Christmas Music

Today was a day about music for our family. For the past couple of years, Natalie has performed at a Christmas Recital. Today she played "Joy To The World". We were a little late to it, but luckily, we got there before anyone started playing.

We had been shopping and partly because I have this allergy thing going and I was trying to get as much rest as possible before being on call tomorrow, we got off to a late start. We went to Hallmark to pick up that last musical snowman. I forgot to take a picture, so I'll have to remember to do that later this week. Now we have the complete set. Either Natalie or Alex turns them on at least once a day to hear them play Christmas carols. Eric would do the same except that they're out of reach on the fireplace mantel. We also went to one of the local scrapbook stores that is having a big 65% off sale. I "saved a lot of money", which always worries Patrick because he knows that to save money, I had to spend it. *WINK*

I love the top picture the most because Natalie has that "nervous" look, but she doesn't really act nervous otherwise. She just goes up there and usually plays better than during practice. Her teacher even noticed that she had made some improvements since her last lesson on Monday.

The bottom picture is of Natalie and her teacher. Natalie is always so affectionate with her teacher and her teacher seems to enjoy it. Mrs. L has two daughters of her own. Her oldest daughter is three years old and younger than Eric and she played today at the recital too.

Anthony spent last night over at his friend A's house and this afternoon they both went with another friend to the Tran-Siberian Orchestra Concert. His ticket cost us $83 and we hope he feels privileged to have been able to go. Patrick and I went to a party with some work friends this evening. We've planned to go to this for a while and this week, Anthony tried to get us to get another babysitter so he could spend tonight at his friend's house again. Um--remember the price of that ticket, dear?

I would have loved to go that concert too. I love Christmas music--I've even bought a couple of Christmas albums recently and I might buy a couple more before the year is done. I could play Christmas music year round, but Patrick usually takes it off our music playlist. Alex has me sing "The First Noel" to him as one of his bedtime songs all year long. Natalie has only recently added Christmas songs to her bedtime ritual. Eric doesn't like Christmas songs yet. It's only a matter of time.