We are enjoying a much-needed break from school and work. The past two weeks have been jam-packed with the busy-ness of the season and life but we are excited about celebrating Christmas with our families and taking some time to relax and slow down as the year comes to an end.
Last weekend, we went to Houston Symphony for their children's Christmas concert, a holiday tradition for our family.
We managed to see Santa too! Will asked for a chess set and Wii U and Henry just asked for books.
Before the concert, Will practiced making shadow animals with his hands.
Since we were downtown, we stopped by Market Square to check out the 2014 Gingerbread Build-Off.
We'd never been before, but over 30 teams of architects, designers and students compete to build some pretty incredible and elaborate structures. We saw castles, pirate ships, Atlas under a globe and even the Death Star.
We left before the gingerbread sculptures were completed but it was fun to watch the teams build their masterpieces.
We have been busy with Cub Scouts, as always. At December's pack meeting, we made sleighs out of old appliance boxes. The dens decorated their boxes with all kinds of Christmas items and then ran outside to pull them. It was a lot of fun!
Some quick repair work by the dad pit team!
We also delivered our popcorn!
This week, the boys' dens had holiday parties. Will's party started with a uniform inspection (he passed, though our assistant den leader tried to take off points for missing three teeth!).
We invited Henry's den over to our house to decorate cookies, drink hot cocoa, and make some Christmas crafts.
The boys' teachers made the week before winter break lots of fun, with movies, crafts and parties. No one even had homework, which was a lovely change of pace.
On Wednesday, I helped out with a craft in Henry's classroom. We read Stick Man by Julia Donaldson and made our own stick men and family trees.
I also helped out with my boys' class parties on Thursday.
We wish you much joy and peace this Christmas season!
