kindly turned them down--I was surprised they did, but when Bri and Thomas brought back cookies with the hot chocolate, they were excited for the sugar. ;) The kind lady understood our diplomat lifestyle because she lived all over the world too with her husband working for USAID. :)
The band was amazing as well as the 2 emcees. They were cute with their holiday jokes and fun energy to get everyone excited to sing along. The crowd came prepared with holiday spirit though so they didn't have to work too hard. The attendees had jingle bells, holiday hats, etc. so the energy was contagious!
The band was amazing as well as the 2 emcees. They were cute with their holiday jokes and fun energy to get everyone excited to sing along. The crowd came prepared with holiday spirit though so they didn't have to work too hard. The attendees had jingle bells, holiday hats, etc. so the energy was contagious!
We had visits from Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, and Santa as well!
What was fun were the lights that everyone lit for the last song "Silent Night." It looked like everyone was prepared with battery operated candles as well as real candles with plastic cups secured on to keep the wind from blowing their flames out. I grabbed some fairy lights I had from Halloween and Thanksgiving and put them in glass lantern looking things to carry them. Before we sang the last verse, they asked us to use the verse to exit quietly. So we sang as we cleaned up and carried our lights.
All the lights were turned off except for the wreaths and trees on the stage as one solo violinist played the last verse by herself. All other lights were from our fellow attendees.
All the lights were turned off except for the wreaths and trees on the stage as one solo violinist played the last verse by herself. All other lights were from our fellow attendees.
It was a fun night for all of us. Savannah said that it was her most favorite holiday activity we've ever done! We ran Thomas to his Sunday school party at Hayward and Tiffanie A.'s house. They've been his wonderful teachers this year, and they were kind AND fun enough to host a party for 4 hours with the crazy class! The rest of us went out to eat--something that we haven't done in months. Red Robin was good. :)
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