Holiday Band Concert

The Band Holiday concert was next on the list. After the fall concert I was very excited to see what they had in store for the holiday performance. 

Watching the Bee get set up is always fun. I took multiple pictures however, only a few turned out. 

I also recorded all numbers in which she played. The recordings are more for her, as she ages and continues to practice, so she can see and hear growth; but feel free to listen. 

Jazz Band 

    *The French Horn is obviously not a jazz instrument, but I assume the director is wanting the students to get a sense of how to play jazz rather than be authentic. 

Too Cool for Yule

 Christmas Tree Ride

Changing from Jazz set up to Honor's. 

Honors Band 

Santa Son of the Barbarian

Intro to Sure on this Shinning Night 

Sure on this Shinning Night

Sleigh Ride

All Bands

Winter Wonderland

Then Don and I waiting in the lobby for the Bee. I hung back and got this picture. Don's such a good husband and such a good daddy - carrying the instrument in one hand and giving his arm to the Bee with the other. 

Shrek the Musical

Rebekah decided to go out for the middle school musical: Shrek the Musical, Jr. I suggested we watch said musical first but Rebekah said she had no desire to watch it. Perhaps we should have pondered this more, however, she jumped right in. 

She landed a part in the chorus: the White Rabbit. Again, I was excited because I wouldn't have to spend any money on a costume. 

She makes a pretty darn cute bunny. 

They had a night performance, followed by a day performance and another night performance. However between the day performance and the night performance there was a band performance / field trip. So after the performance was over a kind mom drove some of the drama kids down to indy. 

Looks like they had some good times. 

That night Don and I went to the performance. Bio's were right outside the theater entrance. 

Rebekah had told me the musical was somewhat crass. She unfortunately was correct. Ah well. Also, unfortunately (probably because of her height?) The Bee was in the back through most of the musical. But it looked like she made the most of every second she had. I'm so proud of everything I get to see my girl do. 

We tend to get the usual flowers for Rebekah's performances, however this time I went for a candy cane  arrangement. 

Thanksgiving

We had a nice relaxing thanksgiving. A few highlights: 

After dinner we decided to put a puzzle together before we had pie. It got a little heated towards the end with great desire for said pie and yet must finish the puzzle... 

Finally pie time. Or whip cream time

I needed a group picture and all humored me. 

I had borrowed grammy's UP puzzle as well and after we finished the first puzzle we started this one. Truly miss the UP. One day we'll get back there. 

November

A few miscellaneous pictures from November: 

First, our pre-lit Christmas tree that we've had since Christmas 2012 was dying a long drawn out death. Some of the lights stopped working. Although Don tried his best to fix it, he ended up having to take the lights off, purchase new, and re-string. But more lights went out. And then the needles started to shed as well so we decided to purchase a whole new tree.  Picture of the new with the old. 

Rebekah still has some legos downstairs. I decided to combine them. The battle for Hogwarts looks somewhat different at my house. 

Apparently there's a leak somewhere in the pond and it's been loosing water. So, they drilled a well and are pumping water into the pond. It's been running for a month or so straight. I think they underestimated how much water would be needed. But there's the pump and the water. And now we wait. 

Mom was here so I had her take a family photo. I'm so short. The Bee just had her 13 year well visit: she's officially 5'4.75''. Go Bee! 

And our first snow of the season. I'm already waiting for spring. Anytime now. 

November Books

Well written book about WWI. The author finds WWI veterans and interviews them about the war and their life before and after. Quite fascinating. Highly worthwhile. 

An autobiography of Leo Marks and his war time experiences with codes and so forth. I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted. Poorly written and somewhat whinny at times. 

Historical fiction about small Russian village during the trauma of 2004. It was okay. I read it more for the historical content. 

I wanted to like this more than I did. Although I enjoyed learning about how these men overcame racial boundaries, for the most part they were not good moral people. Very sad. 

Very good read about Patton MacArthur, and Marshall. Again, not the best morals from some of these men and Patton may have been somewhat crazy but overall the book is very recommendable. I learned a lot about WWI and WWII

The journey of Captain James Cook. Basically it did not go well. So much imperialism. And so much immorality of character. 

I started this years ago and didn't finish it, however my brother suggested I give Sanderson another try and since I've been enjoying him for the most part I jumped into this HUGE read. It's pretty good. I'm currently on the 2nd book right now. Just don't like that they are SO long when I have so many other things I need to read as well. 

I had this on my waiting list and it came open right as I was reading The Generals. Figured I'd jump into more Patton since I was already kind of there mentally. He had his good moments but got himself into a lot of trouble as well. A very interesting read. 

Thought I'd check out how one person got over sugar cravings. I've yet to fully try her suggestions but they're mainly easy so I'll try at one point. 

A book on the importance of meditation. When I read this I was ready to jump into the practice. However, I haven't thought about it since and now it's mid December. Ugh. So much for Mindfulness. 

Totally chic lit. It's what I call an airplane read. Quick and easy, a little mystery, a love interest, etc and so on. Nothing life altering. 

Many good chapters on the history of Israel and what is going on in modern times. However, towards the end the book became more of a platform rather than simply informational. 

This historical fiction about North Korea was somewhat of a harsh read. Have to admit I skimmed some parts, okay several parts. 

Light hearted chic lit again, however I enjoyed this one much more than the previous. At times I laughed as well as identified. Worth while. 

Another Sanderson. Goes along with the Starlight series. It was pretty good but I read it out of order. Haven't started the 2nd one but because this one arrived first from my wait list I read it first. A good quick read. 

Fantasy, along the lines of Lord of the Rings, meant to be a series. From the 80's. Kind of felt like that, but still the story line was interesting. Although I'm most likely not continuing in the series I'd probably recommend it to other early teens looking for something to read. 

Rebekah's Birthday

How can it possibly be time for Rebekah's birthday again?  And how is it possible she's 13? 

This year I went with a French horn drawing. It didn't take me too long to wish she was playing a less complex instrument. 

But I persevered, all the while knowing the Bee would point out the inaccuracies.... 

The weekend before we took the Bee to Texas Roadhouse, for her last official meal off the 12 and under kids menu. 

The night of Rebekah stayed up way later than I could so Don took over the birthday collage. I think he did a noteworthy job. (See what I did there...?)

That morning Rebekah wanted to open a present. 

And so we gave her the following. I regret not video-ing her comprehension of said gift. It was quite a moment. 

(Hogwarts legacy - the Switch game)

And finally! The Bee is in the front seat. Poor girl had to wait until the legal age of 13 while all around her rule breaking friend's parents were allowing them. But she's a trouper. 

It's been a total game changer. 

Meanwhile at home I was trying to figure out the cake. 

That looks like a "6" on the flag of the 8th note, but it's really a French horn iron on patch. 

*Also this was a fun pull apart cake idea, but when I pulled them apart to freeze them they became the incredible sliding frosting cupcakes. Not sure why the frosting didn't stay on, but perhaps it congealed to the frosting on the other cupcakes and when moved it wasn't stable. 

Grammy bough balloons for the Bee. 

Just last year - for comparison. They grow fast! 

Back to the present:

My mother sent a plant and a birthday balloon. Still haven't named the plant yet. I'll let you know if we do. 

Lots more presents. 

She wanted a cheese cake for her birthday. 

With everything else I thought I frozen one would do. Never again. She said it was good, but wow. Not happy about the taste. 

She's finally happy about getting clothes! The dress didn't fit though, but we returned it and got 2 others. One was suppose to be for Christmas but once she tried both on I lost that battle. 

Look at my teen. Got to love her.